This article is slightly contrarian please understand your own personal experience and consult with your doctor to figure out what is right for you.
Most everyone agrees that drinking water is an important component to weight loss. However, there are some dangers that drinking too much water can pose to your health. While it is important to stay hydrated, you’ll need to make sure that you are drinking the right amount of water.
First, water is very helpful when it comes to making your stomach feel full and keeping you from feeling unsatisfied. However, this leads many people to drink too much water, especially at first. In addition, if you’re drinking too much water to keep from eating, you won’t be shrinking your stomach, so it will keep thinking that it needs to be filled up.
A good rule of thumb to follow when it comes to deciding how much water you really need is to take your weight, divide it half and use this as a guide to how many ounces of water you really need. I weigh 356 currently which would equate to 178 oz a day (or ~22 8 oz glasses) with this rule of thumb. For, a 100 lb woman this rule of thumb is 6.5 8 oz glasses a day. As you can see rule of thumbs are pretty worthless. Consult your doctor for what level is right for you.
However, if you will be doing any sort of strenuous exercise, or if it is currently hot, you will need to increase your water intake a little bit to make sure that you do not become dehydrated. In this case, you may want to add an extra eight or sixteen ounces, or more, depending on how much you sweat.
Many people do not realize how much water they really get, especially when it doesn’t come from a glass or a bottle. If you eat soup, you’re getting quite a bit of water. Even soda contains a lot of water and in some cases, it may be 99% water. While this is great for keeping you hydrated, you may be overdoing it, especially if you are already drinking your eight glasses of water a day. CNN recently ran a story calling into question the conventional wisdom of 8 glasses of water a day.
Why is it so important to make sure that you don’t get too much water? People have actually died after ingesting too much water thanks to what is known as Hyponatremia. In plain English, this occurs when you drink so much water that your system becomes overloaded and your blood thins out too much. While it can take some people more than a gallon of water ingested in a short period of time to reach this stage, others may be more susceptible.
Check with your doctor to see what they feel is a healthy amount of water for your unique needs. They will be able to give you a better idea of your water requirements and they can educate you on the dangers of drinking too much water.
In short, water is very important and it can be very useful when you are trying to lose weight. However, too much of a good thing isn’t good either. As with many things in life, the key is to find the right balance. When you find this, you’ll be well on the road to healthy and safe weight loss.
Please remember the Importance of Maintaining Adequate Hydration.
Photo Credits: 1
Summer is almost here and if you’re trying to get healthy and start exercising more, there are plenty of reasons to get discouraged and stop. If you’re not used to exercising in hot weather, it’s also very easy to get sick. Let’s look at some ways that you can keep exercising, even if the mercury is rising.
