Importance of Fluid intake and alternatives to water, how to calculate your personal intake and how to reach the target

Fluid intake doesn't mean just water intake, there are different ways to increase the overall amount.

First of all we have to find out how much fluid we need in our body, we often hear about 2 Liters per day but 
that is calculated on a medium adult of 75kg and 1.7m, so 2L liters
is not a trustable number.


A  very simplified way to calculate your needs of fluid 
is to multiply your weight per 0.03
(If you didn't receive any fluid restriction by your Doctor or any specialist)
and the result is the amount in Liters, 
don't get scared if the amount is very high, 
just consider that our body is made up to 60% of water!

Now let's discuss how to reach your daily intake:

• Having two glass (one glass is around 250ml so one quarter of a Litre)  as a first thing in the morning can help to boost your metabolism and increase your water intake, just think that even if you are not feeling thirsty your body is asking water after a whole night without 

• Having one or two glasses during the meal is suggested only if that can help with portion control to make you fell full quicker and only if you don't suffer from any form of reflux, but if you do, in that case you can have the glass of water half an hour before or after the meals and not at the same time 

• Sugar free squash or flavoured water is fine to increase your daily intake if you don't want just plain water, just make sure to check the label to avoid any extra sugar

• Teas and Coffees are not countable as water because the caffeine in that but the     Decaffeinated version of any teas or coffees (again any brand) is countable as water, for istance in the morning you can have your normal cup and in the afternoon swtich to decaf 

• Semi skimmed or BOB milk or no added sugar juice coul bed another solution to increase the intake but without having more than one or two glasses per day

If you need an extra help I would suggest an application that you can download for free, is called: 

DRINK WATER REMINDER 

Now let's make a practical example

If your weight is: 100 kg and you moltiply that per 0.03 the amount of water we need to reach is 3.5L per day.

Now if we start the day with two glasses of water or sugar free squash plus one glasses before and after each meal and snack so let's say 5, that would be around 12 glasses in total at the end of the day

Let's add a couple of decaf teas or coffees in the afternoon or evening and a glass of milk or juice and we can reach 15 glasses already  that are 3.75 Litres so even more than the target we need to reach.