World’s Most Asked Questions: How Much Water Should I Drink a Day?

People ask Google everything under the sun. One of the most commonly searched questions in the world is “How much water should I drink a day?” SciShow has the answer!

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[Technforlife]

*Over-thinking whether I should drink that glass of water or not intensifies*

[Kissarai]

I drink enough water to make my pee almost clear. The end.

[EdwardCree]

"When you are hungry, eat; when you are thirsