Why Fluid Balance Is Important
Water makes up over half of who we are. Yes, the body we are walking around in is about 55-60% H2O. To put that in perspective, a 150 lb / 68 kg person is made up of about 75 lb / 34 kg of water. That’s a lot! Therefore, making sure we maintain fluid balance and consume enough water each day is critical for optimal bodily function.
The different cells in our body contain different amounts of water. For example:
Bone is about 22% water
Fat tissue is about 25% water
Muscle and brain tissue are about 75% water
Blood is about 83% water
Eyes are about 95% water
When you consider what the above do for us as we go about living our lives, it becomes easier to understand some of the important roles water has in the body. It serves as a solvent and transporter as well as a catalyst - think of the bloodstream here. Above, I mentioned the eyes being 95% water - think of how often our head is swinging around and bouncing up and down on a daily basis - shock absorption is key for the eyes and water provides that. If you live anywhere close to Atlanta, Georgia like myself, you understand the temperature battle at this time of year. Water acts as a temperature regulator - when we sweat, the sweat then evaporates and cools us. Finally, water is a source of minerals - whether naturally occurring or added to bottled water.
Now that we have covered why fluid balance and water are important, let’s move on to what fluid balance actually is and how much water we should be taking in every day. Simply put, fluid balance is the relationship between fluid coming in and fluid going out. The following are ways in which we do both:
Fluid in: Food, drinks, through our skin (Not much), via metabolic reactions within the body (Not much here either)
Fluid out: Sweating, breathing, urine and feces excretion, vomiting if we are ill, making body fluids such as tears and saliva
Even slight dehydration can result in a drop in our quality of thinking, focus, and performance. Some might say that striving to stay hydrated is a world for athletes only. This could not be further from the truth. What about the thinking and focus it requires to execute on a daily basis if you are a money manager? Or if you are working in a high stress factory environment with heavy machinery where an error has the potential to cause serious injury or even death? Striving to stay hydrated is a world for all of us, not just the athlete.
To calculate how much water we need each day, it is best and easiest to do so using our bodyweight. If you use the imperial system, then it is half of your bodyweight in ounces. So, if you weigh 150 lbs, your daily goal is 75 ounces of water every day. If you use the metric system, then aim to drink 35 mL of water for every kilogram you weigh. So, if you weigh 50 kg, your daily goal is 1.75 liters of water every day.
Water and fluid balance doesn’t always get the hype and attention like nutrition and exercise does. However, it is critical to our survival and to our ability to thrive as human beings. Take inventory of your daily habits when it comes to how you are managing your fluid balance. If you are hitting the numbers above, great, keep on keeping on! If not, look for ways to gradually increase that number until you get to the desired level. Your body will thank you for it!
