Your body is mainly made up of water, just over half of a woman and almost two-thirds of a man.
Water is super important and helps carry out various tasks including joint lubrication, controlling your temperature, transportation of nutrients and even makes your skin look good!
As an approximate guide, the average adult requires 2-2.5 litres of water per day. The ore exercise you do the more you will need. The hotter the climate the more you will need to drink and the older you are the more you will need to drink as your body stores less water and your kidneys aren’t as efficient.
Most will come from drinks but some will come from fruit and vegetables.
Here are the top ways you can get meet your daily water requirement:
- Water-Its a simple as that. From the tap or bottles in still or sparkling.
- Fruit juice and smoothies.Not only are these great for water but they also contain lots of vitamins and minerals, however be aware of the sugar content. A good way to limit sugar is to reduce the fruit and add crushed ice and use water rich fruits like grapes, watermelon or vegetables.
- As well ascertaining water it contains calcium which is great for the bones. Where possible chose semi or skimmed milk to keep the fat content down.
- Tea or coffee. Again these are good, but if possible try decaffeinated versions as this will reduce the possible amounts of time you pee.
If you dont keep up with your water content you may become dehydrated. A good way to tell if you are dehydrated is to look at the colour of your pee. The darker it is the more dehydrated you are. Other signs could be that you are feeling thirsty, have a dry mouth, feel dizzy or lethargic.
The diagram above from Bupa, is a great illustration to show the effects of dehydration on your urine.