
75% of the body is made of water. Reduced hydration reduces the amount of water in every single cell around the body. This increases the risk of any health issues around the body which impact your fat loss goals.
Reduced hydration reduces blood flow
- Improper hydration can thicken your blood and raise blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke.
- Reduced blood flow can reduce nutrient distribution which can lead to reduced nutrient absorption. During digestion, the small intestine passes nutrients to the blood, which distributes them to all the body’s cells.
- Reduced absorption can mean reduced amino acids which are responsible for the regeneration, repair and recovery of cells. This can lead to muscle atrophy, reduced bone density, reduced organ tissue, hair loss, skin issues and more.
- Reduced nutrient distribution can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and in turn health issues associated with these, such as anemia, brittle bones and more.
- Reduced hydration and blood flow reduce the number of triglycerides that can be transported around the body.
- Triglycerides are 3 fat molecules joined together, that are used by the cells as energy.
- If they can’t flow around the body, they can’t reach every cell and therefore cannot be used by every cell as energy.
- They are then eventually stored as adipose tissue instead; that means increases fat storage, particularly visceral fat, the dangerous fat around your organs.
- Having too many triglycerides in the blood stream increases bad cholesterol and increases the risk of arteriosclerosis, heart attack and stroke.
Insufficient hydration can lead to digestive issues
- Insufficient hydration reduces digestive fluids. This can lead to food not being broken down enough. The domino effect can be reflux, heart burn, bloating and constipation.
- Toxins are stored in fat cells. Constipation increases the amount of toxins that build up and are stored in fat cells, making it difficult to shrink the fat cells.
- The toxins then have double impact. One being increased risk of health issues such as toxic liver, imbalance in hormones and reduced thyroid function, and the other being that it becomes harder to reduce the size of fat cells. You may be achieving fat loss, but your size may appear the same because the fat cells are expanded by increased toxin build up.
- These digestive issues can also lead to kidney stones, gall stones, fatty liver disease, kidney disease and other organ dysfunctions.
Lack of hydration impacts the quality of your sleep
- All of the effects discussed so far have an accumulative effect on your body. You won’t be able to sleep well when your body is so inflamed and stressed from lack of hydration, side effects of hydrations and any health issues that may develop.
- Sleep is the time your body is supposed to repair and recover, build your immune function and heal injuries and wounds. Without proper sleep, all of these suffer.
Inadequate hydration increases stress and reduces fat loss
- All the issues discussed so far increase secretion of the stress hormone cortisol. When cortisol is elevated, brain function goes down, digestion slows, and the body ceases to burn fat as energy.
- Stress in the body triggers the fight or flight response, meaning the body thinks you are in danger of being eaten by a tiger. As such, it triggers the ghrelin hormone, which is the hormone that tells your brain you are hungry, and increases sugar cravings, so you can eat and give your body a quick boost of energy.
- When you live day-to-day with insufficient hydration, your body is constantly in a stressed state.
- Stress leads to:
- Reduced muscle mass
- Lack of sleep
- Reduced fat burning during sleep
- Increased sugar cravings
- Increased hunger pangs
- Reduced nutrition compliance
- Increased fatigue
- Reduced motivation therefore less movement
- Resulting in excess fat gain
- Furthermore, reduced hydration leads to insufficient water in cells, which can lead to cells becoming hard and firm, reducing the ability for any movement within the cell. This reduces the ability to mobilize fat out of the fat cells and into the blood stream for metabolism. That means as well as the above-mentioned fat gain, you reduce the ability to break fat down.
Summary:
Not drinking enough water impacts your body is so many different ways that then stifle fat loss. But if you simply drink adequate water for your body, you can avoid an array of these chain reaction issues, that all lead to two common things, increased risk of health issues and reduced fat loss. Since everybody is different the amount of water you need also differs. Below is a simple calculation you can do to determine how much water your body needs.
- Take you body weight in kilos, multiply it by 37. That’s how many milliliters of water you need per day for sufficient hydration.
- For example, if you are 70kg x 37 = 2590ml or about 2.6 litres if you want to round it off.
- Then add 500ml if it is hot, as you will more than likely be perspiring more than usual.
- AND /OR
- Add 500ml if you are exercising and therefore also perspiring more than usual.
The bigger your body is, the more water you need. So drink up and feel better in every single way!
- Coach Terri