Carbohydrate-Guide

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p align=”left”>Water serves many beneficial purposes. For one, water promotes a physical feeling of fullness, which helps reduce appetite. Secondly, ketones, a natural byproduct of fat burning, are excreted via urine. Water flushes-out ketones, thereby facilitating the fat-burning process. From a broader perspective, water transports nutrients and plays an instrumental role in all biochemical processes that occur within the body, including fat burning. Studies confirm that liberal ingestion of water can enhance fat burning, and this enhanced utilization of fat for energy is associated with a reduction in utilization of glycogen. Water is particularly important for individuals on a protein-rich diet because elimination of urea, the chief metabolic byproduct of protein metabolism, requires water. The more protein you consume, the more urea you produce; and the more urea you produce, the more water leaves your body as urine.

Is Water Anabolic?

With all the expensive, high-tech-sounding bodybuilding supplements on the market, who would ever think of water as an anabolic agent? The fact of the matter is that water possesses some very interesting muscle-enhancing properties. In recent years, scientists have learned that changes in cell volume regulate cell function.

In fact, the emerging view is that hormones and nutrients exert their controlling influence on cellular activities by altering cell volume. Cell volume is a function of the hydration state of the cell and that brings us to water.

Cellular hydration, however, is more complex than simply guzzling water. Fluid is constantly moving in and out of the cell across an electrical gradient bisected by the cell membrane. The key to obtaining the anabolic benefits of “cell volumization” is to maximize intracellular fluid. Drinking water will improve your overall hydration status, but it will not significantly alter the ratio of intracellular to extracellular fluid. Rather, fluid exchange is transacted by electrically charged particles called ions.

Electrolytes are ions. The mineral sodium is the chief extracellular electrolyte, whereas the mineral potassium is the chief intracellular electrolyte.

By increasing your potassium intake and reducing your sodium intake, you can shift water from the extracellular compartments of your body into the cells.

What is the best way to improve your sodium/potassium ratio?

Answer: By limiting consumption of processed carbohydrate foods (most of which contain barely a trace of potassium and a truckload of sodium) and encouraging consumption of unprocessed plant and animal foods (which are high in potassium and low in sodium).

A high water intake coupled with a diet high in potassium-rich foods is a sound strategy for hydrating the trillions of cells that comprise your body.

Water consumption is especially important during exercise. Dehydration hampers performance. Even if you are not sweating much due to a cool environment, a higher respiration rate during exercise causes more water to exit your body via breath. So don’t forget the water bottle next time you go to the gym.

There are two practical points to bear in mind concerning hydration:

1) Hydration is a continuum. There is no exact point at which you go from being well-hydrated to being “dehydrated.” In fact, technically, dehydration is not a state at all. Rather, dehydration and rehydration are relative terms referring to becoming less or more hydrated, respectively.

Most people don’t drink enough water, and thus they are perpetually in a state of sub-optimal hydration - called hypohydration.

2) Thirst is not an accurate indicator of hydration. You can be hypohydrated without being the least bit thirsty. Conversely, if you wait until you are thirsty before drinking water, you will always be hypohydrated.

In summary, there is no substitute for water. Without it, life is not possible. Without enough of it, optimal health and weight loss is not possible.