How much water should you drink each day?

A German friend of mine says you should drink at least 4 Ltrs of water a day, as he does, not including any other liquid.

I think I drinnk about 4 pints of water a day.

Just how much should should you drink?

Can you drink too much?

Depends on how active you are but 2.5-3 liters is about right on average... You can drink too much and get water intoxication but it requires an unrealistically high amount of drinking quickly (some idiot on a US radio program had a water drinking competition that ended up with some woman dying a couple years back).

Wee for a Wii wasn't it?

I drink very little water per day...evolution has provided us with an exceptional mechanism to tell us how much water we need. It's called thirst.

I get all the water I need through osmosis.

As far as I remember the body needs something like 1ml of water to metabolize 1 calorie of energy. Thus we are told to drink at least 2 liters a day as this would be the amount required for an average person eating 2000cals a day.

This does not take into account water taken in through food (eg salad, fruit, veggies) and too much water at once can be dangerious.

I would not advise drinking the who 3 liters in one go. I cannot remember the name of the condition that comes from drinking to much but its deadly. I think it makes your brain swell and squish against the inside of your skull.

Or it just waters down all the needed fluids in your body (blood etc) so they no longer work so well. It may do both, either or, it can kill you.

I think the condition is called hyponatremia.

Edit: what LP and pas said... That was the case I thought of.

Exactly. Our bodies are pretty efficient at adapting to the changing availability of water and while drinking a lot of water isn't going to be harmful (except in extreme cases) it will mostly just make you pee a lot more. That said, we're not always in tune with what our bodies want and therefore a basic level of fluid intake is always a good idea.

I usually drink between 1 and 2 litres water in addition to juice but basically I just pay attention to what my body wants.

You should drink at least one litre of water per day - more if you are into NS as ER has probably discovered.

National Socialists need more water?

Dont be stuipid Yeti. It stands for Naked Snowboarding. You drink the extra fluid and then wee yourself a path when venturing off-piste. In the case of an avalanche the dogs just follow the trail.

awesome! the thread has only just begun and we are already onto germany's favourite topic

How about drinking all those mugs of beer in Oktoberfest? Does it have any implications? And how will NS affect that?

Have you never heard of

THE TROUGHMAN???

This Guy drinks too much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTRc045X2RM
Ladies never accept payment from him for beiderseits NS - your place will absolutely reak of piss for months afterwards.

I've heard that both coffee and beer dehydrate you - yet I only drink 1 liter of water a day, the rest is coffee (albeit super weak instant crap with tons of sugar) and weissbier. I have personally noticed that beer only dehydrates you when you stop drinking it. Think lunchtime in England - you got to the pub, have a couple of pints, and are all dry mouthed and thirsty all afternoon back in the stupid office. Keep drinking beer all day and you don't get this problem.

Drink more beer.

My friend once got addicted to drinking too much water. she literally could not be without a water bottle in her hand. it was tragic. she had to use the lady's room far too many times.

message: water can be addictive.. beware!

Anyone that gets addicted to somethig with no narcotic effect is an idiot. No debate, no argument, they're an idiot. If you are going to get an addiction, for the love of god choose something decent. I mean water? Jesus. Idiot. I can never understand people who get "addicted" to chocolate either. OK, it's tasty stuff, but would I swap a choccy bar for a massive spliff? Of course. If I wouldn't, I'd be a fucking idiot.
Idiots.

In Switzerland people are allowed to grow two cannabis plants at home. Is that enough to keep one going or would one smoke it faster than you can grow it?

2 litres.

Beer and coffee don't count.
Juice and team partially count i think.

Friend of mine's mother worked for a while at a hospital in Cairo. My friend went to visit her for a few weeks and, because of the heat, got used to drinking at least 6 pints (3 litres approx) of water every day. She found it difficult to break the habit of drinking lots on returning to the UK, so when we went out to the pub in the evening she'd just slurp pint after pint of beer. She was funny when she got pissed, too.

Had about 3 litres of water today cos everyone says it's good for you when you're not well.

Still feel shite so I think maybe a red hot curry is a better idea?

