Water and Weight Loss

Water and Weight Loss

You’ve probably heard of the statistic that the human body is composed of up to 60% of water, but what is the relationship between water and weight loss? Is it all about hydration or are a lot of weight loss plans just about losing water weight?

Well I’ll let you in on a little secret that you may have not heard about. Most fitness models will go through a day or two of dehydration right before their photo shoot because stripping the body of water will show more muscle definition and tone. The way they do this is by diet pills which force them to pee out more water than usual and in many cases this is not only unhealthy but quite dangerous.

Let’s go back to the first point, our body is mostly composed of water because the water in our blood helps with the transportation of nutrients to all our cells. Further to that, water also helps our cells remove byproducts of metabolism in order to function at their optimum levels. You know what’s even more interesting is that our brain is actually composed mostly of water, somewhere over 70%!

I think you see where I am going with this article, hydration is key to our existence so shouldn’t it bare more attention. You may have read a lot about having at least 8 glasses of water a day but what about when you are exercising?

Water & Exercise

Many studies have been done with the science of hydration and exercise and of course there are so many different factors which come into play that it makes the exact science a little harder to measure. From age, sex,activity level, genetics to environmental conditions our bodies require different amount of water to stay completely hydrated and performing at their maximum.

With that said, the best research indicates that we want to aim for these measures when it comes to water intake:

Before Exercise: 2 full glasses (1/2 liter) 2 hours before exercise followed by 1 full glass 15 minutes immediately before exercise

During Exercise: 1 full cup for every 15 minutes of exercise. If exercising for longer than 75 minutes an electrolyte rich sports drink should be consumed at one cup for every 30 minutes.

After Exercise: 2-3 full glasses of water for every pound lost

Pretty impressive right? This means a lot more water than we may have considered, on average as much as 10 more glasses, especially if we’re exercising pretty intensely.

We have to also remember that with all this water that we also need to make sure that our electrolytes are balanced primarily sodium and potassium. That is why a pre-workout energy matrix like SuperPump 250 or USPLabs Jack3d is so important as well as protein (best for post-workout is Gaspari Nutrition Myofusion, and branch chained amino acids such as Scivation Xtend help with muscle recovery and growth.

But what about when we are wanting to lose weight quickly? How does water play a roll?

Water and Weight Loss

If you’ve ever noticed that exercise has caused considerable weight loss but then you have gained that weight back after a few days then you now know a little more about how and why this is possible. We can lose a pound of weight or more per hour of intense exercise so then why do we place so much stress over weight.

This is the exact reason why time and time again I get my clients to focus more on how good they feel after they workout and eat right, rather than a scale which is so great at leading people down the right path. Remember muscle too is composed mostly of water so the more muscle we gain the more we naturally weigh.

Having a positive reinforcement of how good we feel will change our entire perspective on weight loss and will make this much more easily sustainable in the long term.

What are your thoughts, questions, feedback about water and weight loss? Please leave a comment below…