Summer Hydration Part 2: Signs of Dehydration & How to Know If You’re Actually Hydrated
Updated: Aug 20
The subtle signs of dehydration, why electrolytes matter, and what hydration has to do with puffiness, heavy legs and recovery.
In Part 1 of our Healthy Girl Era Hydration Guide, we talked about hydration as something much bigger than simply drinking more water.
We explored the relationship between your circulatory and lymphatic systems, how fluid moves throughout the body, and why hydration influences everything from energy and digestion to exercise recovery and lymphatic health.
Now, we’re getting into the part most of us actually want to know:
How do you know if you’re truly hydrated?
Because dehydration doesn’t always look like extreme thirst after a hot workout.
Sometimes it looks like an afternoon headache.
Sometimes it’s feeling unusually tired.
Sometimes your workout feels harder than it should.
And sometimes you feel puffy, heavy and swollen, which seems like the exact opposite of being dehydrated.
Welcome to Part 2.
Signs of Dehydration You Might Be Missing
Most of us wait until we’re thirsty before thinking about hydration.
But thirst is only one signal your body can give you.
Your hydration needs are constantly changing depending on your environment, activity level, diet, temperature, sweat rate and overall health.
During the summer, those needs can change even more.
A morning workout, an afternoon outside, a long walk, travel, hot yoga or simply spending more time in warm weather can increase fluid loss through sweat.
And that loss may show up in ways you wouldn’t immediately connect to hydration.
Some common signs that you may need to pay more attention to your fluid intake include:
Increased thirst
Dry mouth
Darker or more concentrated urine
Urinating less frequently
Headaches
Fatigue
Dizziness or lightheadedness
Reduced exercise tolerance
Feeling unusually warm during exercise
Difficulty concentrating
The important thing to understand is that hydration exists on a spectrum.
You don’t need to be severely dehydrated for inadequate fluid intake to affect how you feel.
So… How Do You Know If You’re Actually Hydrated?
There’s no single perfect at-home measurement that tells you your hydration status at every moment.
Instead, think about the overall picture.
Start with your urine.
Very dark or concentrated urine can be a sign that you need more fluid, while consistently pale-yellow urine generally suggests better hydration.
But urine colour isn’t perfect.
Supplements, medications, foods and even how recently you’ve consumed fluids can change it.
Your thirst matters too.
And so does how you feel.
Pay attention to your energy, headaches, dry mouth, workout performance and how frequently you’re urinating.
For active people, there’s another useful tool: your sweat loss.
If you’re doing a long or particularly sweaty workout, weighing yourself before and after exercise can provide a rough idea of how much fluid you’ve lost.
The goal isn’t to become obsessive about hydration.
It’s to start recognizing your body’s patterns.
Because your hydration needs aren’t necessarily going to look exactly like someone else’s.
And No, There Isn’t One Perfect Amount of Water for Everyone
We’ve all heard some version of:
“Drink eight glasses of water a day.”
It’s easy advice.
It’s just not particularly individualized.
Your fluid needs can change based on:
Body size
Activity level
Sweat rate
Climate
Pregnancy or breastfeeding
Diet
Illness
Medications
How much fluid you consume through food
Someone spending an afternoon working at a desk in air conditioning will have very different needs from someone doing a 60-minute workout followed by a summer afternoon outside.
Instead of chasing a perfect number, think about consistent hydration throughout the day.
Your body generally responds better to regular fluid intake than realizing at 7 PM that you’ve barely had anything to drink and suddenly trying to make up for it.
Healthy Girl Era rule:
Don’t wait until your body is screaming at you to start listening.
Water Is Important. But What About Electrolytes?
This is where hydration gets a little more interesting.
When you sweat, you don’t lose only water.
You also lose electrolytes, particularly sodium, along with smaller amounts of other minerals.
Electrolytes help regulate important processes throughout the body, including:
Fluid balance
Nerve signalling
Muscle contraction
Blood volume
Normal cellular function
Sodium is especially important for fluid balance because it helps the body retain and distribute fluid within the appropriate spaces.
