As seen in Chapter 6 of this text, hydration is extremely important to well-being and/or athletic performance. Unfortunately our world seems to live in a state of chronic dehydration creating a lack of mental clarity and diminishing recovery, making our pursuit of body composition changes more difficult.
From a prescription standpoint, educating your client on the importance of water intake and the potential dangers of dehydration is critical.
Below are a few key points that you can use when discussing water intake with your client:
Large amounts of fluid intake with meals can cause inefficient digestion due to diluted gastric acids and enzymes. This is especially true in clients with IBS, Crohn’s, Colitis, hypochloridia, and GERD.
While there is no direct recommendation around water intake timing, if your client is experiencing any amount of GI distress a good place to start may be with removing water intake during a meal. Instead the recommendation would be to wait until 30 minutes after a meal to begin consuming fluids.
Most clients will come with very little awareness of their current water consumption. That is completely ok as it provides you, the coach, a foundation to begin the education discussed above.
Once you provide that education a proper hydration prescription can start at:
Current bodyweight in lbs/2 + 15 = target number of ounces
Naturally this does not account for physical activity and/or training environment, so be prepared to adjust this number relative to the specific needs of your client.
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