How Much Water Should I Drink Every Day?: Tips To Stay Hydrated

First What Is Fluid Intake?

Fluid intake can be thought of as the necessary amount of fluid required to keep you hydrated, functioning and performing at your best. The reason I’m writing this article is to answer the common question of how much water should I drink every day?.

Water should make up the majority of your fluid intake. Although contrary to popular belief drinks like tea, coffee, milk, and diet drinks also help you stay hydrated. Although some people claim some of these drinks like coffee dehydrate you (they don’t).

Don’t Count Alcohol As Part Of Your Fluid Intake – How Much Water Should I Drink Every Day?

Every other drink apart from alcohol counts towards your fluid intake.

For an article I wrote on how to drink alcohol and reach your fitness goals. Click below.

https://henrypagetcom.wordpress.com/2020/05/18/how-you-can-drink-alcohol-and-still-remain-fit-and-healthy/

The Health Benefits Of Staying Hydrated – How Much Water Should I Drink Every Day?

1. Staying hydrated helps you get stronger – A 3% decrease in body weight from fluid intake can have a negative impact on your strength.
2. Improved mood.
3. Helps prevent headaches.
4. You’ll have more energy.
5. Better recovery.

So How Much Should You Drink?

A good rule of thumb is to drink 1 litre of mainly water ( although the aforementioned fluids still count) for every one thousand calories you consume.

For instance, I eat 3000 calories per day so I need to drink 3 litres per day.

Make Sure That Your Urine Is In Colours 1-3

By making sure that your urine is in the 1-3 range you’re doing well with your fluid intake. If not you’re missing out on the many aforementioned benefits of being hydrated.

Drinking Enough Water Can Be A Game Changer – How Much Water Should I Drink Every Day?

Just putting these tips into action will dramatically increase your performance and recovery.

But you might just struggle drinking that much water.

Well, if that’s the case follow these 3 tips below.

3 Tips To Drink More Water

1. Drink 1-2 Glasses Of Water As Soon As You Get Up

If you struggle to get enough water drinking two glasses in the morning will get you off to a great start. This is a tip that I’ve been putting into action for years.

2. Drink Tea, And Coffee

If you’re like me and you enjoy drinking tea and coffee then you can get a lot of your fluid intake from consuming these drinks.

Don’t be hesitant to add in some diet drinks either. They also count towards your fluid intake.

3. Eat More Fruit And Vegetables

Generally speaking, fruits and vegetables are made from a majority of water. Make sure you’re eating your fruits and vegetables.

But Drinking That Much Water Is Hard

It will be at first but on average it takes 66 days to build a habit.

Read the great article below by James clear from atomic habits on habit formation.

How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit? (Backed by Science)

And once you’ve developed the habit. Drinking enough water will be easy.

Drinking Enough Also Has A Great Appetite Suppressing Effect

When you drink enough, this can give you a feeling of fullness. Because drinking enough sends signals to your brain saying that you’re full.

This is especially important when you’re dieting. This is because the fuller you are the lower the likelihood of you binging will be.

If you really want to make dieting as easy as possible. Make sure you drink enough water.

The Majority Of Your Fluid Intake Should Come From Water – How Much Water Should I Drink Every Day?

That isn’t to say that all water is the same. For example, some tap water is okay to drink whereas some tap water isnt.

I personally use the zero water filter for my drinking water.

The fact is, tap water can be contaminated and include nasties such as bacteria and heavy metals to state a couple of the glorious things that can be found in tap water.

In the United Kingdom, the tap water is up to a pretty decent standard in the northeast (where I’m from). look below to see what your water quality is like (the UK only)

As you can see the overall water quality in the UK is pretty good. But with the zero water filter, you can get your water almost perfect.

https://zerowater.co.uk

Why Staying Hydrated Is Extremely Important

Your body is made up from, on average 60% water. Every biochemical process happens in your body because of this.

Your basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories you burn at rest and the more muscle you build the higher your basal metabolic rate is. This is because muscle is metabolically active compared to other tissues in your body.

And if your calories rise so does the amount of fluid you need to drink.

So Why Is The NHS Fluid Intake Recommendation Lower?

The NHS recommendation is lower because quite frankly the majority of individuals don’t train and the guideline is for the masses, not the individual.

The NHS recommendation for water intake is about 1.2 litres or 6-8 glasses of water per day. This is inadequate because each individual is different and thus requires a different amount of water to stay hydrated. For example, a larger male who eats 3000 calories per day will require more water than a smaller woman who only requires 1500-2000 calories per day.

This is because there is no one size fits all system for your fluid intake.

And that’s why you should use the guidelines mentioned in this article.

The Bottom Line On Fluid Intake

1. If you want to maximise your performance in and outside of the gym then you need to stay hydrated.
2. If you drink 1 litre of the aforementioned fluids per every one thousand calories you consume you’ll be drinking enough water. ( although a minority of people may need to drink more). A quick way to tell if you’re drinking enough is by looking at the colour of your urine if its a light yellow/ clear colour you’re hydrated. For example, you may live in a warm country and do lots of exercise. Try and get 1 litre of water for every hour of exercise if this is you on top of the previous reccomendation.
3. My favourite way to drink more water is to start off the day by drinking 2 glasses of water.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions send me an email at henrypaget@hotmail.co.uk

For a free fat loss guide check out my free ebook below. It’ll show you how to work out your fat loss calories and it also includes a home workout, don’t miss out.

https://henrypagetcom.wordpress.com/free-ebook/