5 Reasons to Drink More Water

5 Reasons to Drink More Water

Water is a fantastic ally in the battle against fat. Aside from numerous health benefits, it literally is the easiest thing of all to change in your diet. The reason for this is simple – it is plentiful, cheap and involves very little effort and sacrifice!

1. One Action, Multiple Benefits. When you have your car serviced, you pay a mechanic lots of money to top up a whole host of fluids – brake fluid, oil, power steering fluid,  engine coolant, screen wash, antifreeze etc. The beauty of water is that this one, easily attainable fluid does all of those jobs for you! Unlike nutritional supplements that in many cases have one benefit, simply drinking more will provide you with numerous health and wellness benefits.
2. Guidelines Are Wrong! I have a real issue with nutritional guidelines – they are not worth the paper they are written on. The current guideline for water consumption is 8 glasses per day. The problem here is that we all have vastly different requirements! A 6’10’’ man and a 4’11’’ woman would both require very different water levels. Aim for 1 litre per 50lbs of bodyweight, so a 150lbs person would need to drink 3 litres per day. To most this will represent a significant jump in their water intake – a sign you weren’t drinking enough!
3. Improvement of Digestive Health.  Water intake improves digestive health from a number of different viewpoints. The increased fluid helps the transit of foodstuffs through the gut where its nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. The increased water intake also helps to literally ‘wash’ the gut, clearing away undigested faecal matter and undigested products. Water also helps to regulate acidity of the body.
4. Reduces Hunger. The physical presence of bulk in your stomach improves feelings of satiation, reducing hunger. Some researchers argue that most of what we experience as hunger may actually be thirst, so by drinking more we would reduce our overall calorie intake and therefore lose more weight!
5. Eradicates Dehydration. Studies have shown that 1% dehydration can affect performance by up to 10%. Performance includes anything you perform on a day to day basis – driving a car, your work, financial management. You want to be as alert as possible for these important tasks so keep your water levels up and improve your performance!

As I mentioned in the first point, water really is the elixir of life. A high water intake will improve your health, your vitality, your appearance and your weight loss! There really is no quicker and more effective way to boost your health!

Where possible stick to water – despite recommendations to the contrary, I don’t count coffee, tea or alcohol as suitable water intake, and I urge you to exercise care when drinking fruit juices as they can be very high in sugar, sabotaging your weight loss attempts!