I drank a gallon of water per day for a month

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Let’s start this off with a disclaimer. I’m not a doctor. I’m not qualified to give medical advice. Proceed at your own risk!

I must admit, I have a youtube addiction. One thing that caught my eye recently were videos about drinking a gallon of water a day for a week, a month, and in rare cases, a year. While those who only drank the water for a week sometimes didn’t claim many benefits, the ones who drank a gallon of water a day for a month claimed they: had better skin, had less bloat, had more energy, less headaches, and a myriad of other benefits. 

I had to try it. 

Now I’m not terrible about drinking water. I was probably getting 1/4-1/2 a gallon of water per day before this, though some days I really slacked off and paid for it the next morning. I don’t drink soda, and my alcohol consumption is limited to an evening glass of wine. My one major vice is coffee. I’m a 3-4 cups a day girl (and water had an interesting effect on this, so read on for more details on that). I wasn’t sure how many of the benefits I’d see, but I was pleasantly surprised. With all that out of the way, let’s get into it. 

Oh, also, this is the water container I used. I actually had bought this a few years back because drinking out of a straw seems to make drinking enough water much easier. I like the Bubba brands (I have a few travel coffee containers from them too), and this cup has lasted years with no issues. 

Bubba Brand Water Cup with Straw (1/4 gallon).

Now onward. When I was watching youtube videos and reading other’s experiences, I found myself really wanting a weekly update vs. a daily one, so that’s what I’ll give you. 

Week One: 

Let the water consumption begin. I did some research and found that chugging the water all at once is a very bad idea. It can mess with the sodium levels in your blood, so please do your own research on this, and be careful. I even sometimes added just a pinch of pink salt to my water, just to be safe. 

The first week I was peeing . . . a lot. But duh. When your bladder isn’t used to a lot of water, you’re going to pee a lot. One of the first benefits I noticed was that I was less hungry. I’m not sure what my deal is, but I’m literally ALWAYS hungry. I’ll eat a full, balanced meal, but then I’ll be hungry again ten minutes later. I’ve tried a lot of different nutrition plans for this, but settled on the concept that maybe my hunger cues are just out of whack. But now I’m wondering, am I just dehydrated? It took about five days to see the full effects of this, but I found myself only eating at regular mealtimes. I had the natural inclination to eat my bigger meals earlier in the day, then I’d eat dinner at 6 and not need to eat the rest of the night. This was huge for me, since I tend to be an evening snacker. Evening is my big hungry time, but maybe I was just really dehydrated by the end of my 4 cups of coffee day/1 glass of wine day. 

Another thing I noticed by the end of the week was that bloating was finally going down. I’m also a chronic-bloat sufferer (will literally look like I’m 4 months pregnant), so this was a huge relief. Now the first few days were bloat-city as I felt like a balloon with a bunch of water swishing around inside of me, but eventually my body seemed to regulate this. 

Week Two:

This was the week where I saw the increased energy perk. I was waking up feeling really good, and noticed that workouts felt easier, and instead of feeling tired afterward, I felt energized. This is also where the interesting caffeine effect change took place. I was still drinking 3-4 cups of coffee per day, but…it didn’t affect me as much? I didn’t really feel any ups and downs from it. I was already feeling awake before I’d drink the coffee (I find coffee very comforting, okay?), and would literally feel no effect afterward. My guess is the water was diluting the coffee, but I’m not a doctor or nutritionist. All I know is that I could drink my coffee jitter-free. Maybe this wasn’t a good thing, because I still kept drinking the coffee, but whatever, I felt nice. 

Week Three:

Weight loss! I actually had mixed feelings about this, as I’ve worked hard to accept my weight. I was always pretty thin growing up, but when I hit my late twenties I gained about 15 pounds, and a few pant sizes since I tend to carry weight in my butt and thighs. I was still working out and eating healthy, so I decided this was my body’s new happy weight. Our bodies change as we get older, and that’s just fine. So while I don’t think this water challenge should be used for weight loss, it did happen, so I wanted to include it. I think this due to me no longer snacking in the evening, which was a healthy change. Other than the actual weight going down (I don’t weigh myself, but my clothes did fit looser), I just had an overall feeling of lightness. I felt like it took less effort to move around. 

Also I would like to mention that I was yet to get a single zit at this point. My acne is not nearly what it used to be, usually I’ll just get one zit at a time these days, mostly around my period or ovulation. But I had my period during week two, and not a single zit popped up! 

For more information about how I balanced my hormones and healed my acne, go here. 

Week Four:

I didn’t really see any changes this week, but all of the big changes from the previous weeks were definitely enough for me. Drinking the gallon of water per day got really easy. I was usually done with it by dinner time, and would have a bit more in the form of herbal tea as evening progressed. My peeing tapered off, BUT I was still going more than I used to before the challenge. Which makes sense, it’s a gallon of water, increased pee rates aren’t going away. 

Overall, I am SO happy I did this challenge. I feel amazing. I feel less paranoid about my skin. I’m going to keep this up. Maybe I’ll do a three month or six month update. Maybe I’ll even start drinking less coffee…we’ll see. 

I hope this was helpful, and even if you don’t want to start drinking a gallon a day, I think upping your water intake is worth trying!