What is the reccomended amount of water you are supposed to drink per day?

Question

What is the reccomended amount of water you are supposed to drink per day?

Answer 1

The guy who died running the Marathon last year did so because he drank too much water!

According to a Consultant friend of mine, the original research into dehydration concluded that the average person, on an average day, in average weather conditions, doing an average amount of exercise, lost around a total of 4 pints of fluid through perspiration, urination, respiration, etc.

This needs to be replaced.

The big "but" here is that this was seized upon by magazines who advocated that everyone should drink 8 oz of water, 8 times a day to remain hydrated.

The fallacy in that, is that the fruit and veg we eat are virtually all "water"; we drink beverages; fish, meat, etc., contains water.  So we are replacing much of the 4 pints a day without touching a drop of actual water.

A better indication of your own personal fluid needs is to check that your urine during the main part of the day is straw-coloured, not brown, while remembering that it is influenced by the food you eat (e.g. beetroot can produce an interesting effect!).

And drink when you are thirsty although this isn't a dependable guideline either.

Answer 2

1 and a half litres a day minimum. But you can drink too much so be carefull, there was a man on the news the other day that had drank so much while he was training that he died - the article said that he drowned!

Answer 3

The correct amount is disputed depending on who you talk to. Generally drink when you are thirsty - your body knows when you are dehydrated.

Answer 4

Well it is 8 by 8 but here is a WikiHow that says how to drink more.

http://www.wikihow.com/Drink-More-Water-...

Hope I helped!

Answer 5

half your body weight in ounces so if you weight 128 than you would want to drink 64oz

Answer 6

3 litres

Answer 7

8 glasses, 8 ounces each.   So, 64 ounces a day.

Answer 8

2 litres of water is the recommended daily allowance.

Answer 9

1.5 to 2 litres.

Answer 10

8 250ml glasses every day.

Answer 11

its 1.5 litres this is liquid not water

so this includes tea, coffee, milk, fruit juice and fizzy drink

Answer 12

8 glasses

Answer 13

Anyone who states as scientific fact that you must religiously drink 8 glasses of pure water without taking into account other drinks and the little fact that vegetables, fruit and meats all contain varying amounts of water has no idea what they are talking about.

If you drank 8 glasses of water long enough without supplying yourself with enough electrolytes, you can suffer pulmonary edema, possible cardiac arrythmias because of pseudo hyponartremia and hypokalemia and damage your kidneys because of the electrolyte imbalance and excess work. It's even possible to suffer from brain edema.

The crackpot who published this as "medical fact" wasn't even a liscensed doctor, just some dude who saw a quicky opportunity to get a quick buck.

Water bottelling companies further feed the myth by keeping the myth alive to sell more.

Usually, your own body will tell you when you need to drink. Two glasses of any liquid and what you eat would suffice unless you feel thirsty. I will note that this isn't a testament rule, your rate of dehydration varies on what the temperature is, if you're doing exercise and also some medications and diseases (like diabetes) cause you to urinate more which means you need to drink more to fill demand. Don't count out diabetes insipida by pituitary malfunction but this isn't the norm because most people don't have that specific disease thankfully.

Snopes.com has a fun article about the origins of the 8 glasses of water myth.

BTW; you can drink gatorade and such drinks if you like them, but remember that if you don't drink other sources of liquids in the long run some people develop kidney stones.

Answer 14

Hello,

(ANS) Frankly, this entire idea that we MUST drink so much water each day is utter and complete TWADDLE!! its pseudo medical non sense.

Lets examine some facts that pertain to actual reality:-

a) Humans need a certain amount of fluid in take each day for a healthy functioning body (that means NOT becoming over loaded with fluid nor dehydrated either).

b) The actual amount of fluid a person needs each 24hrs will vary due a wide number of different facts, for example:- age, height & weight i.e. Body Mass index, weather you live a sedentary life style or a very active one each as working in an office or dig holes in the road and do a great deal of lifting & carrying, the temperature & environment you work in. The amount you sweat i.e. loose water.

c) So the amount of fluid intake required by the body each day is going to be as varied as human beings are different.

d) Normally most people will get enough fluid in take from 3-4 cups of tea or coffee, soft drinks and meals without ANY need to drinking more & more.

e) You can actually OVER DO or drink TOO MUCH fluids per day and that can contrary to popular belief be very bad for the body, it forces the kidneys & liver to work harder than is really necessary.

Regards Ivan.

Answer 15

Well that is a very open debate.  I can say from my own experience (I am quite old and going grey ) that I had a lot of joint ache problems which went away when I started drinking just 4 glasses of water a day.

On the other hand, I have a pal who is very fit and healthy, is 80 yrs young and never touches the stuff!!

Answer 16

8 pints (2 litres).