When you start a fat loss program or a new “diet”, you’re often always told to drink a minimum of 2-3 litres of water a day. You haven’t been told why, you just do because you’re told to.
Well being told to do something and knowing why you’re doing it, can make a huge difference when it comes to losing body fat and increasing your performance.
We make sure that all our clients know exactly why they are doing what they’re doing when they train with us. When we add a water goal to the list of habits we coach, we explain exactly why.
All your bodily functions require water to function. Your muscles are 70% water and your brain is 80% water. When someone is dehydrated by as little as 2% of their body weight, it has been shown to dramatically affect performance.
Dehydration can show up as thirst, dry skin, constipation, fatigue and even headaches. So that you don’t get to this stage, it is very important that you drink water regularly throughout the day.
An important factor to understand about water is that the kidneys cannot function properly without enough of it. When they don’t work to their capacity, some of their load is dumped onto the liver.
One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolise stored fat into usable energy for the body. If the liver has to do some of the kidney’s work, it can’t operate at the right pace. As a result, your liver metabolises less fat, therefore fat remains stored in the body.
Drinking enough water is also the best treatment for a common problem which is fluid retention. When the body receives less water, it sees it as a threat to its survival and begins to hold on to every drop. Water is stored in extracellular spaces (outside the cells), this shows up as puffy skin (swollen feet, legs and hands).
Another common problem is that people confuse thirst with hunger. The next time you feel hungry, drink a large glass of water and wait 5 minutes. You may be surprised to find that you were just thirsty and not hungry after all.
Steve
