Boost your water intake – Summer is here and here are some great tips!
With the summer months well and truly upon us, the need to boost your water intake to stay hydrated is very important. Hydration is important for all of the body’s functions because 70% of our body weight is due to water. Most of the water lives within the cells of our tissues and if the levels of water within them drop too low you can suffer from dehydration. This can involve symptoms including muscle cramping, lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting and heart palpitations.
On average we lose 2.5 litres of water a day through breathing, perspiration and other bodily functions. But this average is affected by the amount of physical activity we do, our caffeine intake, our weight and the climate we live in.
Therefore it is important to take into account these factors when working out how much water you should be aiming to achieve every day. Just as keeping yourself hydrated is important, drinking too much water can be harmful and even in some cases deadly.
Use the Human Water Requirement Calculator to work out how much water a day you should be consuming in relation to your body weight, exercise routine and local climate conditions.
Now that you have worked out how much water you need to drink a day to keep yourself safely hydrated, here are some tips for helping to achieve this goal!
- Carry a bottle or container of water with you wherever you go, then you will not be caught out when you become thirsty.
- At your desk or other places where you are sitting for a long period of time have a glass or bottle at the ready.
- Get a purification system. Some people do not like the taste of tap water so purification helps the water taste better and will be more pleasant for you to drink.
- Place lemons or limes in a jug of water to help add a little more taste.
- Eat water rich food such as watermelon, tomatoes and cranberry juice.
- Do not try and drink all your water at once, evenly space it out through the day.
- Have a glass of water with each of your meals, this will help you to eat slowly and aid in digestion of your food.
- If you are feeling hungry, try having a glass of water which may help in curbing your appetite until a more appropriate time to eat. But do not replace food such as lunch with water; it is not a good nutritional substitute!!
- Water at room temperature is much easier for your body to absorb as it does not need to raise the temperature first.
- Replace sugary drinks such as Coke or Lemonade with plain water, it is much better for you and you may even lose some weight from removing the excess sugar from your diet
