Hydration

Diet and hydration are two of the Foundational Health Principals. I consider it critical enough to make this a main page on this site. If you want to lose weight or improve your performance, don't skip this page!

If you weigh 150 lbs then your goal is 75 ounces per day starting with three cups sipped upon waking. Follow this simple plan and you're well on your way to doing a great service for your body. Below is more detail on the importance of drinking enough water. Don't discount how critical this is!

I know, I know.. you've heard how important water is plenty of times. I can give you the numbers.. your body is 75% water, your brain is 85% water. Hydration is critical for vital physiological functions such as digestion, elimination, is essential for digestion, nutrient absorption and elimination, aids circulation, helps control the body's temperature, lubricates and cushions joints, keeps the skin healthy, and helps remove toxins from your body. Need more reasons? If you're not drinking plain water, your body is having to filter/process other fluids to get the H2o out and that process alone takes energy (water!) and contributes to dehydration, something most people suffer from without having a clue. The two issues around water are the quality and the quantity.

Thermoregulation is an important issue. When that ability is disrupted, it leads to early onset fatigue, loss of motor control and thus an increase chance of injury. Drinking sugary energy drinks dehydrate the body and may decrease performance. And, many are sweetened with artificial chemicals which are not only neuro-toxic, but also send false messages to the brain regarding calorie consumption. This happens to be one of the prominent theories on why obesity is so rampant. The artificial sweeteners tell your brain to look for food to compensate for the deficit between what it thought you ate (sugar) and what you actually ate (chemicals). While you might not be concerned about obesity, managing your weight in order to maximize your power to weight ratio if you're in an endurance sport is important.

So are you drinking enough? When I first started on the Metabolic Typing program, I committed to make water about 97% of all I drank (Chai Tea is still a vice). I was drinking a lot of sodas and fruit juices, but quickly attributed an immediate five pound weight loss to cutting them out and avoiding ingesting all the sugar. The general rule of thumb that I would give you is to drink 1/2 your body weight, in ounces. So if you weigh 150 lbs, you would target 75 ounces per day, but that is a non workout day. On the bike a bottle an hour is the target volume. Drinking a couple pints about 1-2 hours before a ride/workout is considered adequate hydration for preparation. Weigh yourself before and after a ride. The weights should be close. If you've lost a pound or more, you need to drink about a pint for every pound lost.

What about the type of water? Personally I do not drink tap water and suggest you don't either. If you're still drinking tap water, here's a brief article at Mercola.com on tap water that you should read. It gets even more complicated from two fronts. Firstly, avoid distilled water. Your body has two liquid environments it has to maintain, one inside the cells and one outside. If you are drinking water that does not contain enough minerals, in order to maintain the necessary balance your cells will release water from their internal environment, which if not replenished correctly leads to dehydration. This is what happens when you drink a lot of water but end up going to the bathroom every 30 minutes. You're simply flushing it all out rather than keeping it in to be used. The solution to this problem is adding a pinch of sea salt or better yet, Celtra salt to each container you drink from (not white table salt!). Avoid plastics as they typically leech BPDs. Consider switching to Nalgene. Nalgene makes bike bottles out of the #4 LDPE which is currently thought to be safe.

What sports drink do you use? Make sure the sweetener sure is NOT Aspartame. I was big on Endurox products, but gave them up due to the high sugar content. I've switched to Ultima Replenisher for the last couple seasons and find that it works great, but when I'm eating according to my Metabolic Type, I drink slightly salted water while training. Ulima-Replenisher has zero simple sugars and very complex carbs.

Employing better hydration strategies is critical if you want to lose weight and improve your health. The bonus is that making this change is easy and saves you money! If you want your body to improve, you have to give it the tools. Remember; nothing has more impact on your health than what you put inside of your body several times a day, every day of your life.