Nutrition: Water
The general recommendations for someone who trains and sweat is to consume 4-7 litres of water per day. This includes water intake from foods such as fruit and vegetables.
There is a whole plethora of reason to drink water and below we will be discussing a few.
Exercise
When using weight or attempting to life heavy, water will move from your blood into your muscle cells (and surrounding areas). This is what is referred to as feeling "pumped". However if you are under-hydrated the opposite will happen; water will leave the muscle cells to enter the blood to preserve circulation and keep blood pressure down.
Research
Research has shown that when cells lose water, protein production can slow down and protein breakdown can speed up. Thus after your workout, the amount of protein synthesis occurring is hampered by lack of hydration.
Studies have shown that performance during aerobic exercise decreasing when dehydrated as well as decreased power generation.
Further studies have shown that dehydrated individuals that took part in a various of weight lifting exercises managed to perform significantly fewer reps than those who performed the exercises whilst properly hydrated. As well as that they found that the dehydrated individuals found the exercises more difficult and need longer for their heart rates to recover.
German researchers have found about 2 cups of cold water can temporarily boost metabolic rate by roughly 30% (due to an increase in norepinephrine), which will increase fat loss.
Fat Metabolism
Not only is water a natural appetite suppressant but it also help metabolize fat. As you've read above, when the body is poorly hydrated water will be drawn from body cells into the blood. If water is drawn from fat cells, these cells will be less likely to be burnt off, resulting in fat stores increasing if you remain dehydrated.
Kidneys & Liver
Quite simply your kidneys need plentiful water to function properly and if they are lacking enough water to do so they will recruit the liver to help out. And since one of the livers main functions is metabolizing fat stores to use as energy, it is clear that if it is helping out the kidneys then it will be less effective in fat metabolizing.
Water Retention
Despite what a lot of people think, it is actually lack of water that causes water retention. The reason being that when the body believes there is a shortage of water it will enter a survival mode and retain as much water as it can. Thus when in this state, drinking water will result in unwanted water retention. To resolve this you need to provide the body with plentiful water to flush the excess out.
Excess sodium can also cause the problems related to dehydration, but if enough water is being consumed then it shouldn't be a problem.
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