Your body is made up mostly of water, friends, and you need to keep it flowing if you want to be at your peak performance levels. Dehydration can be sneaky–you might not even realize it’s happening, but it’s there, slowing you down and making your sluggish.
To help avoid long periods of mild dehydration and keep your body at its best, be aware of these potential dehydration signs.
Too infrequent urination
Most people will urinate from four to seven times daily, depending on how much urine you have to release and your bladder size. if you notice you’re urinating less than four times a day, it’s definitely time to drink more water.
Color of your urine
The color of your urine can be an easy way to see if you’re properly hydrated. Your urine’s color is determined by how many waste products are in it. The more water that is available for your kidneys to mix with the waste products in your body, the lighter your urine will be in color. Generally, if you are drinking enough water, your urine should be a light yellow or light straw hue.
When your urine is a darker shade, this means your kidneys are working more to concentrate the waste products in your body and remove them without making you even more dehydrated. You may not even notice the reduction in your mental and physical performance, but those reductions are there. Of course, note that some nutritional supplements can make your urine a very bright yellow, which makes it more difficult to determine the true color.
If you have clear urine, you could actually be drinking too much water. Although it is less common than dehydration, being too hydrated can also be a threat to your health. There have, unfortunately, been deaths linked to over-hydration in the sports and athletic world.
Odor from your urine
Generally, your urine will have no strong odor. The scent depends on the foods you’ve eaten over the last day, your hydration level and whether you have an active bladder infection. If you are dehydrated and have a lot of waste products in your urine, you will notice an ammonia odor coming from it.
There’s no one set amount of water every person should drink each day. How much water you need to drink depends on many factors, including your weight, level of activity and how much you sweat. If you notice any of the signs of dehydration above, it’s time to add more water to your daily diet.
