Your body loses fluid constantly but this increases during exercise so how can you stay well hydrated?

Water is the most natural way to keep your body hydrated before, during and after training and exercise sessions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It’s vitally important you remain hydrated at all time but this is especially true when it comes to performing exercise in hot climates like the UAE. Michelle, who is a professional female personal trainer in Dubai provides some great tip and advise in this question and answer sessions about hydration.

Question: Keeping well hydrated in a hot climate is an essential part of everyday life. When training and exercising this is even more important – in your professional opinion as a personal trainer how much water should be consumed daily for the average active person?

There are a few factors about how much water you should drink to keep yourself hydrated in the UAE – Are you male or female? How active are you? – How old are you? Etc.

But in general a male needs around 3 liters per day and a female needs 2,5 liters.

If you do 30 minutes of exercise per day, you have to have another half liter per day.

We get around 1 liter of water from our daily food, if you’re eating normal healthy and varied diet.

Is plain water best?

Question: How does just plain water help the body before, during and after exercise?

If you are just 2% dehydrated it will have a negative effect on your possibility to exercise, so it very important to stay hydrated in general – both before, during and after exercise.

Water helps your body to exercise efficiently and reduces fluid loss – especially when training in a warmer climate. Drinking water or an energy based drink can also help your muscles recover after a extended training period.

What about sports drinks?

Question: Is it best to stick with plain drinking water as a way to hydrate the body during exercise or do sports hydration drinks really work?

Sports hydration drinks are fine as well, but keep in mind, that the most of these drinks have caffeine and caffeine can also decrease your hydration.

It’s important to seek the advice of a professional personal trainer with diet and nutrition experience as they can provide the best advice on your particular circumstances because all personal training regimes in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are different.

Will water help with weight loss too?

Question: It’s often said that drinking water can help with weight loss in the UAE. If this is true how does this work – is it simply because water helps to make us feel fuller between meals?

60% of our body is water and water helps all the different processes in the body and it also has an effect on your digestion and combustion. Although you can’t just drink water to lose weight (this is dangerous and unhealthy) water can make you feel fuller between meals.

More often than not when you feel hungry a glass of water between meals gives you that ‘fuller’ feeling. Drinking water ‘with’ a meal not only helps you feel fuller but also helps with processing food in our systems.

Can water be mixed with fruit juice etc?

Question: Water is often the best way to hydrate the body but there are some people who find drinking plain water difficult. Squash style cordials are often very sugary so what would you suggest as a ‘healthier’ option to add to water?

It can be very difficult to drink enough water but when training and exercising in Dubai it has to be seen as a must. In fact you will even hear some people say they don’t like the taste of water although for the vast majority of people in the UAE water really doesn’t have a taste.

Much of the problem is down to the fact that lots of people in the UAE tend to go with sugary drink options (carbonated) and while there are sugar free alternatives many of these do contain chemical additives.

The good news is water is a calorie free option – it doesn’t increase your weight and is the best hydration drink for anyone – not only for physical fitness

Many vegetables and fruit contain a lot of water too and although the best way to cosume these is whole they can also be juiced.

Milk might be another great choice for some people but in moderation because unlike water milk does contain fat and therefore calories.

If you really feel you can’t get enough water in your system because you just find it hard to drink try adding some squash. Squash is mainly water but adds flavour – you should however choose a sugar free ‘and’ sugar substitute free option.