Everyone has heard that drinking water throughout a day is healthy, right? But have you heard of drinking HOT water could be better? The first time I heard about this was in a Japanese article. It said drinking hot water could detox the body and could even aid weight loss (What?). Many Japanese women were jumping on this method like this was some kind of magic. I couldn’t figure out why… How does water temperature make any difference? Why not drink it cold? I want to know more about these benefits in detail! So I researched. I’ve been testing this method myself too. For now, I’ve been drinking hot water every day for more than a few months. Today, I’m going to talk about the benefits of drinking hot water in general as well as my personal experience going through the process.
Benefits of Drinking Hot Water
Drinking hot water turns out to have a lot more benefits than I ever imagined.
Relieve coldness in body
Someone who is always cold (like me), this is a great benefit.
Consuming too much cold food and/or too much stress can cause coldness in our bodies. Hot water can relieve this symptom by boosting metabolism and blood circulation.
I definitely get relief from being cold by drinking hot water, but unfortunately it is just a temporary effect. To stay warm, I need to drink hot water quite often throughout the day.
Relieve aches
This benefit is related to the previous one. When our bodies are cold, our blood flow tends to slow down. This could lead to some unwanted body aches. Heat from hot water can help.
I tend to get shoulder ache from sitting at my desk for a long time. My muscle tenses up and even spasms sometimes. I know I feel shoulder pain when my work area is cold… By warming myself up by drinking hot water, my muscles feel less tense.
Relieve constipation / detoxing
Hot water aids digestion and helps our body eliminate waste. I feel I’ve been flushing out excess water ever since I started this experiment. I used to gain 2-3 pounds of water weight during my PMS. Now, I barely hold any water retention during my PMS.
Weight loss
Hot water may help with weight loss. By heating up our digestive systems, our basal metabolism goes up to burn more calories. Drinking hot water also stimulates blood and lymph flow, which lead to eliminating excess water from the body.
As I already mentioned, I’m doing so good with water retention! For actual weight loss though, and I mean fat loss, I can’t say for certain. I did lose a few pounds but this could be just water weight or could be from reduced appetite because I feel fuller from drinking a lot of hot water throughout the day.
Improving skin condition
By eliminating waste from the body, skin condition could improve.
On this one, I haven’t seen any noticeable results, yet… My skin feels the same as I always did.
Improving immune system
Here is one last benefit that is related to coldness in the body. When our bodies are cold, we are more susceptible to viruses. Staying warm keeps the doctor away.
I haven’t gotten sick at all during this test, but I never get sick anyways, haha! So I’m not a good testing subject for this benefit.
As you can see, I got quite a bit of positive effects by just drinking hot water every day. On top of the benefits I talked about above, I also like how drinking hot water makes me feel. The warmness of the water makes me feel cozy and definitely encourages me to drink more water compared to drinking cold water.
How I Make Hot Water
Making plain hot water is no brainer. I boil water in a kettle, in a microwave, or get hot water from a water dispenser.
Please be careful not to burn yourself. Let the water cool until it is between 120F to 140F and sip it slowly.
Drinking plain hot water every day can get boring. So I added a few more ingredients in a water from time to time.
- Ginger – I make dried ginger slices and steep them in the hot water (Check how I make dehydrated ginger here)
- With Lemon & honey for a little sweetness
Timing
According to what I found, it is recommended to drink hot water first thing in the morning. But some days, skipping morning caffeine is too hard… On those days I drink coffee first thing in the morning and keep drinking hot water the rest of the day as my source of hydration.
On average, I drink 6-8 cups of hot water daily.
I also want to mention that I’m not forcing myself to drink hot water when I feel hot. After my workout or being in the sun, I drink cold water and get back to hot water once I feel normal or cold.
Summary
Overall I find drinking hot water daily has lots of health and beauty benefits. From relieving my pain to losing water retention, there aren’t any downsides that I can think of. Making hot water isn’t really hard at all. If plain hot water isn’t your thing, try adding some natural flavors. I highly recommend anyone to experience this method themselves. If you do, don’t worry about when and how many cups of hot water to drink. Just sip it throughout the day whenever you can every day and keep going. Consistency is the key here. I hope you see good results like I did!
