Your body contains a LOT of water.
In fact, it’s probably as much as 60% water.
That’s a lot, huh?
The thing is that you’re losing water from your body all the time. You lose water when you urinate and sweat – and let’s face it, we all urinate and sweat a lot.
But how much water should we drink a day? How many bottles are too much and how many are too little?
There are lots of arguments about this one, but most health authorities agree that half a gallon of water per day is the optimum. This equates to around 8 eight-ounce glasses.
If you drink small bottles of water, that’s around 6 bottles per day.
But then there are other arguments from so-called health gurus who reckon that we’re basically dehydrating all the time, and therefore have to constantly keep topping our bodies up with water.
This means always having a bottle of water by our side that we can take regular sips from – even if we’re not thirsty.
Like all things diet-related, however, how much water you should drink each day comes down to, well, you.
In other words, what works for you might not work for someone else. Some people need to drink more water each day, and some can get away with drinking less.
So how do you decide what’s good for you?
There’s a line of thought that water intake is linked to how well our brain functions, as well as how high or low our energy levels are.
This is true, and even mild dehydration can cause a slump in physical and mental performance.
Essentially, the less water that is in your system, the less able you will feel to accomplish either physical or mental tasks.
For students who are in the middle of exam season, it’s very important that they drink plenty of water throughout the day so as to stay focused.
It’s the same for anyone who has a job that demands a lot of them mentally, and it’s the same for anyone who has a job that demands a lot of them physically.
Without enough water, you will feel tired and unfocused. It’s that simple. Therefore, if you want to stay more awake and alert throughout the day, you’ll need to aim to drink at least 6 bottles of water daily.
Water reduces appetite and boosts metabolism. Therefore, water can help you lose weight.
How does this work?
Drinking at least 6 bottles of water a day boosts your energy expenditure, which thus helps to kickstart your metabolism so that you burn more fat and calories.
Water helps to reduce appetite simply by making us feel a bit fuller.
But there’s a trick involved, too. Because most of us get our water content from our food, when your body is thirsty and craving water, it tricks you into believing that you’re hungry. You end up overrating and this leads to weight gain.
The next time you feel hungry at an unusual time, try drinking water and see what happens. From then on, drink bottles of water regularly throughout the day and see if it has a positive effect on reducing your appetite. It should do.
Some people seem to be constantly plagued by health problems, while others seem to coast through life without so much as a glitch. Is it really down to the amount of water we drink?
It’s down to many factors, but drinking at least 6 bottles of water per day can reduce your risk of developing unwanted health problems.
For example, water can help with constipation, it can reduce the risk of certain types of cancer including colon and bladder; water can reduce the risk of kidney stones, and it can also clear up any skin complaints you might have, such as acne.
This is an important point: When you’re not drinking enough water, your skin becomes dehydrated, and this can lead to all kinds of skin complaints, from dry skin to acne.
A question we get asked often is whether or not the likes of tea and coffee contribute towards your total daily water intake.
While a cup of coffee is full of water, the issue is that caffeine is a diuretic. This means that – like alcohol – it makes us urinate more, and as a consequence we lose more water.
However, caffeine is a mild diuretic. A bottle of water is better if you want to up your daily water intake, but tea and coffee still count.
Food counts too. The likes of watermelon and cucumber are 95% water, while the likes of eggs, fish and meat are also rich in H2O.
As long as you don’t sweat excessively, these are all good substitutes for a bottle of water now and then.
It’s impossible for us to tell you exactly how many bottles of water you should drink each day because we don’t know what your body is like. It all comes down to your individual needs.
The best advice we can give at this point is that you should do some experimenting yourself. Some find that drinking 6 or more bottles of water each day lands them on the toilet more often than they’d like, while others find that drinking 8 bottles of water per day is the optimum.
If you prefer a simple life and don’t want to analyse your diet so that you’re always performing at your optimum, here are a few things to think about:
If you are thirsty, have a drink!
If you’re no longer feel thirsty and even feel a bit bloated, stop drinking. There’s no need to continue.
If you exercise a lot, drink more water.
If you live somewhere hot and sweat a lot, drink more water.
All in all, this is all on you. The health professionals recommend 6-8 bottles of water per day. But as with anything, you do you.
Stay beautiful!
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