Hello athletes, welcome and thank you for tuning into the Coach Katie Danger Podcast recorded live from Omaha, Nebraska. I'm your host, Coach Katie Danger, U S army veteran, fitness coach and founder of Red H Nutrition. Here's a fact for you, 99% of us are not elite athletes. We're individuals from all backgrounds, juggling life priorities, including jobs, our families, their needs, and trying to find time to take care of ourselves every single week. When you tune in, I'll be discussing clear, concise and actionable strategies you can use to get the most from your fitness, nutrition, and mindset. So you can optimize your life without compromising your time. So athletes settle in and get comfortable. I'm here to educate, inspire, empower, and entertain you to help you enjoy the unique fitness journey that you are on.
(00:53): Hey athletes, What is up? Welcome to episode number 62. I think for most of us listening, the weather is finally starting to warm up and consistently stay there. That just a couple of weeks ago, at least here in Nebraska, we were having 40 degree weather and even some snow flurries. You know, I just think that was mother nature and her last hurrah, because she has to go out on top and she has to let us know who's boss. So that's kind of what I was thinking was going on there. I was actually in Colorado a few weeks ago and it was just as cold there. It actually snowed. There was a little bit of accumulation too. I'm just really glad we're finally getting into warm weather, but now that we're entering consistently warm weather, we got to talk about staying hydrated, especially now as we move outside with our workouts.
(01:34): So I'm really excited to chat with you this week about a topic that was brought up by my friend and listener to the podcast, Jason MNO. He sent me an email a few weeks ago and he's been on his own fitness journey and he's made a lot of positive changes in his life. He's been a customer of our ancient traditions for a couple of months now, but I have been following on Facebook. I see the changes he's made so he can improve his fitness. And he emailed me and was curious about how hydration and water balance plays a factor into all of his goals. And before we get started, though, I get it water hydration, fluid balance. It's just not the sexiest topic, but the bottom line is this. If you're not drinking enough water, more things than just your fitness performance are going to suffer because after all our bodies are majority water and for most of us, water is probably just an afterthought.
(02:19): We don't really think about it much during our day. And personally, I used to have a really heavy coffee drinking habit. I would use the excuse that water is my coffee, so I didn't need to drink more. And we'll get into the coffee debate a little bit more in this episode, but the point is bottom line up front. If you don't want to listen to any more of this podcast episode, here's what you need to know. Water is very important and you need to be drinking at least eight cups of water a day water. You need to be drinking water, not water from sodas, not water from coffee water. Now I know you guys aren't stupid. You know, water is important, but it is the why that often drives our behaviors. And it's important to know how it can help you feel your fitness results, including performance and weight.
(02:59): And it might even help you start making some changes in your beverage lineup for the day. So here's what we're going to cover in this. We're going to cover why water's important housing. The balance affects our bodily processes and how much you need to hydrate. And then some solutions for you, people out there or who don't like water. I needed to be a little bit more exciting in order to be palatable. So let's just go ahead and dive in statistics. Typically speaking, we're about 55 to 60% water, but our cells are not all the same of water they hold. For example, did you know that bone is 22% water fat tissue is 25% the muscles and our brain is 75% water. Blood is 83% water and our eyes are about 95% water. So as you can, surmise is depending on their body composition, you know how much fat we have versus how much muscle we have.
(03:46): It can dictate how much water we're uniquely composed of. So while I say 55 to 60%, depending on how much fat and muscle you have really plays a part into how much water your body actually is, if you haven't picked it up yet, water is very important for our bodies. Water has jobs like dissolves substances, transport nutrients. It starts reactions. It acts as a catalyst for chemical reactions, it lubricates joints and tissues. It helps our body temperature stay stable through sweating, and also helps with mineral balance and electrolytes, which helps with muscle contraction. As athletes. The term gets thrown around a lot is fluid balance fluid balance. And it is the relationship between how much fluid comes in your body and how much it goes out. So here's the general ideas behind fluid balance. It is dynamic. So our body always wants to maintain that homeostasis between our internal and external environment.
(04:36): So our body does a really good job of managing water balance on its own. That's why it's dynamic. And some people, like I mentioned earlier, are going to need more water than others, for reasons like their body composition, their fitness goals and their fitness activity, intensity levels. So how much and how long and how intense is the duration of your exercise. It also plays a count into it. If you get thirsty, you've probably heard this before, too. If you get thirsty, you're already dehydrated and this is true, but thirst is a great indication. It is a clear indication that our body needs more water burn. It needs it now. So now we come to the question, how much water does our body actually need? Well, the great thing is if you eat a fairly whole food diet, so you eat your fruit to eat your veggies with little processed foods and sugar, you're going to get about approximately four cups of water a day from gesture, food, veggies, fruits, they have very high water content.
