So my simple story starts with a cup of coffee, well OK about 5 cups a day but it wasn’t killing me, right???? No, but it was.  It was making a big impact on the amount of water I was drinking in a day and that was killing my desire to drink the right amount of water in the day.  

If you thought that drinking water wasn’t an intrigue part of your weight loss, think again. I always knew how important diet and exercise were to my weight loss, but never thought about the importance of hydration? So when I started to do some research on the best ways to improve weight loss I was amazed at how much damage I was doing by drinking my daily fix of caffeine.   

In fact did you know that if you drink coffee or other heavily caffeinated drinks such as Coke or Pepsi you should add an extra glass of water for every glass you have. Needless to say I was doing the opposite of what I needed to do to improve my weight loss and something needed to change.  The average person needs to drink about 64oz of water a day to sustain healthy hydration levels.  Even more important you need to keep things like hotter times of year, exercise and other activities may also increase your need for additional water intake.  Additional perspiration produced from these activities helps keep your body temperature constant and you need to replace the water you have used 

When it comes to Hydration and weight loss you have to keep it basic the more you move the more water your body craves to keep hydrated. Beware, we’ve all heard the scary stories of death by an over intake of water. Water intoxications otherwise known as hyper hydration or water poisoning is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by over-consumption of water.^[1] Normal, healthy (both physically and nutritionally) individuals have little to worry about accidentally consuming too much water. Nearly all deaths related to water intoxication in normal individuals have resulted either from water drinking contests, in which individuals attempt to consume more than 10 liters (3 gallons) of water over the course of just a few minutes, or long bouts of intensive exercise during which electrolytes are not properly replenished, yet massive amounts of fluid are still consumed.  Symptoms of too much water are: dizziness, nausea, apathy, vomiting, and confusion many of the same symptoms will occur as dehydration so you need to be aware of how much you are actually drinking. 

• Be creative, you don’t need to get your daily water intake from drinking actual water.  Your body water intake can come from other dietary intake like fruits and vegetables. I have found an easy way to keep an eye on my water consumption is to carry a water bottle.  I try to spread out my water intake throughout the day and always drink an 8 ounce serving about 30 minutes before any meal. Not only does it help to hit my daily water serving quota but it also helps me to reduce my hunger before sitting down.  Sounds weird but it has been the perfect answer for me to help with over eating at meal times.  Listening to your body is always the answer – it’ll let you know when you’ve had to much or haven’t had enough. 
• Don’t like the taste of water?  With the variety of great flavored waters or sugar free additives on the market, finding a flavor to flatter your taste buds should be easy. 

Still not convinced that drinking water is good for you? Keep reading and learn more about the benefits of drinking water: Water  contains no calories (check Nutritional Info on the flavored bottled water or additives may contain low calorie counts)  Drinking water helps hydrate skin, water is important in maintaining the health of your skin it can assist in a more youthful appearance and improves your skins elasticity. Don’t forget the best benefit of all; drinking water can help boost your energy levels.  

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