How Many Glasses of Water Should You Drink a Day?

Often, the most beneficial things for our health tends to be the most overlooked. One of these things is drinking enough water daily. Drinking more water may be the easiest and cheapest way to get healthier, but because it is free and always available, we tend to take it for granted.

This article shares interesting facts about our bodies and water, 7 health benefits of being properly hydrated and just how many glasses of water should you drink a day.

The amount of water an individual should consume in a day is dependent on factors such as age, gender, humidity, and physical activity. The table below provides the recommended amounts of fluid intake:

 

Age Bracket	Recommended Daily Amount of Water Intake
Infant (0-6 months old)	0.7 liter (Fluid intake in breastmilk or formula)
Infant (7-12 months old)	0.6 liter
Children (1-3 years old)	0.9 liter
Children (4-8 years old)	1.2 liters
Adolescent Male (9-13 years old)	1.8 liters
Male (14-18 years old)	2.6 liters
Adult Male (19++ years old)	3.0 liters
Adolescent Female (9-13 years old)	1.6 liters
Female (14-18 years old)	1.8 liters
Adult Female (19++ years old)	2.2 liters

 

 

Now you know HOW MUCH water you need daily, the following sections will show WHY you do.

7 Quick Facts about the Human Body and Water

1. The brain and heart are composed of 73% water and the lungs are about 83% water. The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are watery: 31%.

2. The average person could live without food for nearly a month, but we could only survive for about one week without water.

3. Our main body systems and organs — the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, the reproductive system, the digestive tract, the kidney and liver, the brain and the peripheral nervous system — need to be adequately hydrated to function effectively.

4. Sweating: we lose under a liter of water daily when it evaporates from the skin. This amount can increase dramatically when we sweat profusely due to vigorous workouts or high body temperature.

5. Excretion: a person can lose a pint to several gallons of urine a day.

6. Thirst can often be misinterpreted as hunger.

7. Dropping just 2% of the water normally in our bodies leads to poor short-term memory, greater difficulty in solving basic math problems, and the inability for our eyes to focus on a screen or page.

7 Benefits of Drinking the Right Amounts of Water

1. Consistently drinking 3 liters of water daily can help you look younger.

Water flushes out toxins in the body and makes your skin softer and younger-looking. It is the ultimate moisturizer and hydrates your skin’s deepest layers.

2. Regularly drinking warm water improves blood circulation and decreases your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Warm water is a vasodilator, meaning it expands the blood vessels. Drinking warm water helps your arteries and veins to expand and carry blood more effectively throughout your body.

3. Drinking water on an empty stomach can speed up metabolism which in turn helps you to lose weight faster.

Drinking water on an empty stomach can give your diet a boost and help in raising the metabolism by as much as 25%. This means that the digestion of food becomes better and faster. As your metabolism speeds up, you lose weight faster.

4. Frequently drinking water boosts your immune system.

Properly functioning systems in the body is a primary benefit of proper hydration. Water helps to carry oxygen to your body cells as well as removing toxins from the body. Thus, drinking more of it could help prevent toxins from building up and effectively boosts your immune system.

5. Drinking warm water calms the central nervous system and helps to decrease stress levels.

Drinking warm water can help calm your central nervous system and decrease stress levels. The water relaxes you which will help in making you feel calmer during the day and more focused on your thought processes.

6. Drinking plenty of water reduces your risk of having kidney stones and bladder infections.

Drinking extra water dilutes the substances in urine that lead to stones. Staying hydrated, avoiding stone-forming foods, and limiting sodium intake reduces your risk of having kidney stones and bladder infections. It may help to include some citrus beverages, like lemonade and orange juice. The citrate in these beverages helps block stone formation.

7. Drinking 2-3 liters of water regularly promotes good bowel movement and helps to detoxify your body.

Constipation, characterized by infrequent bowel movements and difficulty passing stool, is a common problem in our country.  Over 4 million people in the United States, alone, have frequent constipation. One of the most recommended means to treat constipation and promote regular bowel movement is to increase fluid intake.

Now that you know why it is important to stay properly hydrated, you might be wondering about your body’s signals that tell you if you haven’t been drinking enough water.

How to Tell if You’re Dehydrated

Being dehydrated by even 1 or 2 percent can cause harmful effects such as bad breath, dizziness, muscle cramps, and low blood pressure. Here are 7 key indicators that tell you if you’re dehydrated:

1. Dry skin;

2. Dark yellow to amber-colored urine;

3. Sticky feeling in mouth and tongue;

4. Thirst masked as hunger;

5. Tired feeling even when well-rested;

6. Headache;

7. Irritability or sudden mood changes.

It is important to keep your body properly hydrated by drinking the recommended amounts of water. However, most of the time, when we are busy at work or in school, we tend to overlook our thirst.

One way to stay hydrated is to always have a bottle of water on hand so you can replenish the water you lost anytime and anywhere. Another way to stay hydrated is to keep track of your body water composition and 12 other key body metrics by using the INEVIFIT Eros Bluetooth Smart Body Fat Scale. Not only does it measure the amount of water in your body; it also measures the amount of visceral and subcutaneous fat, protein, and bone mass.

 INEVIFIT Eros Bluetooth Smart Body Fat Scale

Drinking water is one of the simplest and the best ways to care for your body. It’s practically free yet provides numerous health benefits. Knowing and taking the right amounts of water needed by your body on a daily basis is essential for your health and inevitable fitness.