(05:26): And then fatty foods like nuts, seeds and butter. They have very little water. So take this into consideration when you're structuring your diet and your macro neutral, the breakdown, and then how much water do we need? So now we know where it comes from. Like how much do we actually need? I already know. I mentioned before, our body is amazing at regulating this fluid balance because it's dynamic. We get thirsty when we need more water. So our body tells us we also get thirsty when the air is drier, there's less humidity. If it's warmer in our environment, if we eat salty foods, if you drink alcohol, or if we've been sweating, you know, because it's warm outside or we've been exercising, we'll get thirsty. Although our bodies are incredibly amazing and being able to balance this fluid, there's generally a lag time between when we get thirsty and how fast we're actually losing fluid extremely fast in sport too.
(06:12): When we're not replenishing what we've lost through lots of sweat. That's why, if you're exercising, it's best to proactively hydrate rather than wait until you feel thirsty. Even slight dehydration can decrease performance significantly. And if this is very important to you, you know, if you're in a competition, making sure you're hydrated, as you go along is very, very important. Intro workout. Most adults, 18 and over need at 12 cups of water daily. So 14, the cups of water come from food. If you're eating a fairly well balanced whole food diet, rich in fruits and veg, geez, you should look at eight cups of water a day. So eight cups of water a day, but this is only a baseline. If you're an athlete, if you're sick or you're getting sick, if you're a larger human over 220 pounds, we're going to need a lot more than just that 12 cups of water daily. So I want to give you the calculation though. And I want to give you a second to grab a pen and paper for this math equation. So I'm going to take a drink of water. So I keep my mouth hydrated so I can keep talking. You have a pen and paper.
(07:10): Okay. So hopefully you've got a pen and paper. Here's the calculation for you for every 2.2 pounds of yourself. So one kilogram is 2.2 pounds for every 2.2 pounds. You'll need about one to one and a half ounces of water. So if you're a 220 pound human, you'll need about 100 to 135 ounces a day. And if you're like, well, what the heck is an ounce? Well, for us Americans, it's stuck in the metric system. Eight ounces is in one cup. So you can just do eight divided by 100 or one or one 35 divided by eight. Get how many the cups you need. But I'll say it again for every 2.2 pounds. You need about one to one and a half ounces of water. So do the math. You might need more, more than just that base line recommendation of eight additional cups daily, where are you going to any more math though, or how our body uses water?
(08:00): I wanted to talk about certain low carb diets like keto and carnivores. And I'm going to press, this is not saying that any diet is better than the other. This is just a consideration. Need to understand what we're talking about. People go on low carb diets and they have very quick weight loss. So when people say start these diets, they seem to experience really large weight loss is very quickly. That's why a lot of people go on them because they see results quickly. Right? You look in the mirror. Oh my gosh, I've got abs, Oh my gosh. You know, I'm a little bit tighter in the skin carbohydrates store water, okay. Glucose promotes the storage of water. And if you're excluding carbohydrates or limiting them drastically, your body's just not going to store as much water. So this often makes it seem like these low carb diets are magic for weight loss.
(08:42): When in reality, people are just losing water. They're not really attaining water, not losing fat. And also why, when people go back on a moderate carb diet, so they started a low carb and then they, you know, gradually go back up or maybe they just have a car binge, they get puffy and they retain a lot of water or just gain all their weight back quickly. So what's really going on here is it's just the body's ability for that. Short-Term fluid balance fluctuation. It's not real actual fat loss. And like I mentioned before, this isn't saying one diet is better than the other. It's just a consideration to understand that if you're thinking of going on a low carb diet or carnivores for fat loss, and within a few weeks, you see significant weight loss. It is more than likely not fat loss. It is water loss because you're not retaining as much water because you're not eating as many carbs.
(09:25): So that's just a little aside there that I thought was very important to understand because low carb diets, carb cycling and carnivore keto are very popular. Nowadays, if you're an athlete, it's important to know how much water you lose during activity. And it's funny to know that just breathing just existing, just sitting here right now, talking to you, you listening to me, we're losing water. And just by existing, you lose about three cups of water a day. If we're sweating, you can expect that that's two to eight more cups of water loss. When we go to the bathroom, we also lose fluid. And science says that when you put everything together for proper kidney function, this is like, you know, no baseline gotta have this for kidney functions.
