By: Jen Heath

How much water do you drink? If you don’t know it’s probably not enough. If you are not drinking enough water, your nutrition plan will without question be much less effective in transforming your body than if you were drinking enough. In diet, Water is maybe the single most important component in losing fat and keeping it off! Yes…the most important. Water is not only a natural appetite suppressant, but it actually helps the body metabolize stored fat. When the body does not have a good supply of water to draw from to perform required physiological tasks, it will draw water from inside the bodies cells, including fat cells, in order to perform the desired tasks. Any fat stores in the body that are drawn on for water, are less likely to be mobilized and burned off as energy, resulting in increased fat stores over time if you were to remain in a constantly dehydrated state.

In addition to this, did you know that the kidneys need a specific and plentiful enough water supply to function properly? If the kidneys are functioning at low capacity, they will recruit the liver to pick up the slack. One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolize stored fat for the body to use as energy. It is only logical to say that if the liver is half occupied doing what the kidneys cannot do on their own due to lack of water, then they will not be able to perform its own functions, metabolizing fat as one of them, with full effectiveness. So if it is metabolizing less fat, than it only goes to say that full fat loss cannot be achieved.

In addition to less fat loss, one of the most common misconceptions is that drinking water cause water retention. The truth is the exact opposite. Lack of water causes water retention. The reason for this is that the body perceives the shortage when it is provided with less than it needs thus causing what is commonly referred to as “survival mode”, retaining every least drop that it can. In this state, whenever you do drink water, it will automatically be stored, resulting in unsightly and uncomfortable water retention. The only lasting solution to reducing water retention is to provide the body with more than it needs which will allow it to flush excess water out of the system.

Excessive sodium may be causing water retention, but the main culprit again is most likely lack of water, because if you are drinking enough, the body will get rid of excess sodium as well.

Water aids in enhanced muscle tone and contraction during exercise. It prevents dehydration thus increasing our performance and effort during exercise, and in turn increases our physical results.

If you are experiencing excessive hunger, excessive water retention, lack of muscle tone or fatigue during exercise, water consumption may be a huge factor in the negative effects you are experiencing. My suggestion? The average active person needs far more than the standard 64oz. of water to function optimally. Perhaps you could purchase a 20 oz water bottle and focus on drinking at least 5 or 6 of them per day. This would more than suffice for bodily functions and physical activity. Simply increasing your water will cause significant improvements not only in your physique, but your attitude and overall feelings of success associated with the various aspects of your program. It’s simple, but we all need to be reminded from time to time!