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Never Know How Much Water to Drink? Learn About it Here!
Most people have a general understanding of how much water to drink per day, but where does this number come from? What does all that water do for you? Is it even possible to drink all that water? There’re so many myths, fallacies and assumptions out there about your daily water intake that you might as well just toss in the garbage. Forget all of it and start with a clean slate - this page contains all the information you need! Every living being on Earth contains a significant proportion of water. Including you! In fact, your body is made up of about 75% water – even your bones are about 1/5 water. The importance of remaining hydrated is obvious – how could you survive without water? It only takes a few days without water for an individual to die of dehydration. Why does this happen? Well, the answer is that we can’t store water – we lose it all to evaporation, sweat and waste. Organisms such as camels, cacti and other desert-dwelling species have the ability to store water during long periods of drought. Humans can’t do this! This is why we can go for a much longer time without food (sometimes more than three weeks): because we can store many of the nutrients we get from food for later use in the form of fat and muscle. How Much Water to Drink Per Day? Do you know how much water to drink? Not many do, especially because of all the myths surrounding the topic. For starters, we’ve established that we can’t store water in our bodies to retrieve for later use, it’s obvious that you need to drink water to replace the amount that you’ve lost during daily activities. In fact, the average individual will lose between 1-1.5 Liters of water per day! How does this happen?! Well let’s think about this. You lose about 2 cups of water from sweating/evaporation, 6 cups to urine and 2 more cups to exhaling. That’s 10 cups of water per day that’s just flowing out of your body! You get between 2-4 cups of this water back in your diet depending on the amount of fruits and vegetables you typically eat (these items contain a higher proportion of water).
What do you think happens when you begin a strength training program? Yes! You’ll need to drink more water because you’ll be breathing and sweating more. It’s typically recommended to drink between 8 and 12 cups of water if you exert yourself normally, especially in hot weather. Recent research may indicate that we need to drink even more water per day: numbers like 12-20 cups of water! The jury is still out on this subject, but the important idea is to make sure you’re keeping yourself hydrated. When in doubt, drink water! Don’t wait until you feel thirsty. On this note, it’s not necessary to get all of your water from, well, water. There’re plenty of other sources of water that you might not think of, such as fruits, vegetables, milk, tea (sort of), sports drinks and other juices. The main problem with
Thirst is actually a symptom of dehydration. In other words, if you’re thirsty, you’re dehydrated. It’s important to make sure you’re drinking water or fluids before you start feeling thirsty. This is especially true if you exert yourself regularly such as in a strength training routine. Make sure to keep a bottle of water nearby at all times to make sure you’re getting plenty of fluids. Drinking Water Helps You Lose Weight! Yes, it’s true. Drinking plenty of water keeps your stomach full, suppresses your appetite and therefore causes you to eat less. You’ll find that your portion sizes will decrease moderately along with your waist size! Give it a shot! Put down that diet soda and pick up a bottle of water; you’ll be glad you did in the end. Understanding how much water to drink and where to get it from is one of the most important aspects of general health, whether or not you're in a strength training program. Make sure you're getting enough. And again, don't wait until you're thirsty to drink!
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Understanding How Much Water To Drink
The difference between these numbers is 6 and 8 (10 – 2 or 4). Sound familiar? That’s right, it’s generally recommended to drink between 6 and 8 cups of water per day (or other fluids that have a high water content - and no, soda isn’t a great idea) to replace the amount that you lose.
Thirsty?