Stay hydrated before you even feel thirsty!

If you want to stop feeling like you're melting, you basically have to drink way more often than you think, even if you aren't actually thirsty. During those brutal American summers, you really shouldn't be dipping below two liters of fluid a day. I’d suggest grabbing some mineral water that’s got at least 500 mg of salt per liter to keep things balanced. Also, maybe steer clear of alcohol because it totally messes with how your body regulates its own temperature. Plus, your system burns through alcohol pretty fast—like, one gram equals seven calories—so that just ends up heating you up even more.

And that’s not even the whole story. Once the thermometer hits 90 degrees, you really ought to avoid sugary drinks too. To process just a single gram of sugar, your metabolism needs about four grams of water to keep up. So, yeah, just forget the sodas and the booze... honestly, water is your best bet. But don't just grab any random bottle; try to find some natural still mineral water, since all that carbon dioxide in sparkling water can kind of numb your taste buds and actually makes you feel thirstier.

James Newman4 said:If you want to stay properly hydrated, you have to drink constantly—even if you don't feel thirsty. During those sweltering American summers, you simply cannot go under two liters of fluid a day. Go for a mineral water that packs more than 500 mg of salts per liter. Also, steer clear of alcohol; it messes with your body's ability to regulate its own temperature. And keep in mind, the metabolism burns through alcohol incredibly fast (1 gram equals about 7 calories), which only serves to heat you up even further.

But that’s not the end of it. Once the thermometer hits 90 degrees Fahrenheit, you should also ditch the sugary drinks. To process just one single gram of sugar, your metabolism demands four grams of water. So, forget the sodas and the booze... the best bet is plain water. But not just any water—pick a natural still mineral water, because the carbon dioxide in sparkling water actually numbs your taste buds and makes you thirstier.

Are you working for some big beverage corporation or something?

By the way, I thought the title of this thread was "Drink before you get married"... 😂

Personally, I don't drink nearly enough liquid... I almost never feel thirsty.
Except at night, of course—I'm always sipping on something while I sleep.

hasselbaink said:So, are you working for some kind of water manufacturer?

I'm actually out here selling Herbalife,

which basically heals all of humanity's physical and mental struggles!

hasselbaink said:"drink up before you get hitched"

😂 man, it’s hilarious how much nonsense people actually swallow online...

It’s easy to say when you're just reading about it.
Let me show you what I can actually pull together. 😱
And that was just for an official letter.

hasselbaink said:So you work for some kind of water manufacturer or something?

Yeah, I'm basically on the payroll at American Water... 😁

Just kidding, but honestly, looking at what’s being posted here, it seems like whenever any health info comes up, people just start questioning who benefits from it instead of actually looking at the data itself and figuring out how to use it to improve their own lives. This whole forum is about "health," so maybe we should just treat it that way, I guess. 😉 🙂

hasselbaink said:I don't drink enough fluids, I'm hardly ever thirsty.
Except during the night, I always have something to drink while I sleep.

Drinking "something" and drinking actual water are two totally different things, man. Water flushes your system out from the inside just like showering or washing your face cleans you on the outside... I mean, just imagine trying to take a shower or wash up using nothing but Coca-Cola or some thick juice.. 😁

ps: Morning to jadesailor14 and Jose Miller3, who always seem to show up just to derail every thread where someone is actually saying something smart or useful... 👋

I mean, at any given moment, your body is basically sitting there made up of 55% to 75% water. Honestly, the only thing you actually need more of than water is oxygen, I guess.

So, if you're wondering why you need to stay on top of all this life-giving liquid, here’s the deal:

• It helps out with digesting, absorbing, and basically getting rid of the stuff you eat
• It assists in flushing waste out through your guts and kidneys
• It keeps your body temperature regulated 24/7, no breaks
• It keeps your joints and membranes lubricated so things run smooth
• Blood is pretty much your body's internal delivery service, constantly moving nutrients everywhere
• Your blood itself is about 92% water, which is wild when you think about it
• Most bodily secretions and digestive juices are almost entirely water (like, your digestive system pumps out roughly 57 ounces of saliva every single day!)

