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Around 60-70% of the human body is composed of water, so it's fair to say that water is vital for survival. It functions to keep our body temperature regulated, allows us to breathe, is essential in digestion and excretion, assists body movement, just to name a few!

Drinking 8-10 glasses of water each day is recommended, but during exercise or when in hot environments, we need to drink more, because we sweat more.

But is water enough? Or do you need a sports drink to stay properly hydrated?
Sports drinks will keep you well hydrated and give you energy if you're participating in high intensity exercise for more than an hour. However, if you're not exercising to this level, plain water will do just fine.

What defines a sports drink?
Sports drinks (sometimes called electrolyte or isotonic drinks) are developed to contain the right level of carbohydrates (5-8 g/litre) and electrolytes (such as sodium and potassium) to keep you well hydrated; replacing what is lost from the body during exercise.

Other drinks that contain high amounts of carbohydrates stop water being absorbed quickly and therefore can delay hydration, so are not suitable before exercise.

So if you're doing a high intensity workout, choose a sports drink. But, if you're not working out to this intensity and drink them as part of your everyday routine you may end up putting on weight because of the extra carbohydrate content.

If you don't like the taste of plain water, add a slice of lemon, orange or a sprig of mint to give your water some flavour without adding the calories you'd get by using cordial.

Hydration tips for exercise

• Make sure you're well hydrated before you exercise - start drinking approximately two hours before
• Keep your fluids topped up during exercise
• Always remember to re-hydrate after exercise – it's essential for recovery. Try to drink one to two glasses per hour until your urine is pale again

Is it water or is it fat?

The good news is that temporary water weight gain is just that – it’s temporary, and it’s water… not fat. (it would be nearly impossible to gain three pounds of fat overnight. To store a pound of fat, you’d need to eat 3500 calories more than you need – which means you’d need to eat more than 10,000 extra calories to gain 3 pounds of fat in one day.)

Tips for reducing temporary water weight gain

Temporary water weight gain can often be tackled with a few simple dietary changes.

• Reduce your salt intake
  Focus on foods that are as close as possible to their natural state, since the more processed a food is, the more sodium it’s likely to have. Keep salty snacks, soups, condiments and sauces to a minimum and use the salt shaker lightly in cooking and at the table.
• Cut back on refined starches and sweets
  Rather than highly refined carbohydrates like white bread, regular pasta and white rice, turn to whole grain varieties. Since they take longer to digest, they’re less likely to cause a big spike in blood sugar – and insulin – when you eat them. And, switch from sugary drinks to water or tea instead.
• Drink plenty of water
  It seems like that last thing you’d want to do – put more fluid into your body when it already feels overloaded. But drinking fluids will help your body to eliminate excess salt and water. Aim for 6-8 glasses a day.
• Push potassium
  Potassium plays a critical role in maintaining fluid balance in the body, and needs to be in the proper balance with sodium. Potassium is found in abundance in fruits and vegetables, but most people don’t get nearly enough potassium in the diet. Try to have a fruit or vegetable at every meal or snack.

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD. Susan is a paid consultant for Herbalife

Fruit salads are easy to make, so today I'm going to show how to make one that looks as good as it tastes. I'm Susan Bowerman, registered dietitian, and today I'm making a colorful and healthy fruit salad. Fruit salad mixtures are very healthy; you get more of an antioxidant punch when you eat fruits together than when you eat them separately. Fruit salad is also a great way to introduce some new fruits into your diet. My fruit salad recipe for today has watermelon, pineapple, berries, kiwi, mango, and an exotic fruit; but you can create your own fruit salad mixture too. Tell me how your fruit salad turned out in the comments section. For more nutrition advice from Herbalife, visit http://www.DiscoverGoodNutrition.com or take a look at my YouTube playlist: http://hrbl.me/VJ6XEl.