How much water should you drink to hydrate your body?

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Everybody wants to know that how much water should they drink to hydrate their body? There are a lot of variations in the answers, but according to a National Institutes of Health report, 60 percent of our body consists of water which involves various organs like brain, lungs, heart, muscles and skin, and our bones that contain 30 percent of water. It plays not only a crucial role in our daily recipe, but also it controls various functions in our body like temperature maintenance, carrying nutrients to our whole body, forming saliva, eliminating waste products, making lubrication for joints. It also helps save very important organs and developing fetuses.

However, we know that water is important for our body, yet nobody can tell you the exact amount of water that we should drink daily. We have known from very sources that we should drink 8 glasses of water and every glass should contain 8 once of water. But in 2002 after a review of several studies it is found that no scientific evidence is available to prove this rule as a perfect formula.

Scientists say that other than drinking water directly by a glass, there are various other sources that also help human body absorb water. Those other sources include food and different kinds of drinks that are unnoticed by “8 x 8” rule.

Food is a major source of water. Your daily food items like fruits and vegetables provide you some amount of water. There are even some fruits that contain 90 percent water such as watermelons and strawberries. A report made by the National Academies of Sciences in 2004 revealed that in North America people receives 20 percent of their daily water requirement from food that they eat every day.

There are other Non-alcoholic sources like tea, coffee, milk, soda and juices that include huge amount of water and help your body hydrates. There is famous myth that coffee helps your body dehydrate, but several studies revealed that it is not true. Coffee is considered as a good source of water intake. Yet you can’t drink huge amount of coffee as it contains caffeine which may cause side effects like headaches and disrupted sleep.

According to the National Academies of Sciences, female drink about 2.7 liters water in total while men take about 3.7 liters water on a daily basis from all types of food, water and other drinks and beverages.  But this is not proved by scientific studies.

So, the amount of water consumption depends on various factors like age, weight, degree of physical activity, person’s health and the climate of area. If you are sweating a lot, you need huge amount of water to drink to make your body hydrate. So, the people who do hard work in a hot weather need more water to drink than the people who work in air-conditioned environment, even they have same height and weight.

"The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide," according to the National Academies of Sciences.

When the amount of water in your body gets down excessively, your body automatically starts feeling thirsty, and at that time you need to drink huge amount of water to increase the hydration level of your body.

On the other end of the digestive spectrum, your urine can also tell you whether you're getting enough to drink — dark yellow or orange urine usually indicates dehydration, while well-hydrated urine should look pale yellow or colorless.

So, it is suggested that you should drink water when you feel thirsty, and the consumption of water should be increased in case of sweating more. It will help you grow up your hydration level.

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