The amount of water that you should drink daily depends on a number of factors, and it is important to learn how to adjust your daily intake of water accordingly.
There are various thoughts as to how much water one should drink daily, with the most common one being the age-old adage of eight glasses per day. This belief goes back many years, but the medical profession has queried it of late, and have come to different conclusions.
How Much Water Should I Drink Daily?
The old 8-by-8 rule that stated the human body needs eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day has been trashed! The daily requirement of water is different for everyone, and depends on factors such as your personal body chemistry, diet, geological area, weight, and the amount of exercise that you do.
It is therefore important that you establish just how much water you personally require in order to function optimally. This involves taking cognisance of your age, gender, lifestyle, health status, body-weight, humidity levels, and various other circumstances.
Adequate hydration is critical for the body to function at its best; too little water can impair its function, but too much water is also not good. To find out how much water you need to drink daily, it is important that you follow these steps:
- Weight
In order to keep your weight steady, it is important that you drink enough water daily. Weigh yourself each morning for three days (do not do this during your period as you retain water in that time). If you have lost around half a kilogram, it means that your water intake the previous day was too little. Drink two glasses of water or juice first thing in the morning to replace lost water. Do this until your weight remains constant over a few days.
Multiply your weight by 67% to calculate your ideal daily water intake. If, for instance, you weigh 79 kilograms and you multiply that by 67%, you would get 3324.3milliliters or approximately 3 litres. This is how much water you should drink daily if you live a sedentary lifestyle.
- Exercise
During exercise your body loses fluid too rapidly for the brain to respond in time, so it is essential that you drink enough water before exercising to make up for this. A study at the Maastricht University in the Netherlands showed that women lose far more water than men do during exercise. It takes sixty minutes for water to travel from your stomach to your muscles, so it is prudent to hydrate sufficiently an hour prior to exercising.
Again using the above example, if you exercise regularly, you need to adjust your water intake accordingly. Add approximately 340ml of water to your daily intake for every 30 minutes you work out.
How to Adjust Your Daily Intake of Water
Now that you have an idea of how much water you personally should be drinking per day, it is good to formulate a habit that you will keep. Here are a few ideas of how to adjust your intake to ensure that you adequately hydrate:
- Mealtimes: Drink at least a glass of water before each meal. This will ensure that you drink at least 3 glasses of water per day; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Drinking water prior to meals also fills you up so you will eat less hence will retain your figure.
- Morning & Evening: Drink one glass of water first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Drinking water in the morning is very good for your health as it kick-starts your metabolism.
- Drink Spring Water: Living-Water spring water is tapped direct from source so tastes divine and refreshes you like tap water can never do. Install a water cooler in your home and your office so that you always have it on hand.
Many people believe in keeping a container of water on their desk to ensure that they drink water throughout the day, but that soon gets old. The water will get warm and taste horrible and it adds pressure, which most people kick against.
A water cooler keeps the water fresh, cool and tasting good, and getting up from where you are seated to walk over to the cooler gives you a bit of exercise too. Living-Water water coolers come with either water bottled from source or water filters for mains water coolers.
