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The benefits of drinking water
Water has many important functions in the body. It improves health, has a positive effect on well-being, and strengthens condition and helps to moisturize the skin, making it softer and flexible .. However, there are many more advantages. Our dietitian Karolina Łąkowska wrote about them in the article Why, what and how much to drink.
It is worth mentioning, however, that for people dieting a huge advantage of drinking water can be suppressed by it hunger. It is worth remembering that many people confuse thirst with hunger, which is why they unnecessarily start to snack when this desire would really be enough quench.
Drinking water before meals helps with weight loss, because it reduces appetite and fills the stomach, so we eat less. Studies have shown that drinkers water before meals after 12 weeks showed 44% greater weight loss body than people who have not drunk this water.
And when there is no water …
When we do not provide ourselves with an appropriate one water, dehydration occurs. Its first sign is thirst. Surprising? Probably yes, because it is accepted that we should drink when it will appear. However, this is a mistake, because thirst is evidence of water loss in amount that corresponds to 2% of our body weight. When this loss increases up to about 4% of body weight, there is an unpleasant feeling of dry mouth, fatigue, muscle weakness and apathy. When there is a loss of approx. 10-12% weight, difficulty swallowing and speaking due to the cessation of saliva production. When losing more than 20% of body weight our lives are already in danger and, what’s worse, we stop feel thirsty.
Water scarcity can as well lead to water retention in the body, as Justyna Piechotka wrote in Article Fattening water.
We are able to do without water survive a maximum of 7 days
How much water should you drink?
Only 30% of the daily allowance we supply ourselves with water in the form of food. The remaining 70% we need to fill up in the form of fluids. The water requirements vary factors, incl. from physical activity, air humidity, temperature, age or even disease states.
However, it is assumed that at 1 consumed kilocalories, we should take 1 ml of water. You can also demand calculate from body weight. In this case, we should provide ourselves with 30 ml of water for every kilogram of body weight.
Some are wondering sometimes whether you should drink more when losing weight. However, it turns out that no. Unless such a person drank little before, they did not eat so many foods containing fiber or not exercising as hard as when losing weight. Then you should actually drink more than before.
The drinking method is also important
Some people make a mistake and care just to drink a certain amount of water throughout the day without paying attention on the way of drinking. It can make them drink the wrong way anyway They really don’t hydrate the body at all. So how should you drink?
First of all, in small sips and often! This is the most important rule that everyone should remember. Best drink half or a maximum of 1 glass of water at a time. If we drink it fast 500-1000 ml (which happens especially often after strenuous exercise or after a long period of non-drinking), most of the water will pass into the fluid extracellular, will lower the osmotic pressure and thus burden the circulation, a the water will be quickly excreted through the kidneys and sweat anyway. When we drink young sips, water loss is less and slower.
Also note that when you succeeded we already quench our thirst, it does not mean that the body is already there hydrated. In such situations, further refilling is usually required liquids in small sips.
In the next article, I’ll tell you how to learn how to drink more water. And on if so, show me how much water do you drink daily?
Main photo: Photo credit: nattu / Foter / CC BY