Week 4 Nutrition – Hydration

Week 4 Nutrition – Hydration

Our bodies are made up of 60% water and we are constantly loosing water through sweat and urine, which needs replacing to keep our bodies working optimally. Signs of dehydration include: sluggishness, headaches, loss of appetite, feeling too hot and nausea in extreme cases! Dehydration reduces your blood volume, increases your body temperature and therefore put an extra strain on your heart- best to be avoided! Many people are frequently slightly dehydrated- don’t be one of those people and make the effort daily to keep your fluids up!

How much water should you drink in a day? The body is very clever, so get tuned into it! You naturally feel thirsty when you need to up your fluid intake. This can be pure water, cordial, juice, tea/ coffee, soup etc.

All these drinks and more can help keep your body hydrated some better choices than others dependent on if you are looking to reduce/ gain weight. E.g. fruit juices despite having many vitamin benefits are loaded with sugar which ain’t going to help the weight loss but diluted down can help rehydration after a longer session where you have sweated a lot;)!!

For every hour of intense exercise you will loose approximately 1 litre of fluid from your body, which needs replacing.

Should I drink during exercise? Yes, little and often is the best approach. Plan ahead and ensure you have drunk approx 400- 600 ml of water prior to a hard workout and have given yourself time for a toilet trip too;)

After exercise what is best to drink? If you have exercised at a high intensity then it is wise to replenish your fluid levels using a hypertonic drink afterwards, this can be a bought sports drink/ skim milk or a homemade banana milkshake is perfect for replacing the energy and fluids!

And alcohol… Yes it helps us relax and red wine is proved to have benefits on helping reduce heart disease by keeping the blood more viscous but moderation!!!! There are 7 kcal/g of alcohol so you got it lots of alcohol is as bad as lots of cream cakes!!! Whilst the body is working hard to break down alcohol it doesn’t use the fat and other spare energy (glycogen), which is why it leads to fat gain- booo! So, enjoy your festive beverages but be aware too much means more hard work in the New Year ladies;) Sugary non-alcoholic drinks are no better so moderation of the tipple you like and water in between.

Keen it active, have fun and live healthy’ish!