How much water should you drink? Do you know? It’s not a one size fits all situation. It depends on your weight, what the temperature is and how much exercise you get.
You don’t lose as much water weight through sweating if it’s cold and you don’t exercise that day. But if it’s the middle of summer or you’re doing a hot yoga or Cross Fit class, you need to up your water intake.
The first place to start is the general rule of thumb of drinking half your weight in ounces of water each day. That means that if you weigh 200 pounds, you would drink 100 ounces of water each day.
As you get older, your body changes and you don’t have the fluid reserves you did when you were younger. At the same time, your ability to sense thirst is lower. This makes it much easier to become dehydrated.
In this quick video, I show you how easy it is to set a daily measurement for how much you drink. And you’ll see how much water you normally drink each day by looking at the containers you use.
Look for these signs of dehydration:
- Extreme thirst
- Less frequent urination
- Dark-colored urine
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Confusion
For more information on dehydration in children and adults, see this Mayo Clinic article.
I go into more depth on the importance of drinking water in terms of your general health and aging in The 5 Essential Keys to an Ageless Body.
Another important tip is to make sure you are getting enough potassium and sodium. In the video I talk about how to get both and the importance of choosing the right kind of salt, so make sure to watch.
Also, there are scales that will measure the percentage of water in your body along with bone, fat, and muscle. I’ve had a scale like this for about 10 years made by Taylor.
That way you’ll never have to wonder, how much water should you drink?
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