After oxygen, water is pretty much the most vital thing you need in life. And most people don’t get enough of it. While the conventional recommendations say you should drink 64 ounces, I really believe that your water needs should be calculated based on your weight, the temperature, and your activity level.
The way I figure it, it seems that your base water consumption should be somewhere around 1 oz. for every 2 pounds of body weight. All you have to do take your weight and multiply it by .5 and you’ll know that base number.
If either it’s really hot, you exercise a lot, work hard physically, are trying to lose weight, or are pregnant (you have an increased blood capacity to support), I think you should be drinking closer to 2 oz for every three pounds of body weight. Multiply your weight by .66 to get the number of oz.
Now these are my recommendations based on things I’ve read, not because I’ve done a scientific study on it. If you have information that would help me revise my numbers, I’d be glad to see it as I believe that proper hydration is one of the biggest components of health and beauty. But I simply don’t accept that my mother-in-law who is 4’11” and probably 105 pounds soaking wet, aught to be drinking the same amount as me (I’m 5’ 7” and I won’t tell you what I weigh, but it’s more than 105).
Developing the water drinking habit is not easy for me as I don’t especially like the stuff. But as I mentioned in that other post, I see such an amazing change in the quality of my health when I’m fully hydrated, that it is worth the effort to continue working on this habit.
Water is a vital key to weight loss, and it’s not just because it fills your stomach so that you aren’t as hungry. Yes you will eat less, as thirst signals often feel like hunger and so by increasing your water intake, you will satisfy those without you taking in unnecessary calories. But there is more to its weight loss effects than that.
Your liver is what metabolizes fat. If your liver isn’t functioning efficiently, the excess fat has to be stored until it can get around to it (read: saddlebags, gut, big bottom, flabby arms that keep waving after you stop, etc).
Your kidneys are what filter out toxins, a process that is vital to keeping your body healthy. If you don’t drink enough water to keep your kidneys flushed out and filtering properly, your liver will set aside a lot of its fat metabolizing, so as to help the kidneys with their filtration. Toxins are poison, so it’s higher on your body’s priority list to get those filtered out and excreted than to process your fat. It’s in your best interest to get those kidneys doing their job by themselves so that your liver can get back to doing what is important to the size of your waistline.
What all that boils down to is that the less water you drink, the more your metabolism will be reduced because your body has more important things to do. If you want to get that metabolism ramped back up to where it’s supposed to be, you have to work with your body and give it all the flushing cleansing water it needs.
In addition, if your muscles are well hydrated, they will perform better, which translates into more calories burned 24 hours a day (again, higher metabolism).
And one more thing, if you are losing weight right now, then all the fat that is dissolving contains toxins that now your body must deal with.
Please please be kind to your body and flush those kidneys with plenty of clean water so that you can excrete all that junk out of your system.
Well I’ve probably saddled you with enough for one day.
Drink, drink, and drink some more. Work with your body and it will function beautifully the way that it was intended to. A vibrant healthy glowing body is an alluring body.
Don’t forget to keep working on all your steps in progress:
This step: Drink plenty of water (Health and Beauty)
Last step: Be emotionally independent (Living Well)
Secrets of the Alluring Woman 