I Drank A Gallon of Water a Day & This is What Happened

I often hear about the potential benefits of increased water intake like improved brain function, increased exercise performance, weight loss, better skin, and, apparently, water can also treat and prevent headaches.  So, last week, I decided to challenge myself to drink a gallon of water every day to see if I will feel any these supposed benefits.  

I have this blog post as a video if you’re not in the mood to read:

Before I started the challenge, I went to TJ Maxx and got a huge water bottle.

 I never really understood why people drink from huge water bottles, but I totally recommend it now if you are looking for a way to increase your water intake. It was really helpful for me to see the entire amount of water that I’m supposed to drink in a day and at any time to see how much I have left- it was great motivation! So, if you are trying to drink more water, I definitely recommend having one big bottle that you can maybe fill up once or twice a day.  

I also decided that I’m not going to be forcing myself to drink the entire amount of water if I felt sick or uncomfortable in any way because I’m a huge believer that we should be listening to our bodies and never go into extremes. I’ll be honest with you:  on some days I wasn’t able to finish every last drop of water but I still came pretty close to finishing the gallon every single day

To help me drink more water I pretty much eliminated every other drink that I had in my diet before. I only had a cup of coffee in the morning and then only water for the rest of the day

Another thing that really helped me was having a glass of water next to me at all times, so I’m always reminded to drink. I also noticed that the more water you drink the more you actually want to drink it, so it definitely gets easier as you go

As you can imagine one big disadvantage of drinking all that water was that I had to pee all the time. I had to go once every hour or so, and that was totally fine because I was stuck at home because of the quarantine and everything going on. And that would be fine on my 9 to 5, as well, because I have constant access to a restroom, but I’m not sure if this would be feasible for someone with a more active lifestyle or someone who has to be on the go all the time for their job and they don’t have regular access to a restroom.  

Since I was stuck at home for the whole week I decided to start a workout program from home and exercised every single day, but to be honest I didn’t feel any difference in my performance or energy levels because of the water.

I also did not lose any weight so I would say this is another thing that varies person to person. I generally don’t retain water (if you’re bloated often, that might be a sign that you retain water), so drinking more water did not make difference for me.

However, I know some people do retain water and drinking more water causes them to lose weight. It can be argued that they lose mainly water weight and not fat, so I’m not sure if I’d even qualify this as a true weight loss.

But one thing that I noticed for myself was that because I was drinking so much water, I had less cravings for random snacks during the day. So, I think if I’m doing this in the long run, I might actually see some weight loss just because I’ll be snacking less with unhealthy things during the day.

Next up, let’s look at whether my brain functioned better. And, honestly, I don’t know if anything really changed for me in that department either. I generally don’t struggle with fogginess or lack of concentration, so I think things stayed pretty much the same.

Headaches? I usually don’t get headaches, but it’s happened to me a couple of times that I would get a headache if I’m drinking very little water during the day. I think if you are struggling with constant headaches for no apparent reason and you’re not getting enough water, upping your water intake might decrease your headaches.

And finally, the million-dollar question: did my skin improve?  I would say this is the area where I saw the most improvement. My skin was glowing and felt more hydrated and soft without any changes in my skincare routine. I also noticed a difference in my lips – they’re usually pretty dry and I always have to have lip balm nearby, but the water made a HUGE difference.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

I definitely felt like I’m getting some of the benefits and want to continue focusing on getting more hydration into my diet. I don’t know if I would stick with a gallon in the long run because it’s a huge amount of water and I don’t think I need as much, but anywhere between 8 and 10 cups a day sounds like a realistic amount.

How much water do you usually drink per day?