Four litres sounds like a helluva lot. Probably one of these German health freaks who learn that something is healthy (in moderation), then get it into their heads that more is better, and then go berserk and don't know when to stop. Four pints sounds reasonable though. And of course you're not meant to drink it all in one go, just like you wouldn't eat your breakfast, lunch, dinner and all the inbetween snacks in one single meal.

I had kidney stones 14 years ago, and was told by the doctors back then that I should drink 1.5 litres a day. Water, that is, not fruit juice or lemonade or tea or coffee or beer or other alcoholic drinks. It seemed like a lot at first, but if you spread it out over the day it goes down quite easily. I can't eat a meal without liquid accompaniment now. What I also do: drink some fruit juice, then water, then more fruit juice, then more water. That way you get your vitamins but you aren't left with the sour aftertaste of fruit juice in your mouth.

Then again, they say a good way to know if you have enough water in you is to look at the colour of your pee. If it's pale yellow and clear, you're OK. If it's a darker yellow, you need to drink more.

I think I've read that if you're under-hydrated your body chemistry doesn't work as efficiently as it should, because you have less fluid in your cells, so the molecules that need to react with each other can't swim around as easily and don't find each other. Or you need to get enough water for the molecules in the cell membrane to have the right electrolytic properties, whatever that means. Or something like that. Anyway, I haven't had a recurrence of the kidney stones, so that's OK.

Oh, and water is also good for the intervertebral disks in your spine. That's because they don't have blood vessels, so they get their nutrients by absorbing body fluids from their surroundings, like a sponge. If they don't get enough water they get into bad shape and that can be one of the factors that lead to a slipped disc.

All that typing has made me thirsty now - just off to get a drink. Prost!

There's no scientific evidence to support the claim that people need to drink 2L of water per day or that coffee and beer don't count. See this summary of a comprehensive review by a kidney specialist.

The simple answer is to drink when you're thirsty.

Malarki! it is obvious you had not your gallbladder removed.
and remember: Wasser ist zum waschen da. Sure your body needs water, but then just everything you eat has water in it. Excessive water intake is just as harmful as not enough. Usually your body tells your brain when you need to drink, - you are thirsty. If you drink to much water you flash out stuff what your body needs, like salt.
If you had radiation you have to drink a lot of water to flush out radiation residue.

By the time you are thirsty it means you are already dehydrated. Personally I think 5 pints is close to right. But It depends on your size and how many dehydrating foods or liquids you drink. If you are sick, or have drank/eaten something you know is bad for you...drink more. Water helps pass toxins out of your system faster.
To hydrate if you have been dehydrated for years (like most people), drink your weight in ounces for a week and a half(115 lbs.= 115 ounces=roughly 3.5 liters) and THEN cut down to however much your body feels is right afterwards. Adding a pinch of UNREFINED/raw salt to every liter as well. It keeps the salinity of your body and adds minerals.
For every cup of caffeinated liquids, you are supposed to drink an extra 12 oz. water.

That's all wrong. The report I linked to debunks all those claims e.g. thirst starts at 3% dehydration and no harm, even temporary, occurs until you are at least 5% dehydrated. Most people are not dehydrated for years. Coffee doesn't dehydrate. Drinking more doesn't flush toxins out or make vertebral disks softer etc. etc..

Surely it depends on how much you're giving out? If it's hot weather or your doing activities where you sweat more you drink more?

Correct - but for people who are mainly sedentary in temperate climates and in good health there's no need at all to drink 2L per day. If you are exerting yourself or in hot or dry conditions, or ill, drink enough to satisfy your thirst. In the Sahara you could easily need 10L per day.

If I listen to my body, it screams at me that I need to drink water when I've been drinking alcohol. Wine makes me especially thirsty - I have to drink at least the same quantity of water when I drink wine. Coffee also makes me quite thirsty, but not tea. I guess there's much less caffeine in tea than in coffee.

I'm trying but somehow today I always seem to be thirsty.

Try more beer.

Depends on the type of tea, how long you steep it, and how you prepare your coffee...

I don't drink enough water. But I figure with all this rain in northern Germany, maybe I am absorbing enough through the skin.

