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Some links in this article are affiliate links. We may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we find useful to our readersLet’s recall something. What was your water intake yesterday? How many glasses of water did you drink yesterday? Did you even keep track of it?
If your answer for the last question is vague and not correct, chances are that you are not even aware of how much water you drank throughout the day. This is where we often go wrong because hydration plays a very crucial role in the overall well being of an individual.
In this article, we are going to share some ways on how to increase water intake in body for an overall healthy well being. Grab a glass of water and get reading!
How to Increase Water Intake?
In order to effectively increase water intake, it is necessary that you do so consciously because otherwise you will end up drinking more than what you body requires which will end up retaining more water in the body and inflicts negative impacts on the body.
This section of the article is going to provide you with all the easy tips to increase water intake daily without straining your body or negatively impacting it. Let’s get on with it, shall we?
1. Keep Track Of How Much You Are Drinking
As mentioned before, in order to increase the daily water intake, one needs to do it effectively and consciously because that is where one gets the kind of results that they expect in return.
If you are here thinking, what would even happen if you drink more water than usual, because after all, it’s just water, right? Well, that is where you are going wrong, for the most part. Even the excess water in the body (R) can impact negative implications on the body.
When you keep track of how much water (R) you are drinking, you are aware of the intake and can manage it accordingly. It is important to keep yourself hydrated but balancing out the same in the process is equally important.
It is necessary that one either notes down their daily water intake schedule or just keep a close track of the same up in their head.
2. Keep A Water Bottle With You
When we out running errands or being busy outside the comfort of our house, it becomes quite tough to maintain the levels of water intake which often leaves us tired and dehydrated. It is important to ensure that situations like these really linger around for you.
In situations like these, it is always advised to keep a water bottle always handy with you in case you feel thirsty and have no accessible sources of drinking water around.
Keeping a water bottle with you at all times ensures that you don’t make up excuses of not drinking water and end up drinking a lot less than what you should actually have. It is not really feasible to always buy a water bottle or opt for the roadside water springs because the quality of water is a matter of concern.
Carry a bottle and keep such issues on the side.
3. Eat Your Water
Sometimes, maintaining your water balance doesn’t necessarily just have to come from water. There are tons of fruits and vegetables that have an amazing water content that helps ensure that you are eating your nutrition and all the while getting the much needed dose of daily water intake too.
It is important to ensure that you don’t solely rely on these vegetables for your body’s water intake and ensure that you are drinking actual water throughout the day as well.
Fruits like tomatoes, watermelon and even cucumber have over 90-95% of water content (R) in them which is beneficial for the overall boost to increase water intake in your body. This way, you don’t just have to rely on consistent drinking of water but even fill up your tummy while “drinking” water.
4. Switch To Herbal Tea
Herbal tea is yet another switch that can be included as one of the tips to increase water intake daily. Many people tend to not really be attached with the concept of drinking just water which is what makes them end up being dehydrated.
Drinking herbal teas are actually quite beneficial for you, given the fact that they have impactful benefits in not just boosting your immunity but the lack of caffeine in them make them suitable for your well being as well.
These variants of tea also help in boosting the overall mental as well as physical health which definitely is an added bonus to it. They can also be very beneficial in boosting the overall well being of an individual, aiding them in cutting down the excess caffeine intake and replacing the same with this instead.
5. Have A Glass of Water Before Meals
Yet another amazing way to increase water intake is by having a glass of water before your meal. This might not seem like a very ideal move but trust me; it actually does work in helping you gain the desired results.
Our body tends to often confuse thirst with hunger (R) which is when we end up eating more when in reality we are just thirsty. It is important to ensure that you distinctly distinguish the hunger and thirst and be assured when to have which.
Having a glass of water before meals ensure to suppress your appetite and make you prevent from overeating. Don’t confuse dehydration for hunger and know the ins and outs of the same.
6. Switch The Taste Up
Yet another easy and effective way to enhance the daily water intake is by making the water more fun and tasty. It is oftentimes that people tend to end up being very picky and uninterested in drinking just water throughout the day.
This is where the infused water comes into play. There are amazing recipes of infused water and you can just pick one that you like and include a few glasses of this instead of drinking just water. This is an amazing way if you have been thinking about how to increase water intake in body.
The consumption of the infused water (R) is not just beneficial in terms of hydration but also helps with a number of other health benefits – from effective weight loss to proper excretion of the toxins out of the body.
7. Ice It Up
If you are someone who is not much into just drinking water throughout the day, try and switch it up with some flavoured ice cubes in the glass of water. Be creative with this process and instead of just adding normal ice cubes, just switch it up with some other form of flavoured ice cubes or freeze fruit juice in the shape of ice cubes.
Add these cubes to the glass of water and your palate will definitely be surprised with the change in the taste. There are several ways you can spice up your water and make sure that you are increasing your daily water intake. You just have to be a bit creative with what you do.
8. Say Goodbye to Soda
There are often times when we end up thinking we are thirsty and tend to cope with it by drinking something like of soda which is not just fizzy, sugary but cold and satisfying too.
But, if you are looking for ways to increase water intake, the first thing you need to do is cut down the consumption of soda when you feel thirsty. Soda doesn’t make up for the water content of the body and is mostly just sugar and carbonated drink which is taxing for the overall physical well being.
If you want to ensure healthy hydration of the body, it is necessary that you cut down the consumption of soda and switch to healthier options that will hydrate and induce the necessary nutrients for the body as well.
9. Choose Carbonated Water
Often times, going cold turkey with the soda is hard and this where you can cheat a little by switching it up with some carbonated water. Drinking carbonated water ensures to cut down the lack of hydration of the body all the while ensuring that it is not inflicting the same kind of negative impacts on your body much like how the soda would have.