That’s why after significant sweating, replacing fluid and electrolytes may support rehydration better than replacing water alone.
Research looking at post-exercise rehydration has found that sodium-containing fluids can improve fluid retention after dehydration compared with plain water alone.
But here’s an important distinction:
That doesn’t mean everyone needs an electrolyte packet every time they drink water.
For most people eating a balanced diet and participating in normal daily activity, food provides significant amounts of the electrolytes we need.
Electrolytes become more relevant when fluid and sodium losses increase; for example during prolonged exercise, significant sweating or extended time in hot environments.
Wait… Can You Be Dehydrated and Puffy?
This one surprises people.
Because intuitively it seems impossible.
If your body needs water, why would you feel like you’re holding onto water?
The answer is that fluid balance is much more complicated than simply “too much water” versus “not enough water.”
As we discussed in Part 1, fluid is constantly moving between your bloodstream and your tissues before being returned to circulation through your vascular and lymphatic systems.
Your kidneys and hormones are also continuously adjusting how much water and sodium your body retains or eliminates.
When your body loses fluid, it activates mechanisms designed to protect circulating volume and conserve water.
That is a completely normal survival response.
At the same time, the puffiness you notice in your hands, feet, ankles or legs can be influenced by many other things, including:
Heat
Prolonged sitting
Prolonged standing
Travel
High sodium intake
Hormonal changes
Certain medications
Reduced movement
Venous circulation
Lymphatic function
So yes, you can feel puffy while also needing to pay more attention to hydration.
But it’s important not to assume that all swelling means dehydration.
Persistent, significant, painful, sudden or one-sided swelling should always be properly assessed by a healthcare professional.
Why Do Your Legs Feel So Heavy in the Summer?
If you’ve ever finished a long summer day and thought:
“Why do my legs feel like bricks?”
You’re definitely not imagining it.
Heat causes blood vessels near the skin to widen as your body works to release heat.
At the same time, long periods of standing or sitting allow gravity to increase pressure within the blood vessels of the lower extremities.
Now add:
A hot day.
A long patio lunch.
Hours standing at an event.
A flight.
A road trip.
A hard workout.
Or simply less movement than usual.
Suddenly your lower legs and ankles may feel heavier or look puffier than they did that morning.
This is also where the relationship between movement and lymphatic circulation becomes important.
Remember from Part 1: your lymphatic system doesn’t have a heart pumping lymph around your body.
Muscle contractions, breathing and everyday movement help move lymphatic fluid through its vessels.
That means one of the simplest things you can do after sitting or standing for extended periods is…
Move.
Take a walk.
Move your ankles.
Stretch your calves.
Take a few deep diaphragmatic breaths.
Change positions.
It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Sometimes the most effective wellness habits are the least glamorous ones.
Hydration + Movement: A Very Underrated Combination
Hydration supports the fluid your body is working with.
Movement supports how that fluid circulates.
Together, they’re an incredibly simple foundation for everyday wellness.
Walking activates the muscles of your lower legs.
Deep breathing changes pressure through the chest and abdomen.
Exercise increases circulation.
Muscle contractions help support venous and lymphatic return.
This is why you may feel completely different after a 20-minute walk than you did after sitting at your desk for six hours.
And it’s also why movement is one of the four pillars of our philosophy at Holistic Med Group:
Mindfulness. Nourishment. Movement. Detox.
Movement doesn’t always have to mean a workout.
Sometimes movement is simply helping your body do what it was designed to do.
What Does Hydration Have to Do With Recovery?
More than you might think.
Exercise creates a significant demand for fluid.
You lose water and electrolytes through sweat while simultaneously asking your cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen and nutrients to working muscles and help regulate body temperature.
After exercise, your body begins restoring what was lost.
Adequate rehydration supports that recovery process.
For someone who exercises again later that day, or even first thing the following morning, restoring fluid balance becomes particularly important.
Research on post-exercise hydration suggests that when meaningful dehydration has occurred, simply replacing the exact volume of water lost may not always completely restore hydration because some of that fluid will continue to be lost through urine.
