Whether you are marathon walking, speed walking, or walking for fun, you need to keep your body hydrated. The easiest test to do is to check the color of your urine. You want to be drinking enough water so that you are able to keep yourself hydrated and to flush out the exercise toxins. The color that you should be shooting for is light yellow to clear.

A good way to do this is to keep drinking water throughout the day. You should drink about 16 oz of water an hour before going on your walk. This should give you enough time to take in the water that your body needs and get rid of any excess water. It is never a good feeling to be exercising with a sloshing stomach, so do your body a favor and try to learn its habits. How long do you need between drinking at least 16 oz of water and exercise?

Bring a filled water bottle on your exercise walks. Once you have started your walk, drink about a cup of water every 15 to 30 minutes. You can vary this number depending on the time, temperature, how much you are sweating, and more. At the end of your walk, make sure to drink a big glass of water and to have some salty snacks to replenish the salt that you lost by sweating. Try to stick with plain water instead of electrolyte-enriched sports drinks.

It is possible to drink too much water. An easy way to judge this is to weigh yourself before and after your walk. If you gain weight then this is a sign that you might be drinking too much water, and losing weight means that you might be drinking enough. Try to maintain a healthy balance; maybe even bring some pretzels along for the walk.

A huge “no no” is caffeine. Try not to have any caffeine before your walks. Caffeine will force you to urinate more frequently, and it removes a lot of water from your body that your body needs. Keep your caffeine intake in mind if you are going to go for a calorie burning walk.

Staying hydrated is imperative, but make sure to maintain a healthy balance and don’t over-hydrate yourself!