Let’s talk water, or in the words of Jay-Z H 2 the (iz) O.
Cute non related side story…My 86 year old, at the time, grandma was asked by her activities director what music she enjoyed. She replied, “I don’t like the hip-hop.” I, however, do.
Water is an essential part of existing. It makes up nearly 2/3 of a human body. Got it. But it is also extremely helpful with maintaining a healthy diet and exercise.
I require myself to drink at least 2-20 ounce bottles at work.
First, water has a whopping zero calories.
Second, if you’re drinking cold water, your body has to burn Calories just to drink it. Yes, it’s odd, but your body has to raise the temperature of the water to body temperature.
I like math, let me show you.
Let’s say you will drink 8 ounces of ice cold water. Ice cold water has to be around 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) yes, I understand that’s the freezing point. So, it’s an estimation, around 0 degrees Celsius (rounded down) being the absolute lowest possible temperature/highest calorie burning water drinkable. We will take the average body temperature 98.6 F or 37 C. It takes 1 calorie to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. 8 ounces of water converts to about 226.8 grams. So our body needs to raise 37 C. So we take 37 x 226.8 = 8,391.6 calories. BUT that’s little calories, not Calories. Little calories are actual a kilo-calorie of what we consider food calories. So the next step is 8,391.6/1000 = 8.3916 calories is the absolute maximum amount of calories we have the potential to burn from an ice cold 8 oz glass of water.
And if we are drinking the recommended 8 – 8 ounce glasses of water a day we have the potential to burn a maximum of 67.1328 calories a day or one sniff of a Kit Kat Bar. I will come back to the “recommended” amount. A Kit Kat Bar has 4 parts and is a total of 210 calories, yes big calories. So, if you drink 8 – 8 ounce glasses of ice cold water, you could have one part of the Kit Kat Bar (52.5 calories) and still be ahead.
Back to the list…
Third, it keeps you moving! Dehydration leads to sluggishness, headaches, and even stress.
But how much water a day should we really be drinking? I like the simple rule of dividing your weight in half. I am currently topping out at 106. Yes, I’m at toddler weight, no I’m not trying to lose weight MOM. So 106/2 = 53 ounces of water. But, if the weather is hot (15F here) and you’re active you need to consume more.
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