Water Retention and Kidney Function

It has been well documented that the liver is able to metabolize more fat if you help out your kidneys by drinking plenty of water each day. What is not often explained is water's relationship to salt and how to tell when you are drinking enough water.

Salt
First of all, let's take a look at how our bodies deal with salt! Salt (sodium, at least) is a necessary ingredient to regulate blood pressure and fluid volumes in our bodies. Additionally, it is a top notch preservative and it tastes good!
You've probably heard the warning to not drink salt water. This warning is true and must be heeded if you find yourself adrift at sea, or on a diet. The reason is that the body can only handle a certain concentration of salt.

Retained Water
If you eat a really salty meal, you may notice that your body will experience some swelling. This swelling is retained water which is being kept by the body in order to keep the salt in solution.
So how do you get rid of retained water? Well, believe it or not, the answer is that you drink water to get rid of water! That's right. It's counterintuitive, but true. By drinking extra water, it will allow your body to flush the excess salt out and to release the retained water.
Think of it this way, your body grows to expect a particular amount of sodium and a particular volume of water. It reserves water in your body knowing more salt is to come. When you drink a gallon of water over the course of the day, your body learns that you are providing plenty of water. Eventually it begins to trust that you'll continue doing so and it lets go of the surplus.

Water retention is an interesting issue because it is one of those issues that runs completely contrary to how we would imagine it would work. Water weighs about seven pounds per gallon, so its easy to imagine that we could shed a few quick pounds by losing some retained water.

The body has such a need for water that it retains extra water if we don't supply the right amount on a daily basis - and most of us do not. By getting into a habit, or regimen, of drinking more water than our body actually needs, our body becomes convinced that it doesn't need to hoarde extra water. Once your body is convinced that you are going to provide more than enough water to simply survive, it will let loose of the extra water it has stred up in your cells.

Kidney
Secondly, let's look at your kidneys. In order to do their job properly, your kidneys require an enormous amount of water. If the water is not supplied, your body goes to Plan B, which is to enlist the assistance of your liver. Because the liver is able to metabolize fat (turn it into energy), every second your liver spends bailing out the kidneys is a second it isn't burning stored fat. Drinking more water allows the kidneys to run at their optimal level and keeps the liver available to burn fat.

For dieters, there is an additional aspect worth consideration. Because we are attempting to burn EXTRA fat (not simply the supply of fat in our daily diet), we actually create an extra water deficit. It takes water to do the normal work of processing waste from our bodies, and it takes EXTRA water to process the stored fat and waste that comes from that job.

Are You Drinking Enough Water?
Try to drink twelve (8 ounce) glasses of water each day when you are dieting, and at least eight when you reach your optimal weight. (These are guidelines that must be adjusted using common sense. There may be circumstances such as weather, type of work, body size, physical activity and many others that will require you to drink much more or less than this.) If you are more than twenty pounds overweight, you should drink an extra glass for every 20 pounds over your optimal weight.

Once you've been on this regimen for a few weeks, you should notice some changes. Many people report that their skin looks and feels better, that headaches disappear, that they require less sleep and that they simply have more energy.

Biologically though, the best way to tell if you are drinking enough water is the color (rather the lack of color) of your urine. Many people think that color in their urine is due to waste being flushed out of the body, but it is, in fact, simply due to a shortage of water. Clear urine means you are drinking plenty of water.

Another benefit to drinking plenty of water is that your natural water alarm clock (thirst) will return. Your body will begin to signal to you that it is thirsty since it is no longer in the habit of hoarding water. Listen to your body and you'll continue to lose weight and burn fat.