WATER

Water is not a nutrient, it is some thing greater than a nutrient. Your body may have adequate protein, vitamins etc....., but they have nothing to do without water. Water is the most essential thing for life. We cannot survive even few minutes without oxygen and 2-3 days without water. So let me say how water takes part and plays important role in day to day life.

• Do you know that 60% of our body is made/filled with water. For example a man weighing 60 kilograms/133 pounds will have up to 36 kilograms/70 pounds of water filled in his body.

WATER COMPOSITION:

    

   So we say 60% of our body is filled with water and let us see how they are distributed inside our body.

• Blood is made up of 70% of water.
• Muscle is made up of 70-80% of water.
• Fat is made up of 15% of water.
• Skin is made up of 65% of water.
• Even bone is made up of 20% of water.

     We get enough water from the food we eat, plain water we drink and from all other drinks. Let us see its importance in our body and its role in exercise.

• Water has no calories, no organic nutrition, it is a neutral component. So don't worry, drinking more water doesn't adds fat or calories.
• Body building needs more protein, to digest protein our body needs more water.
• Water is the only tool that cools our body when it is in some action (exercise, running, cycling etc...). I can see some scientists thinking about fans and air conditioners here!
• An average man needs 3 litres of water per day and women needs 2.5 litres per day. We get almost 700 ml of water from the food we eat, 300 ml from some chemical reactions in our body and the remaining from the plain water, cool drinks, coffee, juice, soup etc.
• So the water gone inside should come out side. An average body excretes the amount of 2-2.5 litres of water per day from our body through 1.25-1.5 litres of urine, 450 ml by sweat, 350 ml by breathing through lungs and 200 ml by droppings.
• When we perform exercise our tissues undergoes some metabolic process which produces wastes (more action, more wastes). To excrete those wastes(urea, toxic components) our body needs water. These wastes are excreted through urine and sweat as mentioned above.  
• To excrete the toxic components through urine you need help of kidney. For proper kidney function you need enough water pressure in the nephrons(tiny units in kidney). 
• Water plays a very important role in transporting salts, nutrients, vitamins, sugar to the cells of our body.
• Water takes part in the process of digestion to break down the complex molecules in to simple molecules. So that they are in the form to be absorbed by our tissues.
• Water is the body temperature controller inside us. When our body starts to heat, water cools it by sweating. Also it get deep inside our body to get warmed and transfers to the outer layer of the body in case of less body temperature.
• If our body temperature rises by +6°C or decreases by 2-4°C it can cause heat stroke or hypothermia respectively. Water controls it.
• Like oil/crease acts as lubricants for machines. Water acts as lubricants for our bone joints, muscle contraction, back bone, uterus. So when you do exercise you need them a lot.
• Without water our eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, skin gets dried and even you can't talk.
• Without water you cannot proceed the initial step of digestion after swallowing the food, because water is the main component in saliva. Saliva makes the food ready for digestion. So be careful that you don't get the problem of incomplete digestion.
• Water plays an important role in controlling the blood pressure. Low blood pressure may even lead to death.
• Water controls the amount of billirubin secreted by your liver, it is the main cause for deadly jaundice.
• Don't drink too much of water which is highly fatal. Water is deadliest toxic if your water intake is huge amount at same time. 
• If your body has above required water, it has to be only excreted through urine and sweat. But your kidney has its own speed which does not allow more water to flow in. So, your whole body will be filled with water including your brain  and lungs resulting in death( An incident in beer drinking competition is the best example for this. After drinking litres of beer the person won the competition and after few minutes he died due to excess of liquid inside his body). 

So you understood water is one of the important need in your life and especially in physical activities. So, take this in to account and keep an eye on the water intake level. Water can be deadly if its intake is very low or very high.     

Tags: Litres of water per day, Importance of water in body building, Functions of water in our body, why do we need water when we do exercise? How much water we have to take when we perform exercises.