In this article, we’ll examine how much water you should drink to lose weight and water’s effectiveness on overall mental and physical health. I preface this article with
a) You will also need to apply an exercise regimen in order to expedite your weight loss results. b) I think you should drink ‘finely’ filtered water or spring water to reap the most weight loss benefits – we’ll examine.
Human Body on Water
Everything is made of atoms. An atom is defined as the smallest particle of an element like oxygen or hydrogen. Atoms join together to form molecules. A water molecule has three atoms: two hydrogen (H) atoms and one oxygen (O) atom (“H2O”). One drop of water contains billions of water molecules. These water molecules are prevalent throughout our bodies as well, being that up to 60% of the human adult body is in essence water. According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, the human brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and lungs about 83% water. These are staggering figures when truly put into perspective; if you deprive yourself of water, not only are you not losing weight but you are depriving your vital organs, brain and heart. I don’t know about you, but personally I like to move about this Earth with a fully ‘fueled’ brain and heart!
Muscle Composition, Water and Weight loss
We examined water’s impact on the brain and heart, now consider that the human skin contains 64% water while muscles and kidneys are made up of 79%; even bones are watery at about 31%. Considering the muscles specifically in this, you can deduce that their water composition is of the utmost importance when wanting to lose weight. Generally speaking, you will not only lose weight when optimally drinking water throughout the day but you’ll also build and regenerate muscle faster! Per pound of lean muscle, the average human will lose 50cal (calories) per day at maintenance – meaning with little to no activity. Of course, with no activity for too long of a period of time, that muscle won’t last, but that’s for a different article! Anyways, let’s just say that more muscle means more calories you’ll burn per day, and that’s just more weight loss.
Water Quality and Cognitive Function
The quality of your water is a big factor in fueling your heart, organs and muscles with premium fuel. It also has a huge impact on cognitive function and your ability to build neural pathways, regenerate tissue and more – most of which occurs in the deep sleep (REM) state. In order to lose weight and perform at your peak levels of brain function, I suggest consuming filtered water such as reverse osmosis water, natural spring water or, one I’ve been enjoying lately, Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Water, which is direct from Iceland’s legendary 5,000 year old Ölfus Spring – then filtered through lava rock and balances at pH 8.4. I’ve actually had some water filtration sales people come to my home and pitch me on a $10,000 diamond and rock filtration system that is connected to my house! I declined having simply done some math on the cost of purchasing balanced water vs installation of the system. Plus, moving the system would have been a pain – but that’s beside the point. Now you may be thinking, pfft look at this guy, this water snob! Please don’t get me wrong, I hear ya. But when we consider the importance of waters role in the overall function of the human mind and body, it’s undeniable that being a ‘water snob’ ain’t such a bad idea! You don’t need to spend an arm and a leg for water, but I do suggest finding a local source of natural spring water and to avoid tap water, and even avoid filtering tap water with those water jugs. The issue I’ve found with those water jugs when running pH tests and more, is that they don’t filter entirely as they claim. Their filtration deteriorates over time which causes inconsistencies in the quality of your water consumption.
Water for Weight Loss
Since we’ve established that water quality plays a factor in weight loss, let’s now get into the straight goods: how much water should you drink to lose weight? This varies person to person, but let me start by saying that my intake as a 6ft 2 adult male 200lbs/90.7kg ranges between 3L – 5L per day. It depends on your height and weight as per my example, and also on activity level – which is why I prefaced this article by saying exercise is key and it doesn’t need to be much. Exercise and weight loss are fundamentally hand in hand but that doesn’t mean you need to go deadlifting or squatting huge weight – you can take more walks throughout the day, hike or ride a bike; anything which makes you move consistently. In fact, in a recent youtube video I examined the question ‘how much cardio should I do to lose weight’: To coincide with your added levels of activity, you should aim to consume between half an ounce and an ounce of water for each pound you weigh, every day. In my example I weight 200lbs, which would make my quality water intake goal to land between 100-200 ounces (2.95L – 6L) of water based on activity levels of the day. Generally speaking, you will be drinking water throughout the day and keeping a water bottle near-by. Personally I like to use a large jug or large bottled water. And, let me give you the heads-up that you will pee often!
Intermittent Fasting and Water Consumption
I’ve established somewhat of a following around intermittent fasting, time restricted eating and maintaining a metabolic state known as ketosis. I’m not going to get too far into these things on this article because they are not entirely related to the primary topic of how much water one should drink. But I will add that applying intermittent fasting for weight loss will exponentially improve your results.[1] You may just want to apply it more long term than initially thought. I personally intermittent fast or time restrict my eating at least 3-4 days of the week for many benefits that I’m sure we’ll discuss on future articles to come.
Closing Arguments
At this point, it should be overwhelmingly clear that drinking quality water consistently throughout the day is a no brainer! But, in case you’re not sold, let me just say that when you improve your water intake, the results are so rapid you’ll be shedding weight within the first day and seeing significant results by week 1. So much so that you will be excited to keep getting those weight loss results and continue to become a water snob as time goes on. Good luck! Featured photo credit: Pexels via pexels.com
