How Much Water Should I Drink Every Day?

There has been a lot of debate on what’s the right amount of water than a normal adult should drink every day. The question, though super simple, has variable answers, because each human is different and hence, the needs of their bodies too will be different.

Primarily, how much water your body needs for proper functioning, depends on three fundamental things:

• Your health status
• How much active you are in your day to day life
• Where you live at the moment.

We all know that more than 60% of the human body weight is composed of water, and it is one vital element we need to survive, since it removes all the toxins from the body, makes sure that essential nutrients are carried to the cells in the body, and also ensures that our throat, ears, as well as nose have a suitable environment to function the right way.

If your body doesn’t get the right amount of water, you will feel dehydrated, making fatigue rule your days as you go fully out of energy, till you drink some water to revive your strength.

So now, coming back to the question: How much water should you drink on a daily basis?

According to the Institute of Medicine, an average male needs around 3 litres of water every day, which amounts to around 13 cups; whereas an average female needs around 2.2 litres of water every day, which amounts to 9 cups.

Every day, our body loses quite an amount of water, through urine, bowel movements, perspiration, breath, and hence, maintaining the right water quotient is way too necessary for our bodies to function well.

While, we now know how much water ideally a normal male and female should drink every day, there are some more factors that can modify that theory—

Important Factors:

• Work outs

If you physically work out/exercise on a daily basis, which means you sweat a lot more and need way more energy than those who don’t exercise, you’d need extra water intake to function well. The more intense your workout, the more amount of extra water your body would need.

• Environment you live in

If you live in a place that’s quite hot and humid, you will naturally sweat a lot, which means you’re losing water way too much compared to those who live in relatively colder regions. In such a case, your body needs extra water.

• Health conditions

If you have suffered from diarrhoea or vomiting, your body needs additional water to cope and revive its strength. However, in cases of serious ailments like kidney problems or heart failure, where the excretion system of the body is affected, you will be advised to drink lesser amounts of water.

• Pregnancy or breastfeeding

During pregnancy, since a woman is not just eating or drinking for one anymore, her body needs much more fluids and hence, she’d require to drink more water. Similarly, if a woman is a nursing mother, her body needs extra water to keep her fine as she breastfeeds her baby.

Based on all the aforementioned details, you can know analyse and decide upon how much water you should be drinking on a daily basis.