The ‘ol drinking a gallon of water thing.  It was high time I gave it a go for a month.  I am here to share with you what I learned.

I’ve been a massive fan of hydration for a while.  It’s not just because of my “hydrate or die” days in the Marine Corps.  It’s also because water is basically a miracle drug.  Your hydration affects the function of every cell in the body.

One of my favorite books on the subject is “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water” By Dr. Batmanghelidj.  His practice is in India found that chronic dehydration was the root cause of a myriad of ailments his patients had.  The main thrust of his book was that proper hydration was a vital first step in the prevention and treatment of virtually any ailment.  Medication may still be necessary but should not come before hydration. 

Okay so how much water should you drink?  It really depends, which is an annoying answer to that question.  Your size, activity, weather, food intake all cause variations in your water needs.  There are plenty of precise seeming little calculations out there to drink x ounces per pound of body weight etc.  

Here is the simple way to get plenty of water: Drink 8oz of water as soon as you wake up and keep a water bottle with you at all times during the day.  We wake up dehydrated.  By rehydrating first thing, we reset our natural craving for water.  By keeping a bottle nearby at all times, you’ll naturally drink a healthy amount of water.  Perfect!

So why did I start drinking a gallon of water a day?  As a personal trainer, when something is a trend, and it isn’t total lunacy, I like to try it.  There are a lot of trends I think are harmful that I won’t touch, but this seemed like it would be fun to try out.  I had an adjustment period of a few days where I was struggling to finish the gallon and I was peeing constantly.  Once my body got used to it, taking down a gallon became fairly normal.  It still took a little more effort on the front half of the day, but other than that it was easy.  

Here’s what happened:

1. Better all-day energy.  As it happened, the month I chose to do this ended up being a crazy month work wise and personally.  I had a lot of 14 hour days that were absolutely packed to the gills with appointments and urgent projects.  Despite this I noticed my daily energy was actually pretty solid and I credit the extra hydration.  Normally when I get busy I let myself get dehydrated but knowing I needed to finish the gallon meant I didn’t let that happen.
2. Slimming down.  There’s no silver bullet here.  During this month I also ate well and was working out consistently.  That said, when you drink more water, your body tends to hold less water and you slim down a little bit.
3. Better workout recovery.  Like I mentioned, I was really getting after my workouts during this month.  It was the lead up to my honeymoon and with how crazy work was, I needed the hard workouts to stay sane and sleep well.  Despite consistent hard workouts, I felt an improved recovery from them and was already ready to get after it the next day.
4. Less Hungry.  Who doesn’t love this?  The more water you drink, the fewer hunger cravings you get.  This is especially important if you have a fat loss goal.  You have to be in a calorie deficit.  Water is a cheat code to do that without having to go hungry all the time.
5. Joints feel better.  I have decent joints still.  My knees tend to only hurt when I am neglectful about recovery.  That said, water is what lubricates your joints.  Good hydration helps your joints feel better and I definitely noticed a difference.

Now that I have finished my little experiment, what now?  I will likely continue to use the gallon jug I bought for this.  I found that having one gallon jug that I filled up the night before left me no room for interpretation as to whether or not I drank my gallon.  I’ll continue to recommend hydrating to my personal training clients, but I don’t think a full gallon a day is necessary for most people.

 When you are ready to chat with a personal trainer about your goals, fill out the form at the top or bottom of this article and I will take care of the rest : )

Serving Portsmouth, Kittery, and the broader Seacoast community, as well as the Kingston area, we help people finally get in shape, feel confident, and have all day energy, even if getting everything done is a constant struggle.