If you are thirsty, you should certainly drink water no matter what any kind of calculation or chart is telling you about how much water per day you need to drink.Īdjustments for climate, excessive sweating & pregnancy It should be noted that, in general, our bodies are fairly good at estimating how much water one needs on a daily basis and this happens via the mechanism of thirst. For reference, one liter is approximately equal to four standard water glasses. In the table, the calculated water intake is in L/day (liters per day a.k.a. These are population-wide adequate intake estimations and are thus less preferred than the personalized calculations from our water intake calculator above. Institute of Medicine, data is based on reference 3. EFSA stands for European Food Safety Authority and IOM stands for the U.S. General water drinking recommendationsīelow we present the general recommended amount of water intake based on recommendations from the EFSA and IOM. Some adjustments in the amount of water may be needed if you are subject to such influences as explained in the adjustments section. Living in a climate which is too hot or too cold, or being pregnant are also important factors. The human body is always trying to maintain homeostasis and since sweating varies considerably depending on physical activity and how hot the environment is it can result in dramatically different water drinking needs. Therefore we need to frequently replenish the fluids in our system for it to function optimally (see the benefits of optimal hydration). Water is ejected from the body in the form of urine, as result of gastrointestinal processes, as part of respiration, as well as through sweating and other insensible outputs. Our bodies constantly lose water as part of the metabolic processes. See our water content of selected foods table below.

Say you need a total of 70 ounces per day, this would mean that you need to drink just 56 oz of water (7 cups, roughly equivalent to 7 standard water glasses), the rest will enter your body through food and metabolic processes. The latter is usually only around 4/5 of the total, thus you actually need to drink slightly less water than your total daily needs. You should be careful to not confuse how much water you need with how much water you need to drink. Since water and beverages are only a part of the input, our calculator will output both your total water intake recommendation as well as how much of it you need to get through drinking fluids. Water input in the human body comes from three main sources: water and other beverages, food, and as a side-effect of metabolic processes. This is what this daily water intake calculator bases its output on. The extent to which water intake requirements are determined by energy intake and expenditure is understudied but in the clinical setting it has long been practice to supply 1 ml per kcal administered by tube to patients unable to take in food or fluids. Those same determinants are also applicable to water utilization and balance and this provides an argument for pegging water/fluid intake recommendations to the better studied energy recommendations. Such measures of expenditure use highly accurate methods and thus TDEE has been set based on solid data rather than the compromise inherent in the Adequate Intake estimations made for water. Energy requirements are strongly evidence-based in each age and gender group based on extensive research which takes into account body size and activity level which are crucial determinants of energy expenditure which must be met by dietary energy intake. We use a rule that expresses water needs in relation to energy requirements in ml/kcal. Of course, these are estimates based on population averages so consulting your physician or nutritionist is always recommended before making changes to your water consumption or exercise routine.Ĭalculating your recommended total daily water intake and thus optimal hydration requires the estimation of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) which measures how much energy (in kcal, kilocalories) you expend during a typical day. The outputs of our water intake calculator are in liters, milliliters, cups (equivalent to a standard glass), and ounces of water. Our water calculator will help you easily estimate how much water you need per day including how much of it you will need to drink in the form of fluids (pure water or beverages).

Adjustments for climate, excessive sweating & pregnancy.

Gallons per day engineering calculator