That bit about vertebral disks: A few years ago I suffered a slipped disc, and it was very painful and horrible, and I didn't want another one, so I read up everything I could find about the spine and discs and stuff, and I came across this again and again, that drinking plenty of water is important for healthy vertebral disks. So I'm inclined to believe it.

The body's fluids are kept at very precise concentrations or things stop working. Drinking more doesn't dilute the blood unless you really overdo it, and even if it did, the cartilage of the disks wouldn't just suck up more water like that. It's just another one of the things people say.

I drink about 3l a day, and on hot days when I do alot of sport or sweat alot, i can consume about 5 l... the more the better so the kidney specialist told me.

I was told the same by a kidney specialist - I'm afraid doctors are just as likely to repeat random crap as anyone else. Saying 'the more the better' is very irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

Where have you been? The active ingredient in tea is just as 'harmful' as coffee is, it only works slower. Unless you use Kraeutertee.

no, they usually know their stuff, and dealing with idiot patients that are too dumb to follow orders and wouldn't understand the reasons anyways.

Oh fuck off. For anyone who's interested in the science, as opposed to fairy tales, here's the full text of the review of literature on the subject published by Prof. Valtin in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

I never drink water, I hate the stuff. Usually 1 to 1.5 liters of Cola Light, 1 to 2 Red Bulls and 1 dissolving vitamin tablet in water per day. Occasionally an Apfelschorle with lunch instead of Red Bull. Oh, and a few beers a few times a week.

I have a feeling I am chronically dehydrated, but I hope i get something out of the Cola Light and beer.

You're getting close to a toxic dose of caffeine at those levels.

Uh, not really.

"...most mainstream energy drinks contain only 160 milligrams of caffeine, which is half the 320 milligrams of caffeine found in a regular 16-ounce cup of coffeehouse coffee. (The National Institutes of Health defines moderate caffeine intake as three 8-ounce cups of coffee daily and excessive intake as ten 8-ounce cups of coffee per day)..."

So "moderate caffeine intake" equals 480 milligrams per day according to the NIH.

1.5 liters of Cola Light equals 192 mg.
2 Red Bulls equal 160 mg.
Total: 352 milligrams per day.

Hot damn, Wheel! I am glad you forced me to figure that out, as I thought I had too much caffeine in a day, but I am "below moderate". Woohoo, bring it on baby!

There are far worse things to be addicted to, other than caffeine. That's what I tell myself, anyway. I can't function until I've had my morning espresso.

I thought Cola was higher than that. Oh well, good that you're OK.

There are many a day that I wish it were, Wheel. Many a day.

I still think I am screwing myself on not drinking water, but I just hate it. I can drink water if it is ice ice ice cold, otherwise it just makes me feel sick. (And finding ice-cold anything in the country is next to impossible, I have come to accept that.) I always need to add something in to make it palatable, but I don't want to add calories to what I drink. (Other than the Red Bull which has become an expensive habit for me. But my max is 2 a day. I keep telling myself I won't let it get out of hand.)

I really only drink water in any quantity after exercise, or in the summer with lots of ice. Otherwise I don't bother. After 36 years I have not died of dehydration or sprouted tentacles.

Richard Hammond did a program about it a while back where one twin drank the recommended 2L per day, and one didn't. They took before and after blood tests from both, and they were no different after the experiment.

Johnny. Drinking too much water is madness.
Why is drinking too much water dangerous?
It depends on how active you are, how much you sweat and what all you drink in total. I am very active but hardly ever sweat. I normally only start sweating after running 8 km. While being a marathon runner I needed about 2 liters of the stuff per day. Today I don't run that much and need about 1 liter per day on top of my other drinks (coffee, beer, red wine..). As mentioned by other users, your total liquid intake is much more important. Coffee doesn't dehydrate, alcohol unfortunately does.

Isn't that the definition of American beer?

The last time I registered at a doctors in the U.K, I was having a check up, and the first two questions the nurse asked were, 'do you smoke, and do you drink water regularly?'. So there seems to be a pretty common acceptance in conventional medicine that water is necessary for good health.

Well without it you die very quickly indeed so yes.