It is always important to drink enough. But especially in heat, it is essential to maintain hydration. MeinMMO editor Sophia Weiß drinks a lot, but often the wrong things. A brilliant app now holds a mirror up to her.
In the height of summer, the weather often enslaves us with temperatures around and above 30 degrees. Cooling off is the first thought that comes to mind. But it is also important to drink regularly and, above all, enough. Drinking is really vital since the body cannot survive without sufficient fluid.
The Consumer Center states, for example, that water is essential for transporting nutrients through the body, excreting toxins via the kidneys, and regulating body temperature. Particularly the latter is important on hot summer days – it is difficult to sweat when you water your body as often as a cactus.
In order to reach my personal drinking goals, I got myself a tracking app. However, it first cleared up my ignorance: Not everything I drink during the day hydrates me enough – some things actually dehydrate me negatively because I have to go pee more often. And exactly for this reality check, I love Waterllama, a tracking app for iOS.
How much should I drink each day?
Since we at MeinMMO are not health experts, we have gathered information here 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 a day. However, the actual amount needed can be three or even four times higher on hot days and when engaged in sports or heavy work. The AOK agrees with this. The Techniker Krankenkasse, on the other hand, directly recommends drinking two to three liters of fluid per day.
The AOK’s website also provides tips on how to hydrate while exercising: It recommends consuming about 0.3 to 0.5 liters of fluid every 15 to 30 minutes and at least a little every 15 minutes after one hour of activity.
Waterllama doesn’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 won an award for cultural influence from Apple in 2022.
In the app, you fill in a silhouette of a selectable character with colorful bars day by day by entering your drinks. Each bar represents a different drink, leading to great color combinations. Unless you, like me, primarily drink water, black tea, and energy drinks. Then the block stays rather blue and olive green.
Waterllama natively offers over 150 types of drinks but also allows users to add drinks themselves. For example, I entered Energy Drink Zero to accurately represent my consumption of calorie-free caffeinated beverages.
What I find particularly good is that the app also takes into account the hydration level of different drinks: Coffee is indeed a liquid, but it only hydrates by 90%. This is probably because coffee is diuretic, so you have to go to the bathroom more quickly or often (via bzfe.de).
I also can’t just chug three liters of beer in a beer tent and say I’ve reached my hydration goal of three liters of fluids. Beer with a little alcohol actually hydrates -40% in the app – so you have to consume even more non-alcoholic fluids when drinking alcohol. The dehydrating effect of alcohol is also described by the AOK on their website.
Easily and quickly enter drinks – This is how Waterllama works
To keep me engaged, the app allows me to set automated reminders. Currently, it pings me on my Apple Watch every two hours. However, you can also completely disable this feature.
Creating entries is also quite simple: At the bottom of the screen, the self-selected types of drinks are displayed. With a click, a menu opens where the amount consumed can be entered in milliliters either via keyboard input or slider. Pressing the button confirms it, and you have already tracked your drink.
Your daily fluid goal can either be calculated by entering your personal data such as gender, weight, activity level, and current weather or set yourself.
Apart from the core functions, the app also offers some fun features: It gives tips about drinking or challenges you to multi-day drink challenges. I once participated in the Tea 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 are filled in daily, all serve the same function. However, they are very lovingly and detailed designed. Unlocking them is completely free with daily entries or challenges.
However, not everything is free with Waterllama: The app can be downloaded and tested for free. But for permanent and complete use, a subscription is necessary. The costs here are 0.99 euros per month. You can also purchase the app for a one-time price, usually between 7.99 euros and 9.99 euros.
Click on the images to enlarge them and take a closer look at the UI of Waterllama:
Waterllama – is it worth it or not?
In fact, the price or the sales practices are so far the only downside I see with Waterllama. During my testing phase, I was repeatedly presented with the one-time purchase offer in the app, accompanied by a timer suggesting temporal exclusivity.
I liked the app after a few days of testing, so I took the plunge. However, during research for my article, I discovered that this lifetime offer is not a one-time thing: According to iosapps.de and HealthAppInsider.com, the offer is permanently available. This makes the pressure to buy exercised within the app feel a bit sour afterward.
The very playful design also probably isn’t for everyone. It makes me happy, and I enjoy selecting a new drinking animal each day.
For me, Waterllama thus absolutely fulfills the purpose of being a simple and appealing app for tracking fluid intake. Since the app can also send its data to Apple Health, I have the information in my central database and can combine them with my other tracked health data. And I’m having fun doing it.
Of course, there are many other apps that allow for clean tracking of water, coffee, beer, and more, including many with less playful designs. Or even for Android. For example, WaterMinder, which is labeled as Editor’s Choice by HealthAppInsider (Waterllama is ranked second here). The app is designed more simply overall. The GameStar, on the other hand, presents five different trackers in a 2023 review: Drink Water Reminder, Water Drink Reminder, Plant Nanny, Hydro Coach, and Water Tracker.
But if you don’t want additional apps, you can simply enter your fluid intake directly on iPhones via the Health app and on Android with Google Fit or on Samsung devices also with Samsung Health.
No matter whether with or without an app, you should now be prepared for the next heat waves in summer. But: Drinking enough is important, but it is not enough for physical well-being on most really hot days. Therefore, the MeinMMO editorial team has gathered a total of 19 tips on how you can withstand the height of summer and cool down.
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