Drink Up Buttercup
I often joke that if I can get my clients and patients to drink adequate hydrating fluids and get proper amounts of sleep, I could fix about 90% of the nutritional problems right there. I mean, I am joking… but not really.
Crazy statistic time: Approximately 70% of the US walk around dehydrated under the, in my mind under dosed, IOM recommendations of 64 fluid ounces of water or more. It’s easy to not notice that you aren’t drinking enough because your body responds to a problem:
Your body only gives you the sensation of thirst when you are already 2-3% dehydrated.
So if you only drink when your thirsty, you are constantly putting yourself under your needs. Hydration needs are relative to your size and sweat output. Estimating your baseline hydration needs are closer to the following:
35mL per every kg body weight
(or just times your body weight by 0.53)
So unless you weight about 121 lb, you probably need more than 64 fl oz of water. Additionally, I hope you are also an active person. The average person sweats 15-30 fl oz every hour they are moderately physically active in average climates. Finding out how much you sweat can be incredible for your performance, and help you prevent heat illness. Keep in mind that 1 lb = ~20 fl oz of water. I have had football players lose 10 lb of sweat in a 90 minute practice easily while drinking during breaks. Add to your baseline level:
~20 fl oz for every hour you exercise
And an additional ~10 fl oz for every hour in the summer with electrolytes (check out the salt box)
Why hydrate? Well, being dehydrated just sucks. Even a 1-2% dehydration impacts cognitive function, motor skills, athletic endurance, and 2-3% can impact speed, strength, give you headaches… and its just downhill from there. Once you get past 4%, it starts to get dicey and dangerous with heat stroke, causing your heart to work way harder, pass out, and even death.
Flavored Up or No?
I hear it from a lot of professionals also to use flavored water if you don’t like plain water. So why do I keep saying water, and not really including other liquids? A few reasons. The first is habit formation. If you cant get used to drinking plain water, when flavors aren’t around, you wont drink enough. That flavoring is also training your taste buts to need things to be sweeter and sweeter. Second, Besides water, everything else has something that you will likely get too much of if you use it as your primary source of hydration (caffeine, sugar, alternative sweeteners, carbonation, acid, etc. ).
My suggestion- get used to it by just drinking it.
If you have to down it at first, just do it. Try not to drink more than 15 fl oz at one time (within 30 minutes) or else its like pouring water on a dry sponge. Try setting up timers for your day. I am for at the start of every hour, I have another ~15 fl oz bottle at my desk to drink. There’s plenty of apps, tracking bottles, and fun ways. Usually, it just includes you being just as attached to your water bottle as your phone. When you leave, think:
