The Importance of Hydration in Weight Loss

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Brenda Thompson, registered dietitian and owner of Life Skills Nutrition. In this segment I'm going to talk about proper hydration. Following the recommendations of eight cups of water a day is a great place to start when considering weight loss. A registered dietitian can provide you with a better estimation for your personal needs based on your weight. Other factors that are considered are your activity factor, and your perspiration on a hot day. This is one cup, this measuring cup here, it is one cup of water. So eight of these a day would be a great place to start. This is a 12 ounce cup, and sometimes the dimensions can be a little bit deceiving when you look at maybe what a one cup looks like, and this is about one and a half cups. I'm showing you this metal bottle, because it is important during the hot days that you do not take a plastic bottle of water and put it in your car, because heat can become active with the plastic and there is new research coming out stating that that plastic may release some toxicity that can cause cancer. Whether that is true or not, it is unknown at this time, but as a preventative measure it would be very important to use a metal bottle. Glasses are also appropriate. It is very important to hydrate yourself throughout the day. The reason you would not want to drink the water all at once is because your cells can only take in so much water at a time. So stagnating the water throughout the day will properly hydrate your cells. If you drank all the fluid at once, once your cells are hydrated, the rest of the water will be flushed out of your body via your urinary tract and system. So it's very important to properly hydrate yourself with the eight glasses of water throughout the day. "