Drinking Water - 8 or 12 glasses? page

[Computerchi]

Dear Mark,

I was passing time in the waiting room of the hospital reading a pamphlet. It suggested a 3-liter daily intake of water. Each cup of water is 250ml. 4 cups per liter. That's a total of 12 cups. Already 8 cups per day keeps me going to the WC quite often.

Reading you CW vs PB comparison pamphlet I did not see a mention of water drinking recommendation. Is there any?

[periquin]

My recommendation is to take your weight in pounds, divide by two and change the units from pounds to ounces. That is how many ounces of water you should drink every day. Divide that by eight to make it be 'glasses'.

Mind you, this is my thing. I don't think it is dogma for anyone.

[profdjj]

IMHO, drink until your urine is light and clear. That's the best test. If your urine is dark, you're dehydrated (except the morning - it's typical for your urine to be darker in the morning). But, during the day if your urine remains dark, you need to step up your fluid intake.

[lizch]

I've long railed against the CW of a certain number of glasses of water, and against the concept that "by the time you're thirsty, you're dehydrated". What sense would THAT have made in a primal times? Surely we evolved so that our thirst was a reliable *early* indicator that we should drink something? Rather than heading out across the savanna, bypassing the drinking hole, despite being already dangerously dehydrated without our body letting us know?

And where the heck was Grok getting 12 glasses of water spread throughout the day?

Drink to thirst, but drink good stuff....water, tea, not juice. Mark refers in the PB book to the idea that we get far more fluid from food than we realize too. So I think it's another thing NOT to count, NOT to stress about.

[tfarny]

Drink if you're thirsty. Your thirst is a good indicator of your fluid balance. If a pint of cold water sounds appealing, chug it. Otherwise, no. There is no research to suggest anything else. If you drink a lot more water than your body can make use of, you are just overworking your kidneys to no purpose.
And don't drink a ton of water with meals.

[primalrob]

there really is no recommendation for water consumption. i have days where i'm drinking a couple of gallons, and days when i might not even drink a liter. mark makes mention of this at the end of his book, when he describes his food intake over a period of three or four days, and there is very little water (save one day when he drinks as much as two regular bottles because he needs to keep his throat lubed since he's on a radio show).

you don't 'need' to drink nearly as much as CW suggest for two reasons: 1. you get plenty of water from food, and 2. CW suggests 8-12 glasses because it is so heavily based in grains.
that said, there is no upper limit on how much water you can drink either (except for drowning yourself or washing away all nutrients). if you're thirsty, drink. if you like drinking water, drink. but don't fret over whether or not you're getting enough--chances are you get plenty without even knowing it.

[Grizz]

IMHO, drink until your urine is light and clear. That's the best test. If your urine is dark, you're dehydrated (except the morning - it's typical for your urine to be darker in the morning). But, during the day if your urine remains dark, you need to step up your fluid intake.

+1 in spades, Right On, Prof
There are just too many variables to specify any number of glasses per day. Watch your urine color carefully. It should be a very light yellow color. If it is a darker yellow, then drink more water. VERY SIMPLE, and works for everyone's metabolism, and in all temperature ranges..

ProfDji, how did you get your handle name?

Grizz

[profdjj]

I was a physics professor for a long time - now a researcher for a private company. "prof" = professor, "djj" = my initials. I have used that moniker for years and years.

Darlena

[carlh]

A caveat to the clear urine thing - if you're consuming a lot of diuretics such as alcohol, coffee, cranberry, etc your whizz could still be clear because it's flushing out of your system, not an indicator of adequate hydration.

[lizch]

The latest research as far as I recall showed that caffeine is only a diuretic if you don't usually consume it or consume an uncharacteristically large quantity of it one day. If you consume the same amount every day, your body adjusts and holds on to the right amount of fluid rather than peeing it out.