Can Water Weigh You Down?

Water is essential for hydration, skin, joints, can help reduce body fat and curb your appetite, but it might also weigh you down. How? Read your Health & Fitness Tip to find out!

Take a Test:
1) Weigh yourself at the beginning of the day, before drinking water or weigh yourself before strenuous exercise.
2) Weigh yourself about mid-day, after drinking about 8 oz of water hourly or after the exercise.
3) Weight gain may show you are over-hydrating. Weight loss may show you are under-hydrating. This assumes you keep your food intake normal, that you don't introduce new meds, etc. A loss of about 1 pound = 16 oz. of water.

When you are jogging and sweating in the hot sun, weigh yourself before & after exercise. 1 pint of sweat = 1 pound lost. Aim to replace only the fluids you have lost.

Drinking too much water will make you dizzy and disoriented. Self-monitor by how much you sweat and urinate. If it is extremely hot and you are exerting yourself, tie a cold, wet bandanna around your neck or head.