Why Drink A Glass Of Water In The Morning?

Updated: Apr 18

You’ve probably heard it before, as soon as you wake up you should drink a glass of water.

It's touted by health and fitness professionals alike as a miracle cure all. If you can learn to encorporate just one good habit into your busy lifestyle this seems like a no brainer. Quick and easy to do it is absoluetly the best way to kick start a new healthier you!

But do you know why?

Let’s start with talking about your anatomy. I know, I know. Stop rolling your eyes and bare with me a moment.

Water is essential to life. Your body is around 60% water. To survive you must consume a certain amount of water. Water is perhaps even more important than food. Without any water you will last an estimated 3 days. I could go on but that's perhaps an entirely different blog post. For now let's just say you need it. A LOT.

What does it do?

The answer to that is, everything! From being one of the basic building blocks of your cells, to helping deliver nutrients around the body, to lubricating your joints, it does an good many jobs. Can you see now why we need it?!?

In other news it also increases the radiance of your skin, strength of your hair and can aid weight loss. Again for now lets just say it does lots of good things on top of keeping you alive.

So back to that glass of water.

How long is your night? Even if you get a good 8 or 9 hours sleep a night your bedtime routine may actually be longer than that. Think about the last time you have drink before you go to bed. Is it a last cup of tea whilst watching that final episode of Dowton Abbey? Or do you take one up with you and drink it whilst reading once you've got into bed before you turn the lights off? What about in the morning do you have a drink with you breakfast after you are up and dressed or before?

The time in between is a long time to go without water and as we have already discussed, dehydration can set in very quickly.

Drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning before you do anything helps to rehdrate the body. It helps flush out the stomach and balance the lymphatic system. It helps flush out toxins and can help improve your digestive system.

It may also help boost your metabolism, and if like me you are definately NOT a morning person, that means more energy.

How much should you drink?

Advice seems to vary. One website I found suggested 650ml, or 3 cups, first thing in the morning. Another said 16oz, or around 454ml or 2 cups. Another said 1-2L.

What is clear though, from all of them, is that you need to start with a smaller amount and build up to get used to it and of course you do need to be aware that you can drink too much water.

Though it is rare unless you are elderly, have a life threatening condition, or are an athlete in training - but even then you are probably already consuming electrolytes to help protect yourself. The rest of us would have to drink a LOT of water for overhydration to happen.

I'm going to start with half a glass tomorrow and gradually work up to one full glass. From there I'll see how I feel. I might work up to two, I might not.

My reasons?

You don't actually need to drink as much water as we are often told. You get a significant anount of water from your food, fruit, veg, soup, milk, ice lollies all contain water. And of course there is the common misconception that tea, coffee and fruit juice don't count - of course they do! They contain water don't they? Unless all you do is drink coffee (and that's a lot of caffine by they way) then a couple of cups a day will still add to your water intake.