The carbonated water gives you the same kind of fizz and share much like that of the soda, the only thing different in it is the fact that it lacks the artificial sweeteners and excess calories that are not healthy for your body.
This is yet another amazing way to increase water intake all the while letting go off of the boring water and adding in some element of surprise to it.
10. Schedule the process
This might seem very ridiculous when it comes to water intake on a daily basis, but trust me, it actually is very beneficial. We might often drink the optimum amount of water throughout the day but there can be instances when you drink 1 glass throughout the day and end up drinking 6-7 glasses all at one go in the night.
This is definitely worse than being dehydrated. Setting a timer for the times that you can have a glass of water make sure that you are not just drinking the optimal amount of water throughout the day but drinking them at the correct time as well.
Water breaks are just as normal as having a meal break, so set a timer on your laptop or even on your phone to be alerted when you need to down a glass of water for that proper kick of hydration.
What is the Recommended Water Intake Per Day?
You must have heard from the older people in the family that it is always best to drink water out of a glass instead of just chugging it down from the bottle, right?
This is actually true because as well as dehydration has negative impacts on the body, even the excess of the water consumption has negative impacts. It is important to ensure that you are well aware of how many glasses of water you are drinking throughout the day.
When it comes to the ideal water intake per day, it is always advised to drink 8 glass of water every day, each glass containing 8 ounces of water. So, that makes it a total of 64 ounces of water every day. If you are wondering how much it is in liters, it is roughly 2 liters of water every day, on an average.
That being said, it is also very important to understand for a fact that this amount can vary on the requirement and the activities that the person has undergone throughout the day.
Benefits of Increasing Water Intake
Now, when it comes to why do one needs to maintain an optimal level when it comes to water consumption is not just because of the ground level of hydration. It is important to ensure that your daily water intake is optimal for ensuring an overall better well being and better functions of the body organs.
In this section, we are going to be walking ourselves through some of the benefits of increasing the water intake on the body.
Detoxification
The primary and the most important reason why our body needs the salient amount of water is to ensure that the body has the perfect way to get rid of the excess accumulating toxins in the body. The heightened levels of toxicity in the body often tend to contribute to poor well being and altered immune levels.
Making sure to keep the water intake in check ensures that the body is hydrated enough to be able to expel out the unwanted waste off of the body.
Control of Weight
If you ever go through any of the seriously charted out weight loss programs, the very first thing in the list is to ensure that you increase water intake and drinks loads to keep the body functions in check. Water is actually suggested as one of the best remedies for weight loss, primarily because of the fact that it fastens the body’s metabolism.
Better metabolism itself reverts to better and much more effective weight loss.
Better kidney functions
Lack of proper hydration might actually affect the entire equilibrium of the body but the kidneys are the organs that are the most affected with its aftermath. It is very important to ensure that one sticks to the proper water intake throughout the day to ensure that there is no added pressure on the kidneys which might end up adversely affecting its functions. Proper levels of water ensure easier and much better excretion of the urea, nitrites and even the sodium from the body which help ensuring that it doesn’t inflict negative impacts on the kidney and cause renal diseases.
Regulate bowel movements
For someone who suffers excessively from the irregular bowel syndrome, having a proper water intake schedule ensures to keep them proper hydrated which contributes by aiding in making the stool softer which is what eases the process of defecation without causing any kind of negative impacts and negating the pain inflicted in the process.
Energizing the muscles
Lack of hydration easily correlates to muscle fatigue which is definitely something that arrests the proper functioning of the muscle activity. By increasing water intake, it ensures to benefit the muscle structure and fuels the body to have more energy which helps in ensuring that you can carry on with the day to day work with ease and without any form of possible hindrance.
Better skin
Proper water intake and proper levels of hydration in the body reflects on your skin. Optimal hydration of the cells of the body ensures to keep the possibilities of skin problems like acne, pimples and blemishes at bay which ensures to keep the overall skin glowy and improves the overall skin health.
Better digestion
Last but not the least, the rate of digestion will always be better in individuals who have a better hydration level in comparison to the ones who lack to drink the optimal levels of water on a daily basis. The proper water levels in the body not just in better processing of the ingested food, it also boosts in better absorption of the nutrients from the food which is a must when it comes to digestion process of the food.
Side Effects Of Increased Water Intake
Now, for the ultimate category of discussion, we have to go through the side effects that one generally encounters when they have an increased amount of water intake on one go.
Before I jump right to explaining the common side effects that a person is most likely going to experience when they abruptly increase their daily intake, it is necessary to ensure a few points
It is important to understand that making any kind of changes that will end up affecting the physiological well being of an individual should always be done in gradual steps. If you think that a person who drank 2 glasses of water a day and suddenly increases the same to 8 glasses will just have positive impacts, you are slightly mistaken.
This is where the side effects make an appearance.
Some of the common side effects include:
Bloating
When you drink quite a lot of water in a day after being sparsely drinking water, it can inflict feelings of bloating in your stomach which can bring about a feeling of stuffiness and uneasiness which is definitely not something you want to experience. Gradually amp up the water intake on a daily basis and don’t go ham with the process.
Loss of appetite
Often times, when we increase water intake, there are chances that it might end up killing our appetite which is why we might end up feeling less hungry and lose our appetite because we already feel bloated because of the excess water in the body.
Frequent urination
Of course, this should be pretty self-explanatory itself. If you are drinking more water throughout the day, obviously you are going to pay frequent visits to the washroom. That is definitely not something that you need to be worried about because it is normal for your body to excrete out what is excess in the body.
Optimal water intake throughout the day is beneficial for smooth and better body functions. It is very important to ensure that your body stays hydrated throughout, the lack of which often tend to adversely affect the body and might even inflict negative side effects – ranging from body toxicity to kidney problems.
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