(10:06): You don't want a renal failure. We need at least two cups of water a day, two cups of water a day. Hey, I know. And you know that I talk a lot about using supplements on your fitness journey and reaching your full potential. How I believe they're integral pieces of the puzzle to reaching your best self and best fitness results. But do you know how supplements fit into your plan? Do you know what to take for your goals and how much of a supplement you should take if you ever had any of those questions and you want to know how supplements can work for you and your goals, go to your fitness supplements.com and take the free free, free three point personalized supplement assessment. And with just a few questions, you'll have a complete personalized supplement recommendation in less than 60 seconds. You'll know more about how supplements fit into your fitness goals. What's safe and what's effective and perfect for you. So type in your fitness supplements.com in your internet browser, take the free assessment and get on the fast track to your best fitness results. And so what happens though, if our water balance is all out of black, two things
(11:14): Either get dehydrated or we get waterlogged. And that specific term is hypnotize premia, but we don't really need to talk about that very much, unless you have a specific medical condition, a DEMA diabetes, those tend to typically have issues with having too much water in the body, in the cells. But most of us who were listening were athletes and dehydration. Dehydration is what we want to avoid a couple, not even a couple of years ago now, maybe like 15 years ago. Now when the Nintendo we came out, I remember a radio show. I think it was in California. They did a contest and the contest was, hold your wee to win a week. Very clever, very dangerous. However, so this woman who would have won, she would have survived. She held her urine for so long that she actually got toxic in her body and she died.
(11:58): She died. So I don't know if you want to call it drowning yourself from the inside, but you can see how extremes of both are no good, right? We don't want to be extremely dehydrated without water. We don't want to be extremely hydrated with too much water. They can both have fatal consequences, but we talk about dehydration because we're athletes. And that's usually what we're doing. Always trying to catch up, trying to proactively hydrate ourselves. We've talked plenty about how our body uses water and we have these minimal baselines for what we need for survival. But once we start adding exercise to this equation, there is so much more math involved, not so much more. I don't want to scare you, but there is more math. We calculated 2.2 pounds is about one to one and a half ounces, which is what you need is a baseline foundation for an athlete.
(12:40): But here's another reason or here's another equation. Another, a little bit right? Math that you might need to know. So grab your pen and paper again. After you've met your basic hydration needs 12, you know, the 12 cups of water eight from at least non-colored beverage sources. And then the four from foods. Here's a few strategies you should consider for your recovery. If you're an athlete, number one [inaudible] of water. So two extra cups of water, plus a mixture of 15 to 25 grams of protein, plus 10 to 15 grams of BCAs. So if you're ready to fishing fan, you can add a scoop of yes, whey protein, plus two scoops of the gojis branch chain amino acids. And this will help with your recovery and hydration during and after exercise. Now, if you're looking to gain weight or put on a lot of muscle mass, it's a different, a little different equation.
(13:30): So you're going to need the two cups of water. Again, the 16 ounces of water, 15 to 25 grams of protein, and then 30 to 45 grams of carbs per hour during training. So maybe you find like a waxy may starch or a high-glycemic fruit or carved powder of banana would be great if you could tolerate it during the exercise. But usually this stuff has to be liquid so we can keep moving around. We don't get any GI distress or some folks get upset. So if you're an athlete and you're just baseline looking for extra recovery and support two cups of water, 15 to 25 grams of protein, 10 to 15 grams of BCAs, which is one scoop of yes, whey protein, fermentation nutrition, and two scoops of gojies branch chain, amino acids. Then if you're looking to put on mass, you want to start looking into adding carbohydrates to that mix.
(14:17): Take that equation I just talked about and then add 30 to 45 grams of high GI carbohydrates. So your body can use them and process them quickly stay away from processed sugars, a high quality carbohydrate beverage pattern. We'll do the trick for you there. So you might be listening like, Oh my God, this is just so much math for me. I hate math. Katie, why are you doing this to me? Well, first and foremost, this is about performance and precision. So if that is for you, there is the opportunity. But if you don't want any of that and you just want, give me a core practice, give me something real life I can do today to think about this. Stick to your eight cups of extra water a day, but get them from non caloric beverages. So don't count your coffees. Don't count your monsters.
