Since we were a kid, our parents ask us to drink water. Our bodies are made up of 60% water and every cell, tissue, and organ in your body needs water to work properly. We need to drink the right amount of water every day for overall good health.
Ideally, it is stated that 8, eight-ounce glasses of water should be consumed by an individual every day. That is a reasonable goal. However, no single formula fits everyone.
Then how to know what is the right amount of water you should consume? How to know your body is hydrated? What are the ways to keep your body hydrated? These are the few questions we are going to discuss today.
Why to Hydrate?
Hydrating your body is necessary because water helps our body to clean itself from the inside. With the help of water our body flushes out all the unnecessary and toxic substances in the form of sweat and urine.
This process helps us stay healthy, but lack of water in our body can make the process of internal cleansing slow which misbalances the natural cycle of our body. Toxic substances do not get flushed out and stays in our body which can lead to disease.
Also, your body needs water to maintain its temperature and lubricate your joints. That’s why keeping our body properly hydrated is important.
What Factors Does Your Water Needs Depend Upon?
The proper amount of water you need to keep yourself hydrated will vary from person to person. It will depend on various factors like weight, age, sex, health etc. Let’s discuss these:
Exercise:
If you work out you should definitely drink more water, as exercise helps you throw out toxic substances from your body with sweat and therefore your body needs more water. So, the key to be hydrated is the more you exercise the more water intake you should have.
Ideally, you must start hydrating your body 2-3 hours before you start working out and it is good to have water again 20-30 minutes before exercising. Drink water during your workout and within 30 minutes after exercising. This way we can prep our body so that it does not get dehydrated while exercising.
Health:
When we get health issues like diarrhoea, vomiting, fever etc. our body tends to lose more water than usual. Therefore, doctors advise to drink more water than usual. Also, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should have proper water intake.
Preferably, pregnant women should have 2.4 litres of water every day and women who are breastfeeding should drink 3.1 litres of water every day.
Weight:
The amount of water you should consume every day also depends on your weight. You can calculate the amount of water you should consume by knowing your body weight, you can follow this formula:
1. Your weight (in pounds) and divide that by 2.2.
2. Multiply that number depending on your age: Younger than 30, multiply
by 40. Between 30-55, multiply by 35. Older than 55, multiply by 30.
3. Divide that sum by 28.3.
4. Total ounces of water to be consumed each day.
For example, if you weighed 160 pounds over the age of 55.
160 ÷ 2.2 = 72.72
72.72 x 30 ÷ 28.3 = 77 ounces of water everyday.
Sex:
The amount of water to drink every day also depends on your gender. It is preferred that women should drink 2.7 litres of water whereas men should drink 3.7 litres of water every day.
Age:
An adult whose age is between 19-30 years should consume at least 3.7 litres of water if male and 2.7 litres of water if female. For older people, it should be taken care that neither they get dehydrated nor overhydrated.
But drinking water can help elderly people with their constipated stomach, lower risk of bladder cancer, and faster recovery of wounds. Kids can have 9-10 cups of water if female and 11-13 cups of water if male.
Environment:
Environmental conditions should also be considered while deciding the amount of water you should consume. If it’s a hot summer day you should consume more because you precipitate more.
Understanding Your Body
Different people have different lifestyles, type of work, and body weight requirements. Thus, some people need more water than the amount stated while others need less. You can judge your water needs by observing your own body.
All you need to do is observe your urine, if the colour of your urine is light yellow or colourless that means your body is properly hydrated.
Also, if you rarely feel thirsty this is again a sign of a well-hydrated body. But if your body shows symptoms like little or no urine, darker colour urine than its usual colour, dry mouth, sleepiness or fatigue, extreme thirst, headache, confusion, dizziness or light-headedness or no tears while crying then it is possible that your body is dehydrating.
If you get in this stage ensure that you drink plenty of water every day. Divide your time in small intervals and set alarms for yourself to get a reminder for drinking water even at the busiest day of work.
Tips to Keep Yourself Hydrated
- “Carrying a water bottle with you wherever you go”, is a good habit your body will thank you for.
- If you think normal water is boring you can always make a detox water. For making detox water you can always add a slice of lemon and mint or a slice of orange or sliced cucumber or any fruit for flavour. This will change the taste of water and you will enjoy drinking it.
- You can have beverages. Green tea is also a healthy drink to have as green tea hydrates your body as well as it helps in detoxifying body. Adding green tea to your routine can do wonders.
- We also get a lot of water from food and fruits that we eat. We can eat fruits with high water content like watermelon or muskmelon and vegetable like Spanish to keep body hydrated.
Hope, you found these tips interesting and inspiring. We will keep coming up with tips to keep you healthy till then, Stay Hydrated!
