All About Water
One of our most frequently asked questions is “How do I track water in my Cronometer account?”. Well, we’re here to guide you through it and answer any other burning questions you might have. So read along to learn about the all-mighty H2O!
How To Track Water In Cronometer
You can easily add water to your diary, it’s the same process as adding a food.
1. On the mobile app, press the “+” button
2. Click ‘Add Food”
3. Search for water, edit the amount
4. Click “Add to diary”
And voila! You can set a custom water target in your settings and see your daily progress in your Daily Report or longer term progress in your Nutrition Report.
The reason we do it this way is because several food listings in our database contain water in their nutrient profiles, and this will also contribute to your water total. This way you’ll get a much more accurate idea of how much you’re actually consuming!
How Much Water Do I Actually Need?
The recommendations are 15.5 cups (3.7 L) per day for men and 11.5 cups (2.7 L) per day for women. If you’re sweating a lot during a work out, though, you should try to replace the same amount of fluids that you’ve lost in addition to the general guidelines for water intake. It’s a balance though, there are also risks associated with overhydration.
Total water includes drinking water, water content in beverages, and water that is part of food. We get 20-30% of our daily needs from foods and the rest comes from drinks. It doesn’t all have to be water, though. Coffee, tea and other beverages all count.
Be careful with sugary drinks because although they do contain water, they also add calories without much additional nutrition value.
Want to know how much water you’re actually consuming? Make sure that you’re performing text-based searches for your whole foods and choosing generic listings from the NCCDB database; these will list the water totals in all foods. Also, be sure to do the same when adding water you drank to your Diary – more often than not, branded products don’t include water on the nutrition label so even if you’re drinking straight water (like Dasani) it won’t be included in your total.
Why Is It Important?
Staying hydrated is critical for your body’s performance. Nearly all of your body’s major systems depend on water to function and survive. It helps to regulate body temperature, protects your organs, carries nutrients and oxygen to your cells, flushes out waste in the kidneys, helps dissolve minerals and nutrients so your body can access them and so much more!
Another part of staying hydrated is keeping your electrolytes in check. Want to know more about electrolytes? Read this blog.
