It is all around us. We bathe in it. Wash with it. Drink it. Cook with it. In fact we are 70 – 75% of it – water. We take it for granted, think it is boring – so we have a cappuccino or a soda instead!

But what if we don’t drink enough water? We become dehydrated!

Dehydration impairs our ability to think, drive, and perform simple normal tasks. Many, especially older people, can confuse thirst with hunger causing overeating and dehydration.

Dehydration is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue, nausea, headaches, lethargy, insomnia and constipation.

Just a 5% drop in body water will cause up to a 30% loss of energy in the average person!

Dehydration makes you fat!

Up to 50% of the western worlds population is dehydrated.

We lose between two and three litres of water a day through breathing, sweat, and urine. This varies depending on our physical exertion. Heavy exercise can cause a body to loose more than 2 litres an hour! It is obviously important to replenish the water that we have lost – or we become dehydrated.

We are recommended to drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water (not tea, coffee, soda, juice, or sugar-drinks) a day, but every body is different and only you will know how much your body needs. By the time you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated! Pay attention to the color of your urine, dark urine is usually an indicator that you are dehydrated.

Water is our body’s most important nutrient, is involved in every bodily function, and makes up 70- 75% of your total body weight. Water helps us to maintain body temperature, metabolize body fat, aids in digestion, lubricates and cushions organs, transports nutrients, and flushes toxins from your body.

Beware if you are not drinking enough, your body will pull it from other places including your blood. This makes your blood thicker, more susceptible to clotting, and harder to pump through your system. The result of this can be very serious – hypertension, high cholesterol, and heart disease.

Drinking water helps us to lose weight and stay slim! Dehydration promotes the increase of body fat? Water contributes to energy storage along with glycogen. Without water, extra glucose remains in the bloodstream until it reaches the liver. This extra glucose is stored as fat. Our body takes water from inside cells to compensate for being dehydrated this also includes our fat cells. Less water in our fat cells means less mobilization of fat for energy.

One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolize our stored fat into energy. The kidneys job is to filter toxins, wastes, ingested water, and salts out of the bloodstream. If we are dehydrated, the kidneys cannot work properly, and the liver must do overtime to compensate. It metabolizes less fat – we become over weight (and it has nothing to do with overeating!)

Water is a great natural appetite suppressant. We get this from the foods we eat, what we drink, and as a by-product of metabolism. Drink pure water not soda, tea, or coffee. These actually increase your need for fluids because most contain caffeine, which is a diuretic which force out stored water along with certain essential nutrients.

So water, the thing that we take for granted (at least in places where we have a plentiful supply). That we neglect to drink in favor of more tasty and less beneficial beverages. That we often won’t drink because it means more frequent visits to the toilet. Is the very nectar of life that can help our bodies keep healthy – and slim.

Forget the boring crash or cranky diets and simply lose weight with a glass of water – or two.