There’s something I learned about hydration that I can never forget: if you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated.
It’s a rule of thumb that can come in handy if you are out on a long hike or on the beach in the middle of summer when the risk of becoming dehydrated is pretty high. But day-to-day, I rarely pay attention to how much water I drink or how dehydrated my body could be. Despite the ever-growing popularity of mega-sized water bottles and counting the number of glasses people should drink in a day, most of us (a large estimate on my part) are not as obsessed with how many glasses or ounces of water we consume. But should we be? Numerous studies suggest that increasing our water intake could be good for our health. If we go by the rule of thumb that if you are thirsty, it’s already too late, we are probably all a little dehydrated a large percentage of the time.
See Larq Bottle PureVis 2 at Amazon
Larq Bottle PurVis 2 If you are looking for a fun way to drink more water and you have the means to spend a decent amount on a water bottle, the Larq PureVis2 is a good time. Pros Makes mundane task of drinking water fun
Makes mundane task of drinking water fun Easy setup Cons Very expensive
Very expensive Some functioning hiccups
That’s at least part of the premise behind the Larq Bottle PureVis 2, a smart water bottle that tracks how much water you’ve consumed throughout your day. The bottle contains an internal sensor system that measures the water level inside it each time you take a sip and reclose the top. That’s one part of Larq. The other part is a proprietary cleaning system attached to the bottle’s straw that cleans and purifies the water inside. All together, the device is about as high-tech as a water bottle can get. And at $140 for the 34-ounce and $130 for the 23-ounce bottle, you likely need to be quite serious about your hydration needs to justify the cost.
Drinking Water Like It’s a Video Game
While I’ve tracked many health metrics in the past, I’ve honestly never thought all that much about hydration. Despite knowing the scary rule that thirst usually means dehydration—and that water is literally essential to life—I’ve mainly just drank water when I’m thirsty and stopped when I felt hydrated. So I was super curious to see how much water I was actually consuming based on vibes alone.
When you first set up the Larq Bottle PureVis 2, it takes you through a series of questions about your water needs, including your age and how often and vigorously you typically exercise. Based on those questions, the app told me that I should consume about 57.1 ounces of water per day. That seemed fairly doable, especially considering how hot it was (summer in New York City has been high 80s Fahrenheit) and the fact that I go on at least a 30-minute-ish run most days.
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