Everyone who is worth their salt (which you should definitely moderate) says that drinking water is a key factor in weight loss. There are a lot of reasons and, I’ve recently discovered, a lot of different formulas for the amount of water I should drink and when.
There’s the old stand-by: 8- 8 oz glasses of water per day. This formula doesn’t say when. It just says drink it. So, in theory, I could swill down my 64 ozs or 2 quarts in one sitting (try it, I dare you).
There are a couple of others I’ve found. One says I should swill down 1 oz of water for every pound of weight. In my case, that’s 280 ozs or 2.2 gallons (that’s gallons) of water a day. Then I heard of a slightly more benign formula which is to drink a ½ oz. of water for every pound. That’s only 1.04 gallons or 4 quarts. Roughly double the old stand-by of 8-8 oz glasses.
Now, anyone who’s tried to consume a lot of water knows that what goes in must come out and with that much water I’m making a lot of trips down the hall. This also makes me think of the water being used to flush which makes me think that flushing every time is a terrible waste of water and an environmental no-no. Even with my low-water per flush, high efficiency toilets.
When to Drink Your Water?
Now as to when. Some say first thing in the morning is a good time since you tend to dehydrate over night. Others say before every meal to “fill you up” so you don’t eat as much (this has never worked for me, by the way).
However, with even one gallon on the water menu it probably means swilling the stuff down at every opportunity. Followed ten minutes later by the trip down the hall. At least there is an exercise component to this as well.
In any case, I’ve been trying to drink more water in the hopes that it will, in fact, help with the weight loss. But, truth be told, I’m not convinced. We’ll see.
This is Day 8 of my 30 day challenge to myself