Food matters here too.
A balanced post-workout meal provides not only fluid but also sodium, carbohydrates, protein and other nutrients that contribute to recovery.
In other words:
Recovery isn’t just protein.
It’s sleep.
It’s nutrition.
It’s hydration.
It’s movement.
It’s stress management.
And it’s giving your body enough resources to actually recover from what you’re asking it to do.
Hydration and Inflammation: Let’s Clear Something Up
You’ll often see wellness content online claiming that drinking more water will “flush inflammation out of your body.”
That’s an oversimplification.
Inflammation is an incredibly complex biological process involving your immune system, blood vessels, hormones and cellular signalling.
Water isn’t a detox treatment for inflammation.
But adequate hydration does support the normal physiological systems involved in circulation, kidney function, temperature regulation, digestion and recovery.
And that’s the distinction we care about at HMG.
We’re not interested in turning basic physiology into another wellness miracle.
We’re interested in helping you understand the everyday habits that create an environment where your body can function well.
Hydration is one of those habits.
Your Healthy Girl Hydration Check-In
Instead of asking:
“Did I drink enough water today?”
Try asking:
“How well did I support my hydration today?”
Did you start your morning with fluids?
Did you drink consistently throughout the day?
Did you exercise or sweat significantly?
Was it particularly hot outside?
Did you eat nourishing meals?
Did you include electrolytes when your activity or sweat losses actually warranted them?
Did you move throughout the day?
What colour is your urine?
How does your body feel?
That’s a much more useful conversation than chasing an arbitrary number on your water bottle.
The HMG Takeaway
Hydration isn’t about drinking the most water.
And it’s definitely not about carrying around the biggest water bottle.
It’s about giving your body the fluid and nutrients it needs to maintain balance.
Some days, that might simply mean drinking water consistently and eating nourishing meals.
Other days, after a sweaty workout, travel or hours outside in the summer heat, your body may need a little more attention.
Pay attention to the signals.
Support your body before you’re completely depleted.
Move often.
Eat well.
Hydrate intentionally.
And remember:
Wellness doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective.
Sometimes your Healthy Girl Era looks like a workout, a green smoothie and a perfectly organized morning routine.
And sometimes…
it looks like drinking your water and going for a walk.
Both count. 🤎
Coming Up in Part 3
Now that we understand how hydration works and how to recognize when your body may need more support, we’re going to get practical.
In Part 3 of the Healthy Girl Era Hydration Guide, we’ll explore:
How much water you actually need
When electrolytes are worth adding
Hydration for exercise, summer heat and travel
Why swelling and heavy legs may mean hydration isn’t the whole story
How movement, compression and lymphatic support can help
Where naturopathic medicine and IV therapy may fit into a personalized approach
Because knowing why hydration matters is important.
Knowing what to actually do about it is even better.
This article is intended for educational purposes and should not replace individualized medical advice.
Ana Maria Vera, MSc, CAT(C), RMT
Founder & Clinical Director | Holistic Med Group
Ana Maria Vera is the Founder and Clinical Director of Holistic Med Group, an interdisciplinary wellness clinic in Oakville, Ontario. A Registered Massage Therapist, Certified Athletic Therapist, and Master’s graduate in Sports Medicine, Ana has dedicated her career to helping women better understand their bodies and recover with confidence.
Each month, Ana Vera and her interdisciplinary team support hundreds of women through every stage of their wellness journey, from post-surgical recovery, cancer rehabilitation, and chronic swelling to persistent pain, scar healing, pelvic health, hormonal changes, athletic recovery, and everyday wellness. Her clinical focus lies in lymphatic health, evidence-informed rehabilitation, and creating personalized treatment plans that bridge traditional healthcare with proactive wellness.
Through Holistic Med Group, Ana Vera’s mission is to redefine what modern healthcare feels like: collaborative, compassionate, evidence-informed, and deeply personalized. She believes every woman deserves to understand their body, feel confident in their health, and have access to a team that supports them through every season of life.
Comments