Is There a Relationship Between Chronic Fatigue and Body Fat?


The more body fat you carry, the more dehydrated you become.

We see a lot of hype about staying hydrated these days. The current generic recommendation for men to drink at least twelve glasses and for women to drink at least eight glasses of water daily is essentially an open admission from the medical establishment that the standard American diet is at least that much deficient in this vital nutrient. Yet this recommendation is a clear case of treating the symptoms without ever actually correcting the problem. Hygienic philosophy dictates that we are always better to correct the problem rather than simply treating the symptoms.

One of the main symptoms of dehydration is

tiredness, often crippling tiredness.

An average adult is typically about 60% water, by weight, but athletes or people with larger than average muscles can be up to 70% water. Our water balance is quite finely tuned. We tend not to experience the conscious sensation of thirst until we approach a three percent loss in body water, but both mental and physical performance is compromised by the time we’ve lost even one percent of our water weight.

One of the main symptoms of dehydration is tiredness, often crippling tiredness. Such tiredness makes it much less likely that a dehydrated person is going to be physically active, especially when compared to a well-hydrated person. Chronic dehydration is often listed as one of the major causes of chronic fatigue, and is associated with a wide range of many other degenerative conditions.

Essentially for every 10% increase in body fat there is an accompanying 7% decrease in body water.

Muscles carry almost 75% water by weight, whereas fat is usually only 5% water by weight. This huge discrepancy makes for some interesting numbers that can seriously affect our health, when we consider the relationship of body fat to body water. Essentially for every 10% increase in body fat there is an accompanying 7% decrease in body water. Women typically carry at least ten percent more body fat than men, and have about 7% less body water as a result.

Victoria Everett (center)and friends with carob-date bars
for Wonka theme at Health & Fitness Week

Increases in body fat make physical exertions more challenging. While we rarely see obese people out exercising, and might attribute that fact to the possibility that they would feel self-conscious, the reality is that when you carry around a few hundred extra pounds, you simply don’t have the energy to exercise. Extremely heavy people barely have the energy to walk to the car, and often enough consider walking from one living room chair to another their “exercise” for the day.

By the time we combine the sheer muscular effort caused by obesity with the resulting dehydration lethargy, it should become easy to see that carrying excess body fat is to be avoided. The solution: The 80/10/10 Diet. The low-caloric density of fruits and vegetables combined with their generous water and nutrient content provides everything we need from our food in order to manage weight, hydration, and general health.

Additional Resources

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Self-Study Materials:


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About Dr. Doug Graham

Dr. Douglas Graham, a lifetime athlete and raw fooder since 1978, is an advisor to world-class and motivated athletes and trainers from around the globe. He has worked professionally with top performers from almost every sport and every field of entertainment, including such notables as tennis legend Martina Navratilova, NBA pro basketball players Ronnie Grandison and Michael Porter Jr., track Olympic sprinter Doug Dickinson, pro women's soccer player Callie Withers, championship bodybuilder Kenneth G. Williams, Chicken Soup for the Soul coauthor Mark Victor Hansen, and actress Demi Moore. As owner of a fasting retreat in the Florida Keys for ten years, Dr. Graham personally supervised thousands of fasts. He was in private practice as a chiropractor for twenty years, before retiring to focus on his writing and speaking. Dr. Graham is the author of many books on health and raw food including The 80/10/10 Diet, The High Energy Diet Recipe Guide, Nutrition and Athletic Performance, Grain Damage, Prevention and Care of Athletic Injuries, and his latest, Perpetual Health 365. He has shared his strategies for success with audiences at more than 4,000 presentations worldwide. Recognized as one of the fathers of the modern raw movement, Dr. Graham is the only lecturer to have attended and given keynote presentations at all of the major raw events in the world for each of the last eight years. Dr. Graham has served on the board of governors of the International Association of Professional Natural Hygienists and the board of directors of the American Natural Hygiene Society. He is on the board of advisors of Voice for a Viable Future, Living Light Films, Vegetarian Union of North America, and EarthSave International and serves as nutrition advisor for the magazine Exercise, For Men Only. Dr. Graham is the raw foods and fitness advisor for The801010Forum.com. He taught the Health Educator program at Hippocrates Institute, served as the "source authority" for Harmonious Living, and authors a column for the magazines Get Fresh! and Vibrance (previously known as Living Nutrition). Dr. Graham is the creator of "Simply Delicious" cuisine and director of Health and Fitness Week, which provides Olympic-class training and nutrition for people of all fitness levels in beautiful settings around the world. He will inspire, motivate, educate, and entertain you like no one else in the health movement can.