How To Stay Hydrated: Tips For An Active Summer
Approximately 1/3 of non-pro athletes enter practices and competitions dehydrated. This dehydration negatively impacts performance and health, making it crucial to understand the importance of adequate hydrated. When you go about your busy day, you might notice fatigue, brain fog, achy joints, constipation, and dry eyes, all of which are signs and symptoms of dehydration.
An adult human body contains 55-80% fluid. That’s a lot of fluid and there’s many reasons why we have so much. Fluid plays a key role in helping our bodies function properly. Let’s take a deeper dive into what exactly water does for our body!
The Importance of Water in the Body
What is the importance of water? Water plays several crucial roles in maintaining health and enhancing athletic performance:
Makes it easier for our body to absorb nutrients
Regulates body temperature, especially in the heat
Keeps the tissues around our eyes, nose and mouth moistened
Helps carry nutrients and oxygen to different cells in our body, such as to the brain and working muscles!
Cushions our body’s organs and tissues
Allows the kidneys to function properly and puts less strain on them
Helps the body get rid of wastes through urination and bowel movements
Helps lubricate joints in your body
How Much Water Do We Need in a Day?
Fluid needs for adults vary greatly from person to person. It depends on multiple factors including your age, sex, activity level, body composition, weight, current medications, health status, weather, and how much you sweat when doing activities.
Active men need about 3.7 Liters per day and for women about 2.7 Liters per day. If you have a 32 oz water bottle, you would need to drink nearly 3-4 bottles per day to hit this goal. However, fluid found in other beverages like smoothies, sports beverages, teas and even coffee count toward your total daily fluid needs. Just keep caffeinated beverages to under 500 mg caffeine. Fruit like watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, oranges also contain water and are great go-to’s during the heat of the summer.
To know exactly how much fluid you should be consuming daily, divide your body weight in pounds by 2, then add more fluid for exercise. To know how much fluid you lose during exercise, you can conduct a fluid sweat rate test on yourself.
How to conduct a Fluid Sweat Test?
Weigh yourself before your run/bike/swim/strength session or other workout right before. Weigh yourself without clothes on.
Complete your workout and keep track of how many ounces or milliliters you drink.
Take note of the time of day, heat, humidity, wind and overall environment. Keep track of how long the workout session is.
After the workout, weigh yourself without clothes on again.
Subtract your pre-workout weight by your post-workout weight and add in any fluids consumed. I.e. If you drank 16 oz of fluid that equals 1 pound. If you lost 3 pounds during a 2 hour workout and you drank 16 oz, that would be 4 lbs lost. 4 lbs x 16 oz = 64 oz divided by 2 hours = 32 oz sweat rate per hour or 1 Liter.
32 oz of fluid lost per hour would mean sipping on a little over 3 oz fluid every 10 minutes during an activity. For some, this won’t be possible so we try to get as close as we can without having stomach upset. This might mean aiming for 24 oz of fluid per hour.
If you are an athlete, you should work with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist to stay hydrated during workouts, competition days, and rest days. A Sports Dietitian can tailor a specific hydration plan for you.
Identify Dehydration in Yourself and Others
Since it is estimated that approximately 1/3 of non-pro athletes enter practices and competitions dehydrated, this makes it that much more important to identify dehydration in yourself and others. Did you know that one of the first signs of dehydration is feeling fatigued? This is one of the many signs that your body sends to you, saying, “Hey, we need some fluids in here!”
Common signs of dehydration:
Fatigue
Thirsty
Dry mouth, dry lips, dry eyes
Dizziness or Light-headedness
Decreased coordination
Confusion or Irritability, brain fog
Muscle cramps or side stitches
Headaches
Dark urine or low-volume urine over 4 hours
Infrequent bowel movements or constipation
Even when you are not working out or sweating, your body still uses fluids for several functions of the body. So, it is just as important to hydrate on rest days as it is on active days. If you are an athlete or active person at any level, being hydrated can significantly impact your performance and training.
Tips to Stay Hydrated This Summer
We all have busy schedules, whether we are an athlete with a heavy training load, an average active person going about our day, a parent running kids around, or a student trying to find time to study. It’s easy to forget to drink fluid throughout the day, but it is so important to sip on fluids all throughout the day, rather than chugging them at night when our time of day has run out.