(15:00): Don't count your sodas. Think of, I need eight cups of strict water H2O in my body a day, start with that practice. And then you can talk about adding, you know, the carbs and the BCAs and the proteins to your workout recovery. What if you hate water? I know I have had so many clients tell me that it's hard to drink water because it just sucks. Right? Of course this sucks. It's it's definitely not as good as a tasty mountain Dew. It's definitely not as good as your coffee frappuccino from Starbucks. I understand it, but your body doesn't care. I get it. Your body doesn't care. Your body is very unemotional about water. It just wants H2O. So one way that I would suggest that you can do it is fine. Other ways to spice up your water. So maybe you want to add a lemon to your water.
(15:42): Maybe you want to add covered in ice and make it very refreshing. I'm a big fan of superfood powders though. Cause I feel like you can kill two birds with one, right? If you get a greens powder, you get the, the phytonutrients, the minerals and the vitamins. If you use a like a red superfood, a Barry's super. So you get the antioxidants, you get the recovery benefits from the blood pressure regulation. So I'm going to suggest to you as another plug for radiation, Tricia, they have super reds and super greens powder. You can do one or both. It's up to you, but you just need one scoop, two cups of water. Shake it up. Not only are you getting that two cups of water, so 16 ounces of water, but you're gonna flood your money with the phytonutrients, the vitamins, the minerals. I mean, seriously, if you can't stand the thought of drinking, just plain water, this is a very healthy, easy, sugar-free zero carb way to get in your water and also get additional nutrients and benefits.
(16:32): So think of a super foods powder, think of reddish nutrition, super reds, or super greens. If water is just not able to be tolerated for you, but I understand. So here's the gist and just wrap it all up. We need one live. There's no way around it. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. We need water to live and no matter how boring and awful it may be to drink, we need it. So find ways to increase your water and take non caloric water. Non-Colored beverages is what I'm talking about. Think about a superfoods powder or reds or greens, and then eat more fruits and veggies because fruits and vegetables are water dense. So they will help with your hydration just by eating them. Everything we do do and everything we do with our bodies and activity requires us to be hydrated. It needs water for it to happen.
(17:15): All of our physiological processes, all of our cells, our organs, our tissues, our muscle blood, our eyes. We need water. Even our ratio, macronutrient ratios are proteins. Our fats are carbs. Those also affect how much water content we hold in our bodies. Like I mentioned earlier, with keto cards or, and other low carb diets, we don't want has to be like beef jerky. Like I know beef Turkey is delicious, but it's not bendable. It's not flexible. It's very hard. You know, it's very chewy. We want our bodies to be like that. And I think that is a good analogy. Don't have beef jerky, muscles drink your water. So athletes, we are almost to the end of this week's episode. And now I hope it's a lot more clear on why water is important and how you can calculate your personal hydration needs based on your diet and your activity level.
(17:58): This is not a high level skill either. It should be a foundational practice. Before you think about counting your macros and weighing and measuring your food. You should know how much water to drink and you should be consistent 80, 25, six days out of the week. You should be meeting your water needs without even thinking about it. So if this is not a core practice for you, now make sure it is before you start going into other high level skills like counting your macros, counting or weighing and measuring your food, getting your water balance. Your fluid balance is so, so important. So vital for your foundation, that it doesn't make any sense to move on to higher level. I guess, dieting techniques until you have this down. Remember I did mention the super reds and super greens from reddish nutrition. So if you use my personal code, coach, Katie danger, all one word you can go on there right now, very first order reddish nutrition.com, and you can save 30% on those products or any product that might catch your eye.
(18:49): So pick those up, pick up those delicious, super reds and super greens. If hydrated is not a core practice for you right now, and it doesn't just happen. Like you don't just get hydrated. You've got to take some action for this to happen. Check out reddish nutritious products that will certainly make those beverages far more enjoyable and palatable for you. And then the coupon code podcast 20 is always available, whether you've used my a first time code or not. So podcast 20 you'll save 20% coach Katie danger will save you 30% on your first order athletes. Thank you again so much for joining me this week. It is always a pleasure to take some time out of the day. Sit with you, talk with you and give you some more information on how you can succeed in your fitness goals. They're really important to me.
(19:27): I really, really do take to heart your questions, your emails, and specifically to Jason. Thank you so much. This is a great topic just as we enter these summer months, it is so important to be privy about your hydration needs. We're all unique individuals. So if you have to go back and listen, go back a few minutes and find out what your exact patriation needs. If you have any questions, send me an email. Katie@Coachkatiedanger.Com and as always athletes, believe in yourself, trust the process don't ever quit. This is coach KDD over and out. We'll talk to you against him.
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