How much water should you drink on a Keto Diet? This is a rhetoric question to answer since the amount of water one should drink is difficult to standardize! The amount water intake to the body depends on factors like; age, weight, diet and the activity level of your body. This amount is subject to change and therefore there is no definite amount that one can consume in a day.
Water is an essential component that aids in the smooth running of the body like transportation of nutrients, regulation of temperature, and removal of waste material from your body. Water creates medium and environment for the body cells to perform their functions.
Keto Diet and Water
When you are on a Keto diet, your body metabolizes stored fats. Keto diet is a low carb high-fat diet. Once the body is subjected to low carb, it turns to the stored carbs and burns them to get energy for your body. Subjecting your body to a high-fat diet makes it difficult for your body to break down the nutrients in food and convert them to energy without water.
Taking Keto diet with the required amount of water needed by your body, speeds up weight loss. During ketosis, your liver releases glycogen, glucose (sugar) in storage format. For every gram of glycogen released, two grams of water are released in urine. This is a huge loss and it should be compensated with more water intake.
So you should at least take 2.5 to 3 liters of water per day to replace the amount of water lost in the urine. While on ketosis your body loses a lot of water as a result of low carb. Carbs are responsible for water retention and therefore consumption of water on Keto diet is essential.
How Does Water Help Prevent Dehydration When on a Keto Diet?
Keto Diet is associated with high level of dehydration. Dehydration is a common symptom because your body losses a lot of water through urine production.
When you eliminate carbs from your diet your insulin level drops. Therefore, your kidneys release stored sodium and water. Production of sodium and water makes you feeling thirsty.
Many research on Keto find out that that the ketogenic diet increases the risk of developing kidney stones. Therefore, drinking enough water prevents the kidney from developing kidney stones. Additionally, water helps in filtering out unnecessary toxins in your body that are harmful.
Maintaining the same amount of water intake before and after the Keto diet makes your body to be on thirst mode. Thirsty mode is mostly known as Keto flu which is not a viral illness.
Apparently, when one experiences Keto flu, the body feels fatigued, nausea, irritable and your mouth turns out to be dry throughout. Chronic dehydration interferes with the results that you anticipate from the Keto diet.
Truth on Drinking Eight Glasses of Water Daily While on Keto Diet
There is absolutely no scientific research to prove if this statement is true. However, the myth may be helpful but different people have different degrees of urge towards water intake. Since you are on Keto diet you are already having challenges on, how much water should I drink on Keto? It will be wrong to follow this myth to guide you on your daily consumption.
Some Ketogenic experts recommend drinking 140 ounces or higher per day. But it is not easy to drink the recommended amount of water due to different factors and reasons.
It is important for you to know that, it is not easy for you to drink the exact amount of water your body requires. However, the following are ways to help you improve your water intake and stay hydrated.
- You should drink water after meals and immediately you wake up so that you keep your body healthy.
- Set alarm to remind you on intervals to drink water throughout the day to prevent any form of forgetfulness.
- You should eat vegetables with high water content like spinach, cucumber and water melons that make your body hydrated.
- You should always carry a bottle of water.
- Listen to your body and drink water when you feel thirsty
- Avoid drinking flavored water or sports drinks this is because the sugar content will be too high.
- Squeeze lemon or lime juice to add flavor in your water in case you find plain water tasteless or boring and the juice also adds some health benefits.
- Add salt in your water as a natural electrolyte.
How Does Water Prevent Electrolytes Imbalance?
Electrolytes are minerals that carry electric charge when dissolved in a fluid. Electrolytes are found in urine, sweat, and blood. Electrolytes like magnesium, potassium, and sodium are important for hydration because of fluid balance in the human body.
Keto diet causes electrolyte imbalance in your body. Electrolytes balance usually take place between water and electrolytes during ketosis. When you are on a Keto diet, your body is losing a lot of water when converting glycogen to energy. This process leads to loose of electrolytes since the electrolytes are dissolved in water.
Keto diet also maintains low level of insulin in your body by flushing out sodium and this replenishes crucial and essential electrolyte. Inadequate electrolytes like sodium can cause weakness and muscle cramping and electrolyte imbalance is also linked to symptoms of “keto flu”.
The most important thing you should remember as a Keto dieter is to be aware of your electrolyte balance. Electrolytes are necessary for the overall functioning of your muscles, nervous system, brain, heart, and other organs.
Headaches are common side effects of electrolytes imbalances and dehydration. This occurs when once is on Keto diets as a result of consuming fewer carbohydrates. Keto diet is a suitable treatment for drug-resistant cluster headaches.
Measures on How to Hydrate Your Body If You Are on Keto Diet
Water keeps your body hydrated with the right amount of water for it to function at its optimal level. It is important to ensure that you drink enough water to stay hydrated. Many people who are on Keto Diet have specific measures that guide them to stay hydrated. Some of the measures that help them stay hydrated are outlined as follows:
- You can use the color and smell of your urine. Color and smell of your urine can tell if you are drinking enough water. You need to ensure that your urine is almost as clear as water. The same urine should have no smell as a good indication that your body is well hydrated.
- You can drink half the number of pounds you weigh in ounces. If you weigh 160pounds you need to drink 80 ounces of water. Other recommendations need people to consume close to 3.7 liters of water for men and 2.7 liters for women.
- On average 20% of your daily water intake comes from food and 80% from drinks. When you are on Keto diet, it important to know that the amount of plain water you take is not counted in the 20% that is found in food. Remember caffeinated drinks are not water, for example coffee, tea, and soda.
Staying hydrated helps you not to confuse thirst for hunger. It is important to know because when you feel thirsty you should not give your body food instead of water. Your body needs water to digest food. Conversely, drinking too much water is also not good for your health.
Taking more than enough water causes over-hydration of your body cells. Over-hydration may cause your body to flush electrolytes and other minerals in the cell to cause imbalance of the electrolytes. It’s important to stay hydrated as it will increase your mood, general physical performance of your body, alertness and complete well-being of your body.
Final Verdict
There is no fixed amount of water for one to take while on a Keto diet. The best advice on the amount of water you should take should come from your doctor or dietitian. Experts are able to know the amount of water to take while on a Keto diet to ensure that it balances with your electrolyte levels. Experts will also recommend the right quantities of water intake for different situations.
Additionally, you can use this statement “How do I feel” as a guiding statement that will help your body to communicate a thirst feeling. There is no formula used to calculate how much water you should drink in a day.
Human bodies are different and function differently. Thus, universal figures and formulas are not a reliable estimate on your own body water needs.
Finally, water plays an essential role to the human body in helping all the functions of the body to work successfully. Water intake to your body is subject to variability based on different situations like availability of water, your body capacity to create the urge for water intake and your personal initiative to take water. Therefore, it’s upon you to control your levels of water intake to have a healthy lifestyle.