I continue to receive questions about how much water you should drink. I wrote a long detailed article about this issue in the past, but it is worth mentioning again…but this time in short form.

I don’t think anyone really knows how much water you should drink. No two people are the same and there is no set formula. To be sure, your body does burn off water by breathing and sweating, so it is important to replenish each day. But how much?

The EU recently had another brain fart when they recommended that bottled water companies were not allowed to claim that drinking water would help with dehydration. When you get to be my age, you have heard, read, and seen a lot of dumb stuff, but that one is a beauty. What did jump out at me in the article was the fact that the report recommended that people drink 1.2 liters of water per day to replenish lost liquids. Most of the literature that I have read recommends 8 glasses per day (2 litres) or more if you perspire. Others claim that you don’t require that much water. Some of the Olympic athletes that I have worked with drink up to 8 liters of water per day when they are training.

Here are some things that I have learned about the amount of water you should drink:

1) Most of us eat more than enough each day
2) Our brain doesn’t recognize the difference between hunger and thirst
3) When we have hunger pains between meal and after dinner, it is actually our body crying out for water
4) Snack on water instead of food as it will satisfy your craving and make you feel better…and other good stuff
5) Drink mineral rich water if possible as the free hydrogen that is created provides energy to “pick you up”
6) You can tell if you are drinking enough water by checking out the color of your pee. If your pee is almost clear or a light yellow, your water consumption is in good shape. If your pee is dark yellow, start drinking more water.
7) the average person (whatever that is) uses up about 2.5 liters of water per day
8) the same average person gets about 0.5 liters of water from their food
9) therefore, the same average person requires about 2 liters of water per day from food
10) the above averages are based upon a person at rest
11) factors affecting the averages include: weight of the person (drink more if you are bigger), temperature (hot weather burns up more water), altitude (you need more water at higher altitudes), phyisical exersion (drink an extra liter if you are being physical for an hour)

It is virtually impossible to drink too much water as your kidneys can process 15 liters (4 gallons) of water per day. Extremely rare cases of over consumption of water have been reported in infants and marathon runners, but only in situations that any clear minded person would recognize as excess. Drink up…the benefits are many!