If you’ve never taken the time to appreciate all the health benefits of water, now may just be the right time to do that. Water is the source of life and one of the best things you can drink to quench your thirst. (Dec 29, 2022)
Making sure to drink enough water every day ensures proper functioning of your metabolism, gives you better skin complexion and boosts energy levels. With no calories, water is also an excellent drink for dieters. In fact one study showed that drinking two 8-ounce cups of water before every meal can improve weight loss.
“Over the course of 12 weeks, dieters who drank water before meals, three times per day, lost about 5 pounds more than dieters who did not increase their water intake.” (1)
Are You Drinking Enough Water or Too Much?
While water is good for you, too much of it can also be deadly. Here are a few tips to help calculate your required daily water intake. This will give you an idea of how much water you really need.
1. Know your weight
The volume of water you require is dependent on your overall body weight. It only makes sense that a person weighing 80 pounds would not be expected to consume as much as a person weighing 300 pounds.
2. Divide your body weight in half
Divide your weight by half to find out how many ounces of water you should drink each day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds: 1/2 = 75 ounces. So for someone who weighs 150 pounds, drinking 75 ounces of water per day would be optimal.
3. Activity Levels
Are you sitting at your desk all day long? Do you exercise? Maybe you are an athlete and you are always working out at the gym or on the tracks.
Whatever your lifestyle may be you should understand that it will greatly affect the volume of water you would be expected to consume on a daily basis.
If you are a very active person, chances are that you tend to sweat often and a great deal at that. It is recommended that you should add 12 ounces of water to your daily total for every 30 minutes that you work out. So if you work out for 1 hour daily, you would add 24 ounces of water to your daily intake.
Keeping It Simple
If you are not too keen on keeping tabs on how much water you drink, you can do the following.
- Drink 2 cups of water (16 ounces) before every meal. This gives you 48 ounces a day.
- Every morning when you get up drink a glass of water.
- Drink another glass 2 hours before going to bed.
- Carry your own non-plastic water bottle.
Doing these things will make sure that you get plenty of water each day.
And even if you didn’t drink all that water, keep in mind that eating fruits and vegetables also contribute to your overall water intake (2). For quick reference 30g = 1oz. (source)
