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How Much Water Do You Need?
Multipure
“Drink eight glasses of water a day” has been the
standard “common sense” hydration advice for decades.
The standard of eight 8-oz glasses – 64
ounces of water in total – has been the de facto standard from doctors,
teachers, and parents around the country.
Recent years have seen debates about the
merits of a single standard for daily hydration.
For this “Hydration Solution” article, we’re
going to examine How Much Water Do You Need?
As we mentioned in our article, “The
Importance of Proper Hydration,” the average adult human body consists of
between 65-75% water.
Hydration is necessary to keep our blood,
bones, muscles, organs, and all our tissues and cells full of the water they
need to function.
Water is lost every day through breathing,
perspiring, urinating, and defecating.
This is why water must be replenished through
food and beverages.
But how much water does the average person
need to replenish this water and stay properly hydrated?
Differing Guidelines from Experts
According to the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the specific daily fluid intake is 15.5
cups (3.7 liters) for men, and 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) for women.
These figures aren’t specific to cups of
water – these figures encompass water, beverages, and food.
The Institute of Medicine recommends slightly
different guidelines for daily hydration: 13 cups (3 liters) of fluid for men,
and 9 cups (2 liters) for women daily.
The Office on Women’s Health recommends that
pregnant women ingest 10 cups (2.4 liters) of fluid daily, and breastfeeding
women consume 13 cups (3.1 liters) daily.
For children and teens, guidelines suggest 6
to 8 cups of water a day, as well as the consumption of fruits and vegetables
that are high in water content (e.g., watermelon, strawberries, oranges,
cucumbers, lettuce, etc.).
A More Specific Hydration Guideline
A more specific hydration guideline than any
of these general recommendations is based on individual body weight – this is
the guideline that Multipure generally uses.
This guideline suggests your recommended
daily intake of water is equal to half your body weight in ounces of water.
A person who weighs 200 pounds should then
ingest 100 ounces (12.5 cups) of water daily.
A person who weighs 120 pounds should ingest
60 ounces (7.5 cups) of water daily.
Factors that Influence Hydration Requirements
While all of these hydration guidelines are
good, it is important to consider additional factors when determining how much
water should be consumed.
These factors include:
Exercise: Activities that
make you perspire will cause you to lose additional body water. Therefore, you
need to drink water before, during, and after exercise to replenish body water.
Particularly strenuous exercise may require you to also replenish the electrolytes
(salts and other minerals) necessary for proper body functionality. A good
guideline is to drink 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water every 15 minutes of exercise.
Environment: Hot or humid
weather can cause additional perspiration, even without strenuous activity.
High altitudes can cause additional fluid loss through dryer air and more rapid
breathing.
Illness: Fever, vomiting,
diarrhea, or other symptoms of illness cause additional fluid loss. Doctors
almost always recommend drinking plenty of liquids when you are suffering from
an illness.
Pregnancy or
breastfeeding:
Pregnant and breastfeeding women require additional fluids to stay hydrated, as
they are supporting not just themselves but also their infant.
What About Hydration from Other Sources?
Water intake recommendations generally
include all sources of hydration – not just drinking water, but also other
beverages and foods.
The issue then becomes what else you are
consuming with these other sources of hydration.
Juices, sodas, and smoothies can hydrate, but
also come with a very high amount of sugar and calories.
Coffee and tea can hydrate, but caffeine is a
diuretic; this means that you will also lose water as caffeine will cause you
to urinate more often.
Sports drinks can hydrate, and will also
provide carbohydrates and electrolytes that can help during exercise or
excessive perspiration. The downside is that sports drinks also generally
contain a high amount of sugar and calories.
Energy drinks contain very high amounts of
sugar, caffeine, and other additives that may cause you to urinate more often.
As such, they are not a good source of hydration.
Alcoholic drinks contain water, but drinking
alcohol will actually dehydrate you, as your body will urinate a great deal
more due to alcohol consumption.
How Do I Know If I’m Hydrated?
There are two simple ways to tell if you are
hydrated:
o You rarely feel
thirsty.
o Your urine is
colorless or light yellow.
What Should I Do If I’m Not Hydrated?
The best way to stay hydrated is to drink
clean, pure drinking water in small to moderate amounts, several times a day.
Aside from that, there are some very simple
guidelines to maintain proper hydration:
o When you’re thirsty,
drink some water.
o If you feel hungry
between meals, drink some water (because thirst is often mistaken as hunger by
the brain).
o During high heat or
exercise, drink water to compensate for perspiration.
o When you’re not
thirsty anymore, stop.
Ultimately, despite all the guidelines and
recommendations giving absolute amounts of water you should drink each day –
including by us here at Multipure, the best determiner of how much water you
need to drink is your body.
Your body will tell you that it needs
hydration, by making you feel hungry or thirsty.
Everything else is a combination of
common-sense advice (e.g., drink when you sweat) and recommendations for better
health (e.g., pregnant women need to drink more, sick people need to drink
more).
While you will get some amounts of hydration
from many other foods and drinks, there really is no substitute for clean,
healthy drinking water, free of additives, chemicals, or anything that might
negatively affect your body.
And the best way to get that clean, healthy
drinking water is through a Multipure drinking water system.
Taste the Difference of Multipure, and stay
hydrated.
The
Multipure Story is about fulfilling an essential human need – clean
drinking water – and in the process, helping people improve their water, their
health, and their lives. The Multipure Story is about being the best in
drinking water, and about offering the best opportunity for people to earn an
income by helping people obtain the best drinking water. The Multipure Story is
about family, and about growing the business through the next generation of the
Rice family, and through the many dedicated Builders considered part of
Multipure’s extended family. The Multipure Story is about making a difference
in the quality of people’s lives, and in improving the world, one person at a
time, one glass of water at a time.
Stay
safe, stay healthy, and Taste the Difference of Multipure.
https://www.multipure.com/purely-social/science/how-much-water-do-you-need/
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