It is always important to drink enough. But especially in heat, it is essential to maintain proper hydration. MeinMMO editor Sophia Weiß drinks a lot, but often the wrong things. A brilliant app now holds up a mirror to her.
In the summer heat, the weather regularly torments us with temperatures around or above 30 degrees. Cooling down is the first thought that comes to mind. But it is also important to drink regularly and, most importantly, enough. Drinking is really vital, as the body cannot stay alive without enough fluid.
The Consumer Center states that water is essential for transporting nutrients throughout the body, eliminating toxins through the kidneys, and regulating body temperature. Especially the latter is important on hot summer days – it is difficult to sweat well when you water your body as often as a cactus.
To reach my personal drinking goals, I got myself a tracking app. However, it initially cleared up some ignorance for me: Not everything I drink during the day hydrates me enough – some things even dehydrate me because I have to go to the bathroom more often. And this is exactly why I love Waterllama, a tracking app for iOS.
How much should I drink in a day?
Since we at MeinMMO are not health experts, we have gathered information for you from the Consumer Center, the Techniker Krankenkasse, and the AOK.
The Consumer Center recommends that every adult should drink 1.5 liters of water per day. However, the actual amount needed can be three to four times higher on hot days and during activities like sports and heavy work. The AOK agrees. However, the Techniker Krankenkasse directly recommends drinking two to three liters of fluid per day.
The AOK’s website also provides tips on how to stay hydrated while exercising: It recommends consuming about 0.3 to 0.5 liters of fluid every 15 to 30 minutes and drinking at least a bit every 15 minutes after an hour of exercise.
Waterllama won’t let me cheat
I installed Waterllama about three months ago because I was dissatisfied with the fluid tracking of my nutrition tracker. The app was designed in 2019 by a Ukrainian couple and was awarded by Apple in 2022 for cultural influence.
In the app, you fill out a silhouette of a selectable character with colorful bars day by day by entering your beverages. Each bar represents a different drink, leading to great color combinations. Unless, like me, you primarily drink water, black tea, and energy drinks. Then the block remains quite blue and olive-colored.
Waterllama offers over 150 types of beverages natively but also allows users to add drinks themselves. For example, I entered Energy Drink Zero to accurately reflect my consumption of calorie-free caffeinated beverages.
What I particularly appreciate is that the app also considers the hydration level of various drinks: while coffee is a liquid, it only hydrates 90%. This is probably because coffee is a diuretic, so you have to go to the bathroom faster or more often (via bzfe.de).
I can’t chug three liters of beer at the beer tent and then say I’ve reached my hydration goal of three liters of fluid. Beer with low alcohol actually hydrates -40% in the app – meaning you actually need to consume even more non-alcoholic fluids when drinking alcohol. The dehydrating effect of alcohol is also described by the AOK on its website.
Easily and quickly register drinks – This is how Waterllama works
To stay on track, the app allows me to set automated reminders. Currently, it pings me on my Apple Watch every two hours. However, you can also turn off this feature completely.
Creating entries is also quite simple: At the bottom of the screen, the selected types of beverages are displayed. By clicking, a menu opens where the amount drunk in milliliters can be entered using a keyboard input or slider. Confirming with the button and you have tracked your drink.
You can calculate your daily fluid goal either by entering your own data such as sex, weight, activity level, and current weather or set it yourself.
Besides the core functions, the app also has some fun features: It gives tips on drinking or prompts multi-day drinking challenges. Once I participated in the Tee Rex
challenge, where I had to track tea at least once daily for ten consecutive days to unlock a T-Rex as a new drink figure.
The drink figures, whose silhouettes you fill out daily, all serve the same function. However, they are designed in a very loving and detailed way. Unlocking them can be done completely for free with daily entries or challenges.
However, not everything about Waterllama is free: The app can be downloaded and tested for free. But for permanent and complete use, a subscription is required. The cost is €0.99 per month. You can also buy the app for a one-time price, which usually ranges between €7.99 and €9.99.
Click on the images to enlarge and take a closer look at the Waterllama UI:
Waterllama – does it work or not?
In fact, so far the price and sales practices are the only drawbacks of Waterllama in my view. During my testing phase, the app repeatedly suggested the one-time purchase offer, adorned with a timer suggesting temporal exclusivity.
I liked the app after a few days of testing, so I went for it. However, while researching for my article, I found out that this lifetime offer is not a one-time thing: According to iosapps.de and HealthAppInsider.com, the offer is permanently available. This gives the pressure to buy exercised in the app a rather unpleasant aftertaste.
The very playful design is also probably not for everyone. It makes me happy, and I gladly choose a new drinking character every day.
For me, Waterllama absolutely serves its purpose as a simple and engaging app for tracking fluid intake. Because the app can also send data to Apple Health, I have the information in my central database and can combine it with my other tracked health data. And I also have fun doing it.
Do I have to use Waterllama to track water? Of course, there are many other apps that allow for clean tracking of water, coffee, beer, and the like, some with less playful designs. Or even for Android. Here are a few examples:
Water Minder – iOS & Android
According to HealthAppInsider , the best overall package for a tracking app. The app looks a lot simpler than Waterllama and might therefore appeal more to app purists.
Plant Nanny – iOS & Android
With Plant Nanny, you are the parent of a small digital plant that you care for and water by tracking your beverages. More gamified than Waterllama, the app is recommended by GameStar as being more suitable for people who want to drink more in a playful manner.
Hydro Coach – iOS & Android
Hydro Coach ranks third at HealthAppInsider and also appears in the introduction of GameStar. The app is said to be very good for Android smartphones due to the broad data synchronization possibilities. Additionally, there is weather integration and a social feature that allows you to add friends.
Water Tracker – iOS & Android
The GameStar states that Water Tracker is the most comprehensive app in their test. The design is modern and clear. Additionally, according to the test, the app does not overwhelm the user.
Apple Health, Google Fit & Samsung Health
For those who don’t want additional apps, you can directly enter fluid consumption via the Health app on iPhones or with Google Fit on Android or Samsung devices with Samsung Health.
No matter if with or without app, you should now be prepared for the next heat waves in summer. However, drinking enough is important, but it is usually not enough for physical well-being on most really hot days. Therefore, the MeinMMO editorial team has compiled a total of 19 tips on how to withstand the summer heat and cool down.
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