9 Reasons Staying Hydrated is Crucial for Rocking Your Day

Juliana Hahn
Aug 28, 2017 · 4 min read

Our bodies are made up of around 70% water. It’s crucial for survival and apart from air and sleep, it’s one of the main things you can’t do without for very long. But why exactly is it so important to drink enough of it?

Water plays many roles in our body. While some of them are quite obvious, we don’t even notice others. These things go on without us consciously doing anything, making it easy for us to take them for granted and not realize what we are doing to ourselves by not hydrating enough.

Here are a few of these background operations: Water transports nutrients through our system and makes sure they get where they need to go. It also takes waste and toxins out of our bodies, keeping us healthy by making sure everything “moves smoothly”. It functions as a building block for most of our cells and fibers and makes up roughly 90% of our blood. Water even helps absorb shocks in joints and the brain, thereby protecting our bodies from harm.

But like I mentioned, these are things we’re not actively aware of. You might know they are going on, but these processes never really catch your attention, unlike, say when your belly is rumbling because you’re hungry. Now there’s something you’ll pick up on!

Now we’ll have a look at how drinking enough fluids impacts your body and why it’s the key to top performance, being healthy, and feeling vital and balanced throughout the day.

1. Improve Physical Performance Through Hydration

Do you like to exercise? Or does your job require you to move around a lot? Whatever reason you have for being on your feet, drinking fluids will help your body perform better.

By staying hydrated during any form of prolonged physical activity you can noticeably reduce fatigue, help your body keep cool and boost your endurance. Maybe a few extra sips are all you needed to achieve your latest time-stamp or run that extra mile?

The best thing to do is to start drinking a bit extra even before you start exercising. It takes some time for your body to metabolize your drink, so only reaching for your bottle during the workout is not enough. Since muscles lose water when they work, putting some extra fluids in your system from the beginning will give your body what it needs toÂmaintain a consistent performance.

Drinking enough can also lower your maximum heart rate. That’s because the better hydrated you are, the more easily blood can flow through your system and the more oxygen it can carry. This basically means that by drinking enough, you make it easier for your heart to keep up.

2. Have an Easier Time Losing Weight

You might have heard this one before. Drinking enough and losing weight is more closely linked than many people know. The reasons behind that are very simple.

When our body needs something, it tells us. That’s why we get hungry, thirsty and tired. But what if you weren’t able to tell whether you were hungry or thirsty? Now you’re probably thinking, d-uh, of course I know the difference. What makes you think I don’t?

My personal experience. When I first read about this, I thought it was silly. But the next time I had the urge to find something to nibble on, I simply had a glass of water and that urge disappeared. Not fully convinced, I tried the same thing again when I got hungry shortly after a meal. Worked like a charm.

That made me more curios and I did a little research. I learned about studies that have shown as much as 37% of Americans have a hard time distinguishing between thirst and hunger. And these same studies examined people who got up in the middle of the night to snack. When these “hungry” souls just had a glass of water, their desire to eat was gone almost 99% of the time.

Think of this next time you get the munchies. Have a glass of water, herbal tea or any other no-calorie drink and see what happens. If after ten minutes you still feel hungry, grab that snack.

These were the first two reasons why drinking more water on a daily basis are super important… To read the rest of the article head on over to the website!

Originally published at www.curiousbutterfly.org on August 28, 2017.

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Written by

Juliana loves to travel, eat and cook delicious, healthy food and share ideas of everyday wellness, creativity and growth on her blog www.curiousbutterfly.org

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