How much water should you drink?

[Anastasia916]

So I took this quiz that helps you better understand what you should drink water wise in a day to stay healthy and as we all know here hydration is one of the keys for NB to work. So thought I'd share. http://nutrition.about.com/library/blwatercalculator.htm here's the link. This is what my results were...

Daily Hydration Calculator Results

A person who is 128 pounds
and is exercising for 15 minutes ,
is not pregnant,
is not breastfeeding,
does not live at a high altitude,
lives in a dry climate,
drinks 0 alcoholic drink(s),
when the weather is very hot or very cold,
and is not sick with fever or diarrhea should have:

89.5 ounces of water today, or 2.7 liters.

If you eat a healthy diet, about 20 percent of your water may come from the foods you eat. If you eat a healthy diet you can drink 71.6 ounces of water today, or 2.1 liters.

Water is an obvious source for your daily fluid needs. Other good beverages include milk, herbal teas, low-sodium broth, 100% fruit and vegetable juices. Soft drinks will also count toward your daily total of fluid, just remember that sugar sweetened soft drinks and fruit juices add extra calories to you daily diet that you don't need, while drinking water may help you lose weight.

So me drinking 2 liters a day was spot on! I do eat a healthy diet so it says I'm good at 2.1 liters. I say I drink 2 liters a day but it's probably more than that.

 

[Teeny Tiny]

Thanks for the water calculator, I now know I should be getting 102.5 ounces (3.1 liters) of fluid a day, or 82 ounces (2.5 liters) with a healthy diet, which I'm not sure if it's that healthy or not, so I guess I better start drinking more. I hardly ever drink my daily allowance of water, maybe that's one of the reasons why I'm such a slow responder.

 

[chloespeaks]

Thanks for the calculator Anastasia! I always did the general one - roughly 1/2 of your weight in ounces, which doesn't take into account exercising etc. However, I probably drink way more than they prescribe and I don't count the water in food (healthy diet), the water I drink while exercising (one 28 oz bottle, about a quart) or any beverages like juice or soy milk, though I drink those rarely, as I often drink coffee or tea in the morning and I feel I need to over-drink to counteract the de-hydrating aspects of those.

I did mine:
A person who is 137 pounds
and is exercising for 60 minutes ,
is not pregnant,
is not breastfeeding,
does not live at a high altitude,
does not live in a dry climate,
drinks 1 alcoholic drink(s),
when the weather is not very hot or very cold,
(btw, they didn't count if you're Noogling LOL)
and is not sick with fever or diarrhea should have:

82.5 ounces of water today, or 2.5 liters. (add 1 liter)

 

[Lily13]

I have mixed feelings on drinking lots of water, but I have health issues. For me personally, drinking that much water dilutes my body's sodium levels and I actually get headaches, feel lightheaded and cruddy. There is a fine line for me between too little and too much. I just drink when I feel I need it and just let my body do it's own thing. I have water balance, electrolyte and body temperature regulation issues though that my doctors can't figure out. I don't know what it's like to be healthy though.

A person who is 127 pounds
and is exercising for 0 minutes ,
is not pregnant,
is not breastfeeding,
does not live at a high altitude,
does not live in a dry climate,
drinks 0 alcoholic drink(s),
when the weather is very hot or very cold,
and is not sick with fever or diarrhea should have:

79.5 ounces of water today, or 2.4 liters.

If you eat a healthy diet, about 20 percent of your water may come from the foods you eat. If you eat a healthy diet you can drink 63.6 ounces of water today, or 1.9 liters.


1.9 liters seems about right to me though.

 

[Teeny Tiny]

Sorry to hear about your issues Lily, but I know what you mean. With my porphyria I have all sorts off issues, and I know when I try to drink a ton of water I also get dizzy, lightheaded, severe headaches, etc. Almost like the symptoms of low blood sugar, without having low sugar, which I'm guessing is from throwing my electrolytes/sodium levels out of whack. Severe, potentially fatal electrolyte imbalance issues come with my condition, so I have to be very careful what I do if I don't want to feel crappy constantly. But with the intensity of the sun here in Arizona during the summer I'm pretty much sick roughly 3-4 months straight no matter what I do, but have to be careful not to make it worse or fatal. For me I find that if I want to make sure I get enough water I have to drink 1 gatorade to every 2 or so bottles of water. I'll drink 2 (16.9 oz) bottles of water, or until I start to feel a little off if it happens before I get the two bottles drank, then I drink a gatorade to restore my electrolyte balance, then drink more water, and stagger it like that throughout the day. Some days I do better with less gatorade than others, and some days I just have to take a break and drink less than I should, which happens probably more than I should let it. But you can only do so much when you have health issues fighting against you. I also have a bad habit of sitting at the computer for hours at a time and don't even think about drinking until my mouth starts to get dry, kind of like this morning. I've been sitting here for almost 2 hours since I got up without taking a break to eat or drink anything, and I'm starting to feel a little dry and hungry. So I guess I better take a food and drink break before my sugar crashes and I dehydrate myself. :

 

[Lily13]

Sorry to hear that! Your struggle with trying to be normal sounds so familiar to me, but I don't have your condition. Whenever you mentioned it a while ago I looked into it and it sounds scary! I have autonomic or central nervous system problems (dysautonomia), so balancing everything is damn near impossible too. You try to drink more, you don't feel good. You drink less and you still don't feel well. :-\ It sounds like you find yourself in a similar situation. Summer is usually a miserable time for me as well. I don't feel nearly as bad in the fall or winter when the weather is cooler. I couldn't live in Arizona because of the heat and sun. It is just too much for me. I'd be stuck in my house all summer or in the pool.

It definitely could be your electrolytes. Headaches, dizziness, lightheadedness are all the same symptoms I get too. I don't want to give out medical advice here, but you should definitely talk to your doc about this. I have salt tabs which I take when I start to feel like that, but it can sometimes be hard to know what is going on in the body. My potassium is usually low too, so I have that going against me as well. lol Never a dull moment.

Years ago my doctors thought I had something called diabetes insipidus. It is when your body doesn't properly concentrate urine and you are always dehydrated even though you are drinking tons of water. This is something to look into if you are peeing all the time. Something has changed over the years for me and I no longer have it or take the meds for it.

 

[Teeny Tiny]

I'll have to look into that, thanks for the info. I went to the doc a couple months ago or so because I thought I had an ear infection that I was fighting for a month, along with constant nausea, and equilibrium problems. Turns out I didn't have an ear infection, and I think the nausea and equilibrium issues were from my porphyria, but he said that my urine was slightly concentrated, that I was a little dehydrated and needed to increase my water intake. I told him I had already increased it, was drinking 4-7 bottles of water a day at that point, and told him about my water drinking problem. He shot down my theory of drinking too much messing with my electrolytes and such, but then again he doesn't know anything about me or my body, he was an urgent care doctor who had only seen me the one time. Nobody knows their body better than they do, him telling me I had to drink more when what I was already drinking was making me ill made no sense to me. He just told me to drink more and include gatorade if I was worried about my electrolytes. He was kind of a jerk if you ask me, wouldn't even let me get a word in edgewise, let alone take what I was trying to say seriously. He told me I need to see a specialist about my condition to get it fully diagnosed and treated properly, which I know he's right about that, but I don't have any insurance or a doctor that I'm seeing for my porphyria. I'll have to just keep taking care of myself the best I can, and try to get to a doctor as soon as I can to try and get this crap under control, instead of letting it control me all the time. I hate being allergic to the sun, I love being outside, especially fishing and camping, but can't anymore, except night fishing. :'(