Dehydration is a common problem that happens to outdoor activity participants, which could even lead to many other uncomfortable things, such as heat illness, tiredness, energy loss, etc. It is important to find the right ways to prevent it.
If you’re wondering “how can you prevent dehydration during outdoor activities?”, here is the best answer:
Signs That You’re Dehydrated
There are some easy-to-notice signs of dehydration that will help you prevent it during outdoor activities:
- Low energy levels
- The amount of urine/peeing time is small and highly concentrated (usually in a dark or bright color)
- You pee less than usual
- Dizziness
- Dry tongue and lips
How Can You Prevent Dehydration During Outdoor Activities?
Choose The Right Fluids To Drink To Keep You Hydrated
While the most fluid is good to keep your body hydrated, there are some better options depending on the intensity level of the physical activity you participate in as well as how long you do.
For example, the special formula of sports drinks makes it a great alternative for electrolytes and fluid that are lost when you sweat. Therefore, they’re perfect for high-intensity and long-term (over one hour) outdoor activities.
Diet sodas, unsweetened teas, fruit juice blended with plain water or sparkling (also called diluted fruit juices), and water are the next ideal choices.
They are more suitable for those people who are doing lower-intensity activities for 15 minutes to under 1 hour.
Energy drinks, regular sodas, and full-strength juices are the less-often choices because of their high amount of sugar.
Finally, alcohol or alcohol-containing drinks are our least recommended because they are diuretic. The more you drink, the more times you pee, and the more fluid you lose.
Know When To Drink
By paying more attention to your body through common signs, you can easily prevent dehydration during outdoor activities.
Feeling thirsty is one of the easiest to notice.
Drink any of the fluids we recommended above whenever you have this feeling.
How Often And How Much Fluid To Drink
There are some cases where you drink fluid to satisfy your thirst but are still dehydrated. In addition to drinking the wrong fluid, there are two other reasons:
- You don’t drink enough fluid
- You don’t drink frequently enough
It is recommended to drink every 15-20 minutes when you are participating in prolonged outdoor physical activities, and the suggested amount is within 5-10 ounces.
Tips to know that you’re drinking enough
While it is recommended to drink 64 ounces of water per day, this number is slightly changed due to one’s body weight and the physical activity level they take part in.
The recommended amount of fluid needed to drink based on physical activities is listed above.
To determine the total amount of fluid needed to drink every day based on your body weight, multiply it by 2/3. For example, a 90-pound person needs 90*2/3=60 ounces of fluid per day.
Besides, you can rely on the color and odor of your urine to figure out your body hydration:
If your urine’s color looks like apple juice (dark yellow-orange) with an odor, you’re dehydrated and should drink more fluid, more frequently.
If your urine’s color looks like lemonade juice (pale yellow) odor-free, you’re well-hydrated.
Note that these cases are only true if you don’t take any multivitamin supplement pills. If you do, some ingredients of these pills might add odors as well as change the color of your urine in the next couple of hours.
But these symptoms will disappear at the end of the day.
Dehydration also causes quick weight loss during the day. Therefore, you can use that as a sign to track how hydrated your body is.
A basic rule of thumb is per one pound of body water weight loss, two cups of fluid are lost.
Extra Tips To Help You Prevent Dehydration During Outdoor Activities
To prevent dehydration more effectively when you’re joining outdoor activities, here are some more tips to follow:
If you participate in long-term (over 60 minutes) and highly intense physical activities, drink more water and eat salty snacks to replace lost electrolytes or replace water with sports drinks
Drink enough water and frequently before, during, and after the physical activity
Bring a water bottle that has a handle and a dedicated design mouth for easy drinking and carrying. It should be leak-proof for safety when you pack it inside your bag.
Pay attention to symptoms of heat illness and signs of dehydration during the activity. Take quick, proper action to improve (or prevent further worse symptoms, at least) once you detect any signs.
Heat illness symptoms and how to improve:
Nausea, spasms or muscle pains, clammy skin, and chills are common symptoms of heat illness. Once having any of them, you should drink cool fluids, take off excess clothing, and sit/lay down in a shady, cool place.
After 30-60 minutes, if you don’t feel any better, consider taking meditation.
Conclusion
Our team tried to give you all the pieces of information related to “how can you prevent dehydration during outdoor activities?”. So, we all hope that this article was helpful to you to stay well and healthy when taking part in any physical activity outside.
Thanks for reading!
Bryan Listor
