Adjust Water Intake Based on Exercise.

[AHummel]

I'm coaching a team of students who did a project hoping to contact Fitbit about the way they track water. They feel it would be beneficial to it's users if they added a feature where they could have their water intake recommendation increased by 12 ounces per 30 minutes of logged exercised. Please read the letter they drafted below for more information and the research that supports it, plus formulas for accurate water tracking!

Dear Fitbit and Fitbit Users,

Greetings. We are a F.I.R.S.T (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League Robotics team competing in the 2017-2018 robotics season. Our competition consists of robot games but also includes a project that we select from the year’s theme. This year’s FIRST Lego League project has to do with hydrodynamics and the human water cycle. Our task is to come up with an innovative solution that improves the way we use water, or a solution to problems that might exist within the human water cycle.

While brainstorming potential projects, our team realized that while there were many ways that humans interact with water, one of its most vital uses is keeping us hydrated. Water is responsible for many bodily functions, such as digestion and regulating body temperatures, and without the proper hydration levels, these functions can fail. Drinking water also increases the rate of metabolism, which burns calories. We concluded that if we could find a way to help people determine the exact amount of water they needed to stay hydrated, it would be very beneficial to their health as up to 75% of Americans may suffer from chronic dehydration.

As most people concerned with fitness know, 8 glasses a day is an old generalization. The new standard to calculate how much water a person should be drinking is by taking half their weight in ounces. This is before factoring in things like exercise, climate conditions, and foods eaten. The American College of Sports Medicine also recommends 12 ounces of water per thirty minutes of exercise. Calculations can be taken as shown below. These formulas are from the University of Missouri:

How much water you should drink, before factoring in physical activity:

Calculation: Your weight x 0.5 = oz. of water per day

Example: 200lbs x 0.5 = 100 oz. per day

How much water you should drink, when factoring in physical activity:

Calculation: Previous result +(x minutes of exercise/30 minutes x 12 oz.) = oz. of water per day.

Example: 100 + ( 60 minutes of exercise/30 minutes x 12 oz.) = 124 oz. per day

After browsing through the featured suggestions forum on Fitbit’s website, we realize that accurate water tracking is a feature that many users desire and have been requesting since at least 2014. The main feature being requested is for your device to buzz and remind you to drink water. A second request through the forum threads is more accurate water recommendations based on weight. This should be easy to do because Fitbit already requests information on a users weight to help them reach their goals. One item not mentioned was the fact that we need to drink additional water based on our exercise level. We feel like adding a water adjustment based on exercise would be another easy change for Fitbit to make. Since one of the main points of a Fitbit is to measure your physical activity, if a Charge 2 detects that there was 30 minutes of Elliptical activity, it would be easy to add 12 ounces to the, say, 60 ounces a 120 LB person would need to drink daily!

We know not everyone cares a lot about tracking their water, but from our research, we have found that those truly enthusiastic and motivated about weight loss actually track their water and food very carefully. We have interviewed many people who would love to see this change to water tracking happen to MyFitness pal and hope that you can make this happen. Please contact us with feedback or recommendations, as this will be helpful in our project.

Sincerely,

Caleb, Hailey, Katelyn, Tanner

F.I.R.S.T. Lego League - Team: Fantastic Four

*The Truth About How Much Water You Should Really Drink - by: Yuri Elkaim, registered holistic nutritionist

*Tips On Hydration From A Sports Dietitian - by: Melinda Johnson, MS, RDS; Director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics and a Clinical Professor for the Nutrition at Arizona State University.

*How to Calculate How Much Water You Should Drink - University of Missouri

*Roundtable on Hydration and Physical Activity - American College of Sports Medicine: Authored by; Douglas J. Casa, PhD, ATC, FACSM*, Priscilla M. Clarkson, PhD, FACSM, and William O. Roberts, MD, FACSM.

*Water-Induced Thermogenesis - The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism: Authored by; Michael Boschmann, Jochen Steiniger, Uta Hille, Jens Tank, Frauke Adams, Arya M. Sharma, Susanne Klaus, Friedch C. Luft, Jens Jordan

*75% of Americans May Suffer From Chronic Dehydration, According to Doctors - Medical Daily: Authored by: John Ericson

[heidifinition]

If fitbit can tell us how much more food to eat after exercise, why not water? I have so much trouble drinking enough water, and the tracker helps so much, but it stops at 8 cups/ 64 ounces. That's only the minimum and we should be drinking more than that, especially those struggling to lose weight. 

[Michael]

Did you know that you can adjust the goal? (Yeah, it won't track your activity, but at least you can set it at something you want.)

Note: I think you have to use the "beta" dashboard to adjust it.

[heidifinition]

I'd be adjusting my goal daily. 😞 Better than nothing, though. 

[SunsetRunner]

Tracking water intake may not be all that useful.

Google "water myth" and you'll find that there is no scientific support behind the common belief that we need "8 glasses of water a day" to be healthy.  Drinking water when thirsty or enough that urine isn't dark yellow is usually good enough.  Forcing yourself to drink more than this has no health benefit.

There have been some studies which show increasing water intake while on a weight loss diet was better that the diet alone, but the evidence wasn't very strong. Certainly drinking water instead of pop, juice or alcohol is better for weight loss since that would result in a net loss of calories.  Additionally, drinking water before a meal will allow the "full feeling" to occur sooner.

Keep in mind that when health professionals suggest we need a certain amount of water per day, that's usually from all sources and not just from drinking water.  A large amount of our daily water intake is from food. eg. Apples are about 85% water by weight. 

If weight loss is a persons goal, then tracking & reducing calories is far more effective than tracking water intake.  Given the weak scientific evidence, I don't bother tracking water at all -- it's hardly worth the effort.

[Raven913]

I've also heard that minimum daily water requirements should be based on one's weight, dividing weight (pounds) by 2 and drinking that number in ounces. If that's true, 64 ounce minimum would be for a 128 pound individual. Of course, that wouldn't even factor in additional water needed for exercise or medications/vitamin supplements being taken.

I think urine color is probably the best indicator of hydration, but if you're heavier than 128 and/or exercising and/or taking medication or vitamin supplements you probably need more than 64 ounces of water.

[DerrickS]

@heidifinition This is a good idea. People who work out more need generally to drink more water. Thanks for sharing your idea with us.

[AHummel]

Last paragraph should read "Fitbit," not "MyFitnessPal." We drafted a similar letter to MFP and reused that last paragraph, then cut and pasted to save time. We forgot to change it and it slipped through the final edit. Oops!

[Heather-S]

This sounds pretty amazing!  I would love reminders throughout the day to drink more water.  It's so easy to get very busy at work and just forget to drink water, even though my water is right next to me!  I also love the new recommendations for how much water you as an individual should need.  Great job!  

[DavideFitbit]

That’s an interesting idea, I think this could be very useful, thanks for sharing this suggestion. Keen to hear what others think? 

[SantiR]

Hi everyone, thanks for sharing this suggestion. We're always striving to enhance Fitbit products and services, and we appreciate all of the input we receive from our customers. We do not currently have plans to release this feature. You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs located at the top right box of the Feature Suggestions Board screen. For now, we will leave this suggestion open for votes (and closed to comments) so that we can continue to track community demand over time. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us and we will let you know if anything changes.