How Much Water Should We Drink?

This is a simple question with no easy answer. Studies have produced varying recommendations over the years, but in truth, your water needs depend on many factors, including your health, how active you are and where you live. Though no single formula fits everyone, knowing more about your body’s need for fluids will help you estimate how much water to drink each day.

Water is your body’s principal chemical component, comprising, on average, 60 percent of your weight. Every system in your body depends on water. For example, water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells and provides a moist environment for ear, nose, and throat tissues.

Every day you lose water through your breath, perspiration, urine, and bowel movements. For your body to function properly, you must replenish its water supply by beverages and foods that contain water.

A couple of approaches attempt to approximate water needs for the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate. One is the replacement approach. The average urine output for adults is 1.5 liters per day. You loose close to an additional liter of water a day through breathing, sweating and bowel movements. Food usually accounts for 20 percent of your total fluid intake, so if you consume 2 liters of water or other beverages a day (a little more than 8 cups) along with your normal diet, you will typically replace lost fluids.

Second is a recommendation by the Institute of Medicine. It is men consume roughly 3.0 liters (about 13 cups per day) of total beverages a day and women consume 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day.

Even apart from the above approaches, it is generally the case that if you drink enough fluid so that your rarely feel thirsty and produce between one and two liters of colorless or slightly yellow urine a day, your fluid intake is adequate. u may need to modify your total fluid intake depending on how active you are, the climate you live in, your health status, and if you’re pregnant or breast feeding.

For intense exercise you need to add 13 to 26 ounces (about 3 cups) an hour during the activity. During long bouts of intense exercise, it’s best to use a sports drink that contains sodium, as this will help replace sodium lost in sweat and reduce the chances of developing hyponatremia, which can be life threatening.

Environment can have an effect on how much you sweat. For every pound you lose during exercise, drink 16 ounces to replace it.

If pregnant or breast-feeding, The Institute of Medicine recommends that pregnant women drink 2.4 liters of fluid daily and women who breast feed should drink 3.0 liters per day.