How Much Water should You Drink a Day?
It seems everywhere you look these days people are carrying around water bottles, minding their water intake. There are even apps that help you track your daily water consumption. The question is how much water should you really be drinking. Does intermittent fasting change the amount of water that you need to drink?
For most people 2 litres of water a day is the recommended dosage. This is eight 8 ounce glasses, or half a gallon. Most health experts believe that you should be drinking water all through the day for best results.
The exact amount of water you need depends on the individual since there are many factors that can affect the amount of water you need every day.
How Much Water Can Kill You?
Did you know drinking too much water can actually kill you? It’s called water intoxication or hyponatremia. You’d have to consume a crazy amount of water over a short period of time, but it’s possible!
How much water should you be drinking while fasting?
It should come as no surprise that drinking more water is good for you. In fact, it’s essential if you want to be at optimal health.
What might surprise you is that if you are doing intermittent fasting then you will have to drink even more water. This is because you need to replace the water you’re not getting from food.
There is a lot of water in food that you’re not getting, think about all those juicy fruits and vegetables you’re not eating, or if you’re in the middle of a 5 day fast…don’t ;)
You need to make sure you drink a lot more water on fasting days than on the days you would on days where you are eating meals. Not only does it help you give a feeling of fullness, but it will also prevent dehydration and it’s terrible effects such as headaches, dry skin, irritableness and lack of energy from setting in.
Does drinking more water help you lose weight?
Drinking water helps boost metabolism, cleanse your body of waste, and acts as an appetite suppressant. Drinking more water also helps you from retaining water, which lets you drop all that “water weight”.
Water is also necessary for fat metabolism, also known as lipolysis. The first step in lipolysis is hydrolysis which is a metabolic process that creates glycerol and fatty acids from your fat stores.
Drinking more water also increases your overall metabolism. The more water you drink, the more calories you burn. The average adult has a 24-30% bost in resting energy expenditure within 10 minutes of drinking water, an effect that can last up to 1hr.