7 quick and easy ways to tell if you’re dehydrated

December 04, 2021 4 min read

Our body doesn’t really ring too many bells to stay on track with our water intake throughout our day-to-day. Maybe just a soft ring every here and there. In fact, your body really only starts sending out visible alarms for you to start hydrating once your water levels have already plummeted rather than just dropped. Because once your body starts noticing it’s low on water, it’s already past the point of a simple water gulp. As a result, keeping on top of hydration can be hard at times, particularly with all these distractions in our everyday life. There are, however, ways you can take note that you’re not getting as much water in your day to day as you need to be…

#1 YOU LACK FOCUS

Just like a robot runs on oil, our brain runs on water. We rely on it so much that once we go without it, our brain will respond the only way it knows how: by wreaking havoc. Namely, our decision-making skills start to go down. A study done by Georgia Institute of Technology showed that when people reduce their water intake, their ability to complete tasks to the same level of proficiency drops off as well, particularly with high-order functions and tasks that are either repetitive or unstimulating. If you’re ever feeling sloppy and lethargic during the day, ask yourself if you’re drinking enough water.

#2 YOUR MOUTH AND SKIN ARE DRY

Unfortunately, we can’t always blame everything on the weather/age/skincare/aircon/thingthathappenedlastweekbutit’sallgoodnow. We need water and a lot of it too. As newborn babies, water makes up about78% of our body and then that percentage drops as we get older (60% for adult men,55% for adult women). We’re basically swimming in water. So when you drown those ponds your body is going to have a problem. Paediatric sports medicine specialistDr. Laura Goldberg recommends pinching your skin to see if you’re hydrated. If your skin appears thin and doesn’t immediately bounce back when you let it go, then you’re likely dehydrated. Water is your skin’s youth serum. Guzzle it. 

#3 YOUR breath SMELLS

Hate to say it, but there are only so many bad breath mountains that chewies and basic hygiene can climb. Saliva is key to washing out the muck from your mouth, keeping your teeth rinsed out of morning’s breakfast. And the key component of saliva? You guessed it: water. The less saliva your body is able to produce, the more leftover muck gets the opportunity to spread its germs through your mouth. So do yourself a favour and make sure your water intake isn’t affecting your oral hygiene.

#4 YOU’RE CRAVING sugar 

…Well more than usual anyway. The less water we drink, the less fluid we are able to produce to help our liver releaseglycogen (a type of energy storage). Without our glycogen, the hangry food craving monsters rage, and that’s where we get a lot of our maddening sugar cravings. By now, we have confused our body: it doesn’t want water anymore—it wants SUGAR. So, if you’re finding you can’t stay off the sweet stuff, see if it’s dehydration to blame. 

#5 YOU’RE GETTING Headaches 

Dehydration headaches: the cruel reminder that we’re starving our brain of fluids. These headaches generally occur when we lose water faster than we are drink it. Dehydration headaches suck and the best way to combat them is to get your fluids up fast andavoid drinks like coffee or alcohol, which actually dehydrate you faster.  

#6 YOUR PEE IS APPLE JUICE-COLOURED

Possibly the easiest tell of all. However, you’ll be doing some waiting to test this one out (given you’re dehydrated and therefore won’t need to pee for a while). Generallywhen your pee is darker than a pale yellow you’re dehydrated. On the other side, when your pee is crystal clear, you’re likely overhydrated. Our pee is like a green light / red light system for when to drink water. When you don’t give your body enough water, what happens is your urethra has nothing to send down but whatever has passed through as waste product or other excess fluid. As the saying goes, what comes in must come out. And your body’s not going to break things to you gently. 

#7 YOUR EYES ARE DRY AND BLURRY 

When will the tyranny of a body dehydrated end? Not with dry eyes,unfortunately, but let’s tee it off here. During strenuous exercise, your eyes may occasionally become irritated or blurry. This is generally a sign that your body is going into dehydration and the body parts that are normally kept moist (i.e. your eyes) are being leeched of moisture. Basically, your sweat output is outweighing your water input. To avoid this, you will need to take note of when this happens and up your water intake accordingly. 

Let us know if you can think of any other ways being dehydrated has affected you. Our remedy for recurring dehydration would be using a 2 litre water bottle. This way you can keep tabs on how much you’re drinking each day, leaving little room for slipups. You canpurchase a bottle through us, with FREE shipping Australia–New Zealand-wide for all orders $59 and over.   


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