Here are some hydration hacks for staying hydrated throughout the day:
Set a timer on your phone to go off every 30 minutes and have a drink of water/ fluids when it does. You want to sip on fluids throughout the day rather than chugging water all at once at the end of the day.
Get a reusable water bottle and carry it around with you everywhere you go. I like water bottles with straws because they are easy to sip on in the car or in work meetings. However, I like closed water bottles for activities like camping, kayaking or other places where the bottle will likely fall down. I like squirt bottles for cycling, mountain biking and running. Hydration packs are great too.
Don’t like the taste of water? Try adding lemon, mint, blueberries, or blackberries to add some delicious taste and nutrients.
Get fluids from other sources besides water. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables can help meet your fluid needs. Fruits and vegetables such as watermelon, cantaloupe, oranges, bell peppers, lettuce, and cucumbers all contain water. So cool that water is in our food!
Include other fluids, besides water. Other fluids like chocolate milk, juice, coffee <500 mg caffeine, milk, iced tea, smoothies and sports beverages also all count towards your fluid needs.
Eat foods that have salt in them, and or consume beverages with salt.
Salted pretzels, sports beverages, adding salt to food and smoothies. Try eating frozen, canned or packaged products which will generally have some more salt in them.
Replenishing salt is meant for athletes and active people losing extra salt through training sessions or in hot environments. Every person needs salt in their diet, however the average American consumes excess salt. In my sports nutrition practice, I see many people under-doing it on salt especially if you cook all your own meals with only whole-food.
DON’T restrict salt in your diet (except if medically necessary in some situations). Salt (sodium chloride) is lost in your sweat. Since athletes sweat a lot, your sodium needs are higher than non-athletes.
These are just a few ways that can help you start to get your hydration up throughout the day. If none of these seem realistic for you, meet with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist to discuss a more personalized plan to help increase your hydration is recommended.
The Impact of Dehydration on Performance
Dehydration can severely impact athletic performance and overall well-being. Athletic performance can be negatively impacted by dehydration at 1-2% of body weight water losses. For example, a 150-pound athlete who lost three pounds during a workout or competition could experience adverse dehydration effects. Here are some of the significant ways it affects the body:
Reduced Attention, Awareness, and Hand-Eye Coordination: Dehydration can impair cognitive functions and motor skills, making it harder to concentrate and react quickly. This can be particularly dangerous in sports requiring precise movements and quick decision-making.
Elevated Heart Rate: When dehydrated, the volume of blood circulating through your body decreases, causing your heart to work harder to pump blood. This can lead to an elevated heart rate and increased strain on the cardiovascular system.
Increased Risk for Overheating: Hydration is crucial for regulating body temperature. Without sufficient fluids, the body struggles to cool itself through sweating, increasing the risk of heat-related illnesses like heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
Overall Reduction in Power and Endurance: Muscles rely on water to function correctly. Dehydration can lead to muscle cramps, reduced strength, and diminished endurance, all of which negatively impact athletic performance.
Impact on Mood and Cognitive Function: Dehydration has been linked to mood swings, anxiety, and fatigue. Maintaining proper hydration helps ensure that your mental state is stable and that you can perform at your best both mentally and physically.
Higher Incidence of Injury: Dehydrated muscles and joints are more susceptible to strains and sprains. Proper hydration helps keep tissues lubricated and resilient, reducing the risk of injury during physical activities.
Understanding these impacts highlights the critical need for adequate hydration, especially during high-intensity activities and in hot weather. Ensuring that your body is well-hydrated can significantly improve both your physical and mental performance.
Final Thoughts on Staying Hydrated During the Summer Heat
Staying hydrated is essential for overall health and athletic performance, especially during the hot summer months. By understanding your fluid needs and implementing these hydration tips for summer, you can ensure you maintain proper hydration levels, which will help improve your performance and well-being. If you need personalized advice, don't hesitate to consult with a Sports Dietitian Nutritionist to develop a hydration plan that fits your lifestyle and activity level. This blog post focused on getting adequate fluid throughout the day as an active person, in the next series we will dive into what is in our sweat and why athletes in addition to needing more fluid, need more sodium and other electrolytes.
Next on the Reading List:
Registered Dietitian’s Guide to Hydration for Athletes
Updated 7.6.2026
