Since there are so many great apps out there, I want to ask the ever-so-important question: Which one is absolutely essential to your daily life?
I'll go first: Waterllama! I started using it a few months ago because I really like to know precisely what and how much I drink each day, especially during the summer.
I'd love to hear about the app you use the most and why it's so important to you. And if you have any tips or tricks for getting the most out of the app, I'd love to hear those too!
The issue is that when you feel thirsty, it indicates that your body is already dehydrated (essentially experiencing a water deficit), which is not ideal. Therefore, it's important to avoid reaching that point. I used to only drink when I felt thirsty, but since using Waterllama, I have been able to maintain better hydration levels (and I must say, I also feel better!).
I've seen that claim made and also refuted multiple times and it honestly doesn't make any sense to me in the context of animal behavior. All animals presumably drink when they're thirsty. My cat is not game planning its next drink to avoid dehydration before it hits. They drink when they're thirsty and that's probably just fine.
I really don't think this is as big of an issue as people make it out to be.
I generally agree with you but cats probably aren't the best example to use here. They evolved as desert animals with very limited access to water. Because of that their bodies are extremely efficient at using water, which is why their pee is so concentrated and smelly, and they have a very low thirst drive. Cats do regularly drink without being thirsty.
Insert dog for cat, whatever.
The cats drinking despite not being thirsty sounds like a hard claim to prove.
Cats have a biology that is supposed to extract the liquids they need from their prey. Their drinking is supplementary and opportunistic, so likely doesn't work through a sensation of thirst the way it does for us.
Cats who are fed dry kibble, do not drink enough, because of this. Dehydration related problems are by far the most common health issue with pet cats.
Flowing water devices, or even flavoring the water, to encourage cats to drink more, is a thing because of this.
I bought a mouse poison that works on the same principle. Mice eat the dry pellets and it dehydrates them. Apparently, they don’t have a similar thirst mechanism as humans. I have found a dead one in my garage, so it does seem to work.
A lot of the research that points to hydration being the type of issue that can be impacted by carrying a bottle of water everywhere is funded by...
Water bottling companies.
Interesting hadn't heard that. This article kinda touches on that a bit and generally goes into debunking the idea that we're not drinking enough water.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/22/had-our-fill-of-water
There's an Adam Ruins Everything on the subject.
I believe it's about optimizing our well-being by staying ahead of potential dehydration and supporting our body's functions more consistently. When we maintain proper hydration levels, we're not just preventing thirst – we're also supporting digestion, circulation, temperature regulation, and overall cognitive and physical performance.
But I think I am digressing too much from the topic of the post.
Except drinking all the time also has proven drawbacks. In proffessional sports, drinking too much plain water is known to be detrimental to performance.
You do not sweat nearly enough to warrant the multiple glasses of water the average school teacher makes kids drink in PE nowadays. Even though you do get thirsty.
What your body actually needs, are the salts and other minerals you just sweated out, which was the whole point that created Gatorade.
Also a lot of the research that claims thirst to be "too late" in telling you when to drink, is funded by companies that sell bottled water.
I just don't buy that at all and I'd love to see some credible sources for it.
No. It doesn't. Research that points to it being a good thing to avoid ever getting thirsty in the first place, is funded by companies that want to sell you water. Preferably bottled, at an inordinate markup.
Most people only notice their thirst due to their busy lives, by the time it gets really bad. But you get thirsty FAR in advance of it being an issue, it just isn't an insistent feeling.
Hydration trackers, at best, help people who keep busy to actually slow down for a sec and check the state of their body.
In reality, most people who don't get enough water, can solve their problem with one additionall glass with one of their daily meals.
An app is like downing the entire jar of vitamins when one pill a day would do the trick.
Hydration isn't an hour to hour issue. You don't sweat and piss liters a day. And you aren't supposed to either. Fad diet plans that actually work by losing waterweight, still show the weight loss over days, not hours.
Not drinking on a schedule does not risk dehydration.
When I lived in Phoenix, dehydration really was an hour by hour issue. Aside from people spending long periods of time in extreme conditions, you are correct though. If you spend your days in an air conditioned home or office, 8 glasses a day is probably excessive. If you are going to drink that much, make sure you are replenishing your electrolytes too. A typical highly processed American diet is probably sufficient though.
Heat stroke might've been an hour to hour issue. But the human body is 60% water. You're not going to sweat out the several kilograms of water required to shift that percentage significantly, even within a whole day.
Yes, a human will die of thirst before hunger, but that still takes days, not hours, and the majority of that liquid loss will be due to urination, not heat related sweating.
The bad feels of hot weather has more to do with the heat itself, and the salts and those electrolytes you're sweating out.