How much water should I drink in a day?

Keep in mind that your water intake should be over an entire day and not all at once. Drinking large amounts of water in a short period of time can result in water intoxication thereby flushing out necessary electrolytes. So yes, it is possible to drink too much water.


NEW RESEARCH! Many foods, especially raws fruits and vegetables already have water in them so much of your water will come from your food; therefore, it is not necessary to drink eight 8 oz. glasses of water when you are eating water rich foods.

The kidneys of a healthy adult can process fifteen liters of water a day. You are less likely to suffer from water intoxication, if you drink it over the entire day's time as opposed to drinking a huge volume at one time. Most adults need about 3 quarts of fluid each day and a lot of that water will come from food. The typical recommendation is 8 - 12 eight ounce glasses of water a day. More water will probably be necessary for your body if you live where the weather is hot or very dry. Also if you are exercising or if you are taking certain medications you may need more water than what is typical. It is certainly possible to drink too much water and suffer from water intoxication although it is a very uncommon condition. And yes, infants can get water intoxification from too much water through the bottle in a short period of time.

What if you are morbidly obese? -

If you are morbidly obese, which refers to patients who are 50-100% or 100 pounds above their ideal body weight, then consulting your physician on this subject would be critically necessary. A BMI (body mass index) value greater than 39 "may be used" to diagnose morbid obesity.

How can you tell how much your kidneys are flushing? -

Healthy kidneys remove wastes and excess fluid from the blood. Blood tests show whether the kidneys are failing to remove wastes. Urine tests can show how quickly body wastes are being removed and whether the kidneys are leaking abnormal amounts of protein. (Blood tests - serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen).

Does iced tea count as water ?

Let's put it this way, iced tea is liquid and most certainly does hydrate your body, BUT . . . iced tea, lemonade and soda pop are typically laced with sugar and your body might say, "hey, thanks for the unnecessary sugar, I'll just change that into fat, thank you very much." These products do hydrate the body, only it is with unnecessary chemicals that will be converted to fat. Water is H2O. This means it is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. That's pure nature, going down smooth and cool. I have a 74 oz. jug that I fill with water and drink every day. I drink tap water. I don't buy bottled water. It's an environmental thing. I just can't in Good conscience throw out that many empty plastic bottles a day. I will also use Propel Fitness water packets to flavor my water. I don't buy the Propel bottled water, again because it's an environmental thing with all those plastic bottles, so I buy the powdered packets to add to my water because its like drinking straight vitamin water and tastes Good too.

When you exercise -

By all means, when you exercise or if you have a laborious job, then drink at least 20 more ounces of water a day to replenish the fluids that you may be losing at a quicker rate than someone that does not have your lifestyle.


Source : How many ounces of water should I drink in a day? Daily water amounts . . .

But first, how many ounces are in a glass of water? -

That depends on the size of your glass.

After all, the word glass is descriptive for the material that a container is made from and says nothing about the size or volume of the container.

If the size of your glass container holds 8 ounces, then it is an 8 ounce glass. Same goes for a 16 or 64 ounce glass container.

A true "cup," (as in measuring cup and not a huge mug at coffee shop) is 8 ounces.

* 8 ounces = 1 cup and 16 cups = 1 gallon

* 16 ounces = 2 cups = 1 pint and 8 pints = 1 gallon

* 32 ounces = 4 cups = 1 quart and 4 quarts = 1 gallon

* 128 ounces = 16 cups = 1 gallon

* 33.8140226 ounces = 1 liter

* 1000 ml = 1 liter

* 3.7854118 liters = 1 gallon

_______________________________________
Agnel's Signature:

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true

I guess for a gal itts important to have at least 3 Lit. of water per day. if its more no probs but not less than 3Lit tats wat I follow.

_______________________________________
Aero's Signature:

Every morning after I wake up I take nearly 500 ml

Then at office, I take nearly 1.5 litres

After 6PM till 12... nearly 500 - 1000 ml on average...

But if I jog, then quite easily I take 1-1.5 litres

SO if I jog, it is 4-5 litres, else 3-4 litres

_______________________________________
Agnel's Signature:

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true

I used to drink quite less in the past. But now i drink quite often and a lot,

Btw drinking water often also keeps diseases at bay and especially during Viral fever (Doc might wanna confirm this part)

_______________________________________
Safin's Signature:

Have Fun, Take part in debates, Read jokes, Ogle at Celebs; Just follow the Rules!

“There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it.”

I almost drink about 6-8 liters of water every day. Now that i have started working out someday's i just drink about 10 liters per day

Also i drink 2 glasses of water 10-15 minutes before lunch/dinner. This helps in killing quite a bit of my appetite.

drinking plenty of water always helps to weed out germs / undigested solids / outta body.

food gets digested better if we drink plenty of water regularly.

instead of a bunch together little amounts spread over whole day will benefit more.

extremely cold and extremely hot water will cause more damage, you can drink cold water but comfortably cold.

while sick our body system perspirates more so more water during viral fever like diseases will definitely be almost like a dose of medicine or a shot of injection

_______________________________________
medpal's Signature:

@medpal - with you being a health professional, is the amount of water you might drink in a day proportional to a persons body mass, or more in line with the energy/sweat they expend during the course of that day? In other words, how much water should we aim to drink, (on average) to ensure a healthy balance of fluid

it depends more on skin area rather than mass alone. other factors to be counted are your environment, heat, perspiration, exercises or heavy activity, urine output and your physical condition.

in general a healthy person with average sedentory lifestyle will do with 2.5 litres of intake a day.

but the moment you add physical activity you need to pump in liquid calories built within your water intake.

While the worst condition is of patients of burns injury, our burnt / broken skin will let whole water evaporate through, so you need to exponentiate the intake if you suffer such injuries.

and airconditioned environment does not prevent perspiration it just evaporates it so do take about 20% more water if you are in continuous airconditioned or heated environment .

_______________________________________
medpal's Signature:

Doc I have a question.

Is this related to "How many times I should urinate in a day"? and also the color of urine matters?

If one drinks too much of water, it is usually colorless and looks like water. If one doesn't take enough, it looks a little yellow... which is normal and should be maintained?

_______________________________________
Agnel's Signature:

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true