Water Needs… What are yours?
The body needs more water each day than any other nutrient. You can survive only a few days without water, whereas a deficiency of the other nutrients may take weeks, months or even years to develop.
Signs of Dehydration
Physical signs include, but not limited too:
- thirst
- fatigue
- loss of appetite
- constipation
- headache
- difficulty concentrating
- exhaustion
- collapse
Thirst signals are naturally ‘late‘ in humans – regardless of age, race, or gender. Therefore, we cannot depend on this. When we sense thirst, our body is about 3-5% dehydrated already!
How do Determine Your Water Needs?
When not being calculated by a trained professional, the most accurate way to test for proper hydration is the ‘urine test‘. When working with new clients, one of the first questions I ask is, “what color is your urine?” A clear or lemonade color response, the body is hydrated well. A yellow response, the body is already about 1-2% dehydrated.
I’ve heard a few formulas thrown out there to determine water needs, such as:
- Half your body weight
- 1 gallon/day
These are very general and in most cases, not accurate. Some people may need more or less depending on medical condition(s), physical activity, sweat rate, and more. In a clinical setting there are more accurate formulas used to determine individual fluid needs.
Just as with nutrition and exercise, water needs are highly specific and individualized to each person.
**To take a deeper dive in determining you specific water needs and how to increase water intake via food, please inbox me directly and mention ConVersatePromo***