Since there are so many great apps out there, I want to ask the ever-so-important question: Which one is absolutely essential to your daily life?
I'll go first: Waterllama! I started using it a few months ago because I really like to know precisely what and how much I drink each day, especially during the summer.
I'd love to hear about the app you use the most and why it's so important to you. And if you have any tips or tricks for getting the most out of the app, I'd love to hear those too!
No. It doesn't. Research that points to it being a good thing to avoid ever getting thirsty in the first place, is funded by companies that want to sell you water. Preferably bottled, at an inordinate markup.
Most people only notice their thirst due to their busy lives, by the time it gets really bad. But you get thirsty FAR in advance of it being an issue, it just isn't an insistent feeling.
Hydration trackers, at best, help people who keep busy to actually slow down for a sec and check the state of their body.
In reality, most people who don't get enough water, can solve their problem with one additionall glass with one of their daily meals.
An app is like downing the entire jar of vitamins when one pill a day would do the trick.
Hydration isn't an hour to hour issue. You don't sweat and piss liters a day. And you aren't supposed to either. Fad diet plans that actually work by losing waterweight, still show the weight loss over days, not hours.
Not drinking on a schedule does not risk dehydration.
When I lived in Phoenix, dehydration really was an hour by hour issue. Aside from people spending long periods of time in extreme conditions, you are correct though. If you spend your days in an air conditioned home or office, 8 glasses a day is probably excessive. If you are going to drink that much, make sure you are replenishing your electrolytes too. A typical highly processed American diet is probably sufficient though.
Heat stroke might've been an hour to hour issue. But the human body is 60% water. You're not going to sweat out the several kilograms of water required to shift that percentage significantly, even within a whole day.
Yes, a human will die of thirst before hunger, but that still takes days, not hours, and the majority of that liquid loss will be due to urination, not heat related sweating.
The bad feels of hot weather has more to do with the heat itself, and the salts and those electrolytes you're sweating out.