Diet Challenge: Water

This diet challenge is all about water. Do you drink enough water every day? Unfortunately I don't.  This week we are going to strive to drink enough water and get hydrated and stay hydrated.

So for the last week I have been doing this challenge every day.

Did I see a difference?

YES, I have way more energy throughout the day, I am less bloated and my skin is clearer. 

Water is great for losing weight but it is equally as important, if not more important when trying to build lean muscle mass. Most people don’t realize  when they are dehydrated. However, if you want to maximise your strength and muscle gains you have to be more conscious of your water intake. 70% of your entire body is made up of water, including 83% of your blood, 22% of your bone and a huge 75% of your muscle.

Some people might go "yeah yeah heard it before water doesn’t make that much difference" well, actually it really does. If you get the proper amount of water into your body every day, you will notice that your strength, energy and ability to gain muscle will increase significantly. You should not wait until you are thirsty. If you wait for the signal that you are thirsty chances are that you are already dehydrated. Thirst is not detected until 1-2% of your bodyweight has been lost. By this point you will have reduced aerobic endurance and you are heading into reduced muscular endurance. At 4% you are facing reduced muscle strength, reduced motor skills and heat cramps. If you are even only slightly dehydrated this will hamper your ability to perform. Even just a little bit of dehydration can decrease performance more than 15%.

Being hydrated also protects you from injury. Water helps lubricate joints .

How much should I drink?

For every kilogram of bodyweight drink 30-40ml of water. A more general approach is to drink 3 litres of water a day. Do not try drink all you daily intake at once this can be dangerous. You need to spread it across the whole day.

It is easy to drink water when exercising the challenge is keeping up our water balance for the rest of the day. I try to keep a water bottle with me all the time. But even at that I sometimes forget to drink it. This week you cannot touch any sugary drink e.g. coke, diet coke, orange juice etc. When you get the urge to have a sugary drink, drink water instead. You have to force yourself to choose water each time.

Workouts are super intense and short and replacing your fluids should be your goal. Post workout drinking water is also important to help with recovery.

So stick with the challenge for 7 days and see if you can see the difference.

In work I stick a yellow post it to my screen to keep count of how much water I drink so that I can't forget to keep drinking and I know exactly how much I have drank and how much I need to drink to stay hydrated. 

Hopefully by now you will see the importance of keeping hydrated. Make sure to drink plenty of water every day to support your overall well being and health!