3225: Water - How Much Water Should You Drink a Day by Chalene Johnson on Hydration Advice

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[00:01:30] tomorrow starts with a good night's sleep. Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily. This is Optimal Living Daily episode 3225, Water. How much water should you drink a day? By Chalene Johnson of ChaleneJohnson.com.

[00:01:50] And I'm Justin Mollick, your personal narrator, except on the extra Sunday bonus episodes where I share an episode from another podcast in the Optimal Living Daily network. And today is coming from my brother's show, Optimal Health Daily. You can find and follow

[00:02:05] or subscribe to Optimal Health Daily wherever you're listening to this. So with that, here's my brother, Dr. Neil with a post and commentary as we optimize your life. Water. How much water should you drink a day? By Chalene Johnson of ChaleneJohnson.com. Magazine, blog articles,

[00:02:28] diet books, and fitness experts love to tell you exactly how much water you should drink. Most of them will say 6-8 cups per day. Or sometimes you'll hear that you require 50% of your body weight in ounces. Whether it's because of our busy schedules or all the caffeinated

[00:02:47] products we drink, or maybe it's just because we don't crave water, whatever the case, it's estimated that 75% of us are chronically dehydrated. No wonder we don't feel good. Before we get into exactly how much water is right for you to drink every day, let's chat about some

[00:03:05] of the symptoms of dehydration. It's important to begin here so you have a starting point in understanding whether or not you might be suffering from a shortage in your daily water intake. Number 1. Fat loss and weight loss resistance. When your body doesn't have enough water,

[00:03:23] your metabolism slows down. Your body needs a certain amount of water just for metabolic processing. Couple this with the fact that dehydration makes it hard for our bodies to utilize fat as fuel. In other words, it makes it difficult for ketones to be produced in the

[00:03:40] Krebs cycle. Thus, it's easy to see how when you're dehydrated, you may end up packing on pounds and storing more fat. Number 2. Ongoing digestive problems. Hydration is essential for every bodily function, especially when it comes to digestion. Even slight dehydration can have a huge impact

[00:04:00] on your digestive process. If you suffer from constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, or any type of dysbiosis, your first step is to just start drinking enough water. How simple is that? And it's free! Number 3. Bloating and water retention. Does that sound like an oxymoron?

[00:04:20] Listen, when your body doesn't have enough water, it knows it's under attack. It has to hold on to what it has. Therefore, it's not uncommon for someone who isn't drinking enough water to feel bloated and puffy, which then usually makes them restrict water because they think they're retaining

[00:04:36] too much water. Meanwhile, their body's retaining too much water because it's not getting enough water. Got it? Number 4. Brain fog, headaches, depression, and inability to focus. You see, our brains rely heavily on our blood supply to function. When our blood supply is restricted due to dehydration,

[00:04:56] our brain doesn't function properly. Every one of us has experienced a throbbing headache or an inability to concentrate. Then once we're hydrated, wow, it's like the fog lifts! Number 5. Low blood pressure, hypertension, sudden drop in blood pressure, and weakness. Dehydration creates an

[00:05:17] imbalance in our body's electrolytes. If you're transitioning off a diet, it's important that you are getting proper hydration every single day, and especially if you're fasting. Number 6. Dry skin, urinary tract infections, autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, premature aging like

[00:05:37] wrinkles, and high cholesterol. Enough said. Now that you understand the symptoms, hopefully you have some clarity. Do any of these sound all too familiar? If so, that's a great start! Alright,

[00:05:50] let's get back to the point at hand. How much water should you be drinking on the daily? Here's the bottom line. The problem with most recommendations is they're general. They don't

[00:06:01] take into account how tall you are, how much sodium is in your diet, how active you are, how old you are, your hormone levels, and your environment like weather conditions. Other factors like age, gender,

[00:06:15] percentage of water in the foods you consume, again how active you are, oh and what about caffeinated beverages? Do you drink them and how much? All of these pieces make up the water pie,

[00:06:27] if you will. Ultimately, you must decide what's right for you based on how you feel. But here's my major suggestion on the amount of water you should drink on the daily. Use urine as a guide.

[00:06:41] Once your urine has become light yellow or nearly clear, meaning no longer dark yellow, you're consuming enough water. Hey, if I can go from a lifetime diet of no water to becoming a full-on water hydration beast, you can too! Assignment of the day. Start your day off with

[00:07:01] water. First thing in the morning, before all things. Well, you can make your bed first. There's nothing you can do that is more powerful than making decisions that allow you to become healthy

[00:07:11] from the inside out. You should be proud of yourself. I'm proud of you. You just listened to the post titled, Water. How Much Water Should You Drink a Day? By Chalene Johnson of chalenejohnson.com.

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[00:08:36] Chalene's absolutely right. The best way to know whether you're drinking enough fluid is to look at your urine color. Light yellow is the color to aim for. Now, there is a difference between consuming enough fluid each day versus enough water each day. Water is a type of fluid,

[00:08:56] but so are our energy drinks. Fruits and vegetables contain fluid. So I need to be specific. We want the majority of the fluid we consume each day to come from water. Some fluid each day, yes,

[00:09:10] can absolutely come from tea, coffee, a cup of juice here and there and so on, but the majority should be good old-fashioned water. Carbonated water is fine too if you can tolerate it.

[00:09:22] Now before I go, I'll leave you with a quote about water from the great Homer Simpson. Water, water everywhere, so let's all have a drink. All right, that'll do it for the Saturday episode. I hope you're having a great weekend if you're

[00:09:35] listening in real time and I'll be back here tomorrow for the Sunday show where your optimal life awaits.