Because it handles all those heavy-duty tasks, your body usually needs somewhere between 1.5 to 2 liters of water daily just to function normally. But honestly, that number shifts depending on your build, what you eat, how active you are, and even the weather outside. Here is a quick rundown of how you lose moisture:

• Between breathing, sweating, and just... bathroom stuff, you're losing about 1.7 liters a day.
• When it gets hot out, you sweat way more, so your body cries out for water to cool down and regulate temp.
• When it's freezing, you actually lose extra moisture just from breathing.
• For every hour you spend being active or working out, you probably need an extra 1 to 3 glasses of water.
• Indoor heating dries out the air, so you either gotta drink more or turn the heat down a bit.

For anyone out there actually willing to sit down and grind through a serious scientific paper in English—specifically if you've been wondering how much water your body really needs—I’m dropping the link to the study again...

http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/283/5/R993

Ever thought about this?

So, water actually kind of kills your appetite naturally. I mean, if you aren't drinking enough, you might end up overeating because the brain is honestly pretty bad at telling the difference between being thirsty and being hungry. So, when you think you're starving, it’s super likely that your body cries out for water instead. I guess it makes sense to just chug a big glass before you eat. Most of the time, you'll probably realize that what felt like a massive hunger pang was just dehydration all along.

Some random water facts

• Like, 75% of people are chronically dehydrated.
• For about 37% of us, the thirst signal is so weak that we constantly mistake it for hunger.
• Even being slightly dehydrated can slow down your metabolism by as much as 3%.
• A single glass of water basically stopped late-night cravings for almost everyone on a diet during a study out of the University of Washington.
• Not getting enough water is pretty much the number one reason people feel wiped out during the day.
• Early research suggests that drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly help up to 80% of people dealing with back and joint pain.
• Even a tiny 2% drop in your body's water levels can mess with your short-term memory, make basic math harder, or make it tough to focus on a computer screen or a book.
• Drinking 5 glasses of water a day might lower the risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79%, and bladder cancer by 50%.

James Newman4 said:The only thing your body cries out for more than water is oxygen!

And the only thing this forum needs is a self-proclaimed healer and know-it-all like James Newman4 🙏 🙏 🙏

James Newman4, you still haven't told us what your actual background is. I doubt we'd be putting you to work on a construction site if you're actually, say, in sales. 😁

Are you running on empty?

So, I guess the big question is, does your body cries out for water? Like, how can you even tell if you're actually dehydrated or just feeling off? You can basically run a little self-test—here’s a rundown of the symptoms, ranging from the super obvious stuff to the more intense issues:

Headaches
One of the main things water does is flush all those toxins out of your system. Since your brain is basically 75% water, even a tiny bit of dehydration can trigger a nasty headache.

Brain Fog / Fatigue
If your system is bogged down with toxins because there isn't enough water to wash them away, you're probably going to feel pretty drained while your body struggles to clean itself up.

Constipation
Water keeps things moving along by adding volume to your stool, so I mean, staying hydrated really helps keep your bathroom trips regular.

Less frequent urination / Dark urine
Your kidneys are constantly filtering waste out of your blood. It's actually kind of wild that your kidneys "recycle" about 47 gallons of water every single day. That whole process totally depends on having a steady supply of fresh water coming in. If you aren't drinking enough, you won't pee as often, the waste products get concentrated, and you end up with dark urine.

Coated tongue / Bad breath
If you aren't getting enough fluids passing through your mouth to wash away food particles, bacteria starts building up in your throat and mouth, which leaves a white film on your tongue.

Dry mouth
Saliva is what keeps your mouth moist, but when you're dehydrated, your body just doesn't produce enough of it.

When things get serious:

Muscle cramps
This usually happens because there isn't enough water in your system to allow sufficient oxygen to reach your muscles through your bloodstream.

Skin issues
If you aren't giving your skin enough water to feed it, it loses its elasticity. A quick way to check is to pinch the skin on your forearm—it should snap back to its original spot pretty fast.

Eyes
Red, irritated eyes or dark circles under and around your eyes are major red flags for severe dehydration.

And honestly, don't try to play games with water retention... the less you drink, the harder your body works to hoard whatever water it has left for later. The result? You hold onto water. Your cells will swell up with that precious reserve, leaving you feeling like you've put on "extra weight."

James Newman4 said:• Roughly 75% of people are living in a state of chronic dehydration.
• For about 37% of folks, that thirst mechanism is so incredibly muffled that they actually mistake it for hunger pangs—it's a total biological glitch!
• Even a tiny bit of dehydration can drag your metabolism down by as much as 3%.
• A single glass of water was enough to shut down those late-night snack attacks for nearly 100% of the dieters involved in a study conducted at the University of Washington.
• Not getting enough water is hands-down the number one culprit behind daily fatigue.
• Preliminary research suggests that sipping 8 to 10 glasses of water a day might significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of people struggling with those issues.
• Just a mere 2% drop in your body's water levels can lead to brain fog—we're talking short-term memory lapses, struggling with basic mental math, or just having a hard time focusing on a computer screen or a page of text.
• Staying hydrated by drinking 5 glasses of water a day could slash the risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79%, and bladder cancer by 50%.

Honestly, the research cited above completely dismantles most of that nonsense you’ve been picking up from... well, wherever you find it...
If anyone is interested—and if we were dealing with a language barrier, I'd be happy to whip up a summary—this author combed through all the pertinent scientific literature and reached certain conclusions based on the data. It’s the standard procedure, really—you know how it goes with The Scoundrels, James Newman4...

nimbledriver81 said:The research mentioned above pretty much shuts down most of the nonsense you’ve picked up from... wherever...

That being said, I gotta say one thing in the study really rubbed me the wrong way:
I totally get his point, and honestly, props to him for digging through all that literature—but that whole section about the dangers of overhydrating? It just felt unnecessary. He spends the whole time talking about healthy adults, then tries to drop the "danger" hammer by citing people who died from drinking dozens of liters of water after taking ecstasy??? I mean, come on, give me a break...

But the article itself is actually a fantastic read. It blows my mind how rarely this gets cited as a source, while that total BS about needing eight glasses of water is repeated so often it's basically become gospel at this point...

nimbledriver81 said:The study mentioned above pretty much shuts down most of the nonsense you’ve picked up from wherever...

Yeah, well, those are the latest updates straight from American Water management !!! 😁 😁 😁

nimbledriver81 said:In case anyone actually cares—and I mean people who don't speak English—we could always put together a summary. The author of this paper went through all the relevant literature (scientific stuff, obviously) and drew some conclusions based on the findings. You know how it usually goes, right, James Newman4 from The Scoundrels...

Fine then, why don't you just write the summary yourself and post it here, and then we can all have a good time tearing it apart together.. 😉 👍

When you're looking at the actual results, maybe you should go grab a copy of "Your body cries out for water" (Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M.D.) because that might help you wrap your head around a lot of what was brought up at the start of this thread (not that I got my info from that book or anything, though).. 🙂

"The author of this paper went through all the relevant literature (scientific stuff, obviously) and drew some conclusions based on the findings."

That's an interesting way to put it, I guess, since the guy who wrote this book is an actual doctor who treated patients using nothing but water, so he figured out the results firsthand. 😉 😁

James Newman4 said:Headaches
The main job of water is flushing toxins out of your system. Since your brain is basically 75% water, even a tiny bit of dehydration can trigger a massive headache.

Is that actually true though? Brain is 75% water? Man, I don't know...

😬 😬

Dehydration triggers headaches,
which—in my experience, at least—is
pretty much always the case.
But this part here...

Preliminary studies suggest that drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water a day can significantly alleviate back and joint pain for up to 80% of people suffering from these issues.

I suspect it really boils down to the individual and their specific lifestyle choices, doesn't it? Take my husband, for example—with this heatwave we're having, he’ll guzzle about two liters of water right before bed while watching TV; if he’s doing that much just at night, imagine what he's missing during the day! It's no wonder he struggles to even get out of bed in the morning because his back is aching so badly.

Introduction to the book "Your body cries for water" (Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M. D. - "Your body cries for water")

"I guess one of the most obvious reasons why medicine has turned into such a massive, expensive headache is simply because researching drugs—and then actually testing how they hit a patient—has become insanely pricey. So, to keep those products moving through the system via all those aggressive commercials you see everywhere, it’s not just high-paid reps pushing them; even doctors get pulled into the mix with certain... let's call them 'incentives.' And patients? They just keep popping them because, well, the sickness doesn't go away. I mean, it’s not like they were meant to actually cure anyone! They just manage symptoms! It’s basically the perfect example of how market principles have totally taken over the medical field. But honestly, this isn't even the only shady part of the whole industry.

All this tech-driven progress in medicine has mostly been fueled by churning out useless little gadgets. And yeah, that also drives up healthcare costs. Training hospitals and research institutes are pretty much entirely dependent on funding from the corporate side of the health system. So, medical research usually ends up following whatever the big pharma CEOs and medical device manufacturers want, since they’re the ones greenlighting the funds for projects that actually make them money.

But hey, maybe we’re finally hitting a turning point here.
It turns out the human body has a ton of complex signals that show when it's lacking water—basically indicators of dehydration and thirst. It’s not just about having a dry mouth; there are so many other signs. The biggest tragedy in medical history, if you ask me, is that professionals haven't really grasped the huge variety of ways the human body cries for water. Instead, they usually just reach for chemicals and various 'treatments' to try and fix chronic dehydration. It’s a massive blunder, but also just a plain old fact!

What really stings is that most of the medical establishment is still stuck in their old ways and just ignores these new insights. This total failure to recognize the actual physical signs of dehydration is probably the main reason why healthcare is so ridiculously expensive in developed countries like the US.

Plus, I don't see any chance of things improving in the healthcare system as long as it's structured this way—it's set up poorly and mostly serves the people running the show rather than the people who actually need care. ... "

In the following pages, the author breaks down all the hurdles he ran into while trying to get the medical world to pay attention to his findings, and you can kind of guess why he didn't get much traction... I mean, who would bother buying meds if water could solve so many problems? .. 😉 😕

A similar thing happened (just not with water) with Barry Sears ("Zone Diet") when he tried to 'sell' his ideas on treating heart patients to the medical community, but they weren't interested—you can't exactly patent a lifestyle or a natural way of eating, so there was no profit in it for them. 😢

Who knows, maybe cars could run on nothing but water too, but I doubt anyone in charge would be interested in that, right? .. 😉 😁

Amanda Lee42 said:dehydration causes headaches,
which is pretty much always the case for me, I guess,
but this whole thing

well, I think it really just comes down to the individual and their lifestyle, you know? Like, my husband will chug something like two liters of water right before bed while he's just sitting there watching TV—especially with this heatwave we're having—so naturally, he’s struggling to even get out of bed in the morning because his back is killing him.

Obviously everything is different for everyone, and there are always a million different factors playing into health issues, but people tend to fixate on water because, honestly, it's probably the cheapest solution out there. 🙂
(Not to start going off about nutrition, cell regeneration... whatever else matters, etc.) 😉

ps: you really need to be sipping water steadily throughout the day instead of just slamming two liters right before bed; it's kind of like the difference between a steady stream and a flash flood, if that makes sense.. 😎

Water and Your Body

I know it sounds almost too simple to be true, but I honestly think water is probably the single most important catalyst when you're trying to drop pounds and actually keep them off. Most people just take it for granted, I guess, but water might be the only real "magic potion" out there for maintaining weight loss. It naturally kills your appetite, keeps you hydrated, and basically helps your system process stored fat. )

Think about it—your kidneys can't really do their job if they aren't getting enough water. And when the kidneys start lagging, everything gets dumped onto the liver. Now, the liver’s whole deal is supposed to be metabolizing that stored fat into usable energy. If the liver is stuck doing the kidneys' dirty work, it isn't working at full capacity, which means all that extra fat just stays right where it is.

Plus, drinking water actually helps reduce fluid retention in your system. When you aren't getting enough water, your body basically panics, treats it like a survival threat, and starts clinging to every single drop of moisture and fat it can find.* More often than not, that hunger pang you're feeling is just a dehydrated body, not an actual hungry one, I mean.

Just give your body what it needs so it can finally get rid of that stored fat... WATER!!!

* When the body holds onto water that should be flushing out "waste," it ends up just keeping that junk inside. That waste just kind of "travels" in circles, polluting your system and increasing the risk of introducing "something" where it definitely shouldn't be... and the consequences could be anything, really.. 😢
Example: plenty of water is like a clear mountain stream, but not enough water is like a stagnant swamp filled with algae... 🙂 👍

James Newman4 said:Of course everything is unique to the individual—there are always dozens of different factors contributing to specific health issues—but people tend to overlook water, which happens to be the most affordable solution out there. 🙂
(And I won't even get started on nutrition, cellular repair... and so on.) 😉

PS: You need to be sipping water consistently throughout the day rather than just knocking back two liters right before bed; think about the difference between a steady stream and a sudden flash flood... 😎

Read it again—I’m talking about sipping 2L right before bed while watching TV for maybe two or three hours, whereas during the day I lose track because I don't have a bottle on me. Still, looking at my fitness tracker, it shows I'm burning through quite a bit; based on my mineral needs, I'd estimate at least another 4L throughout the day—though when it gets hot, I assume it's even more, especially since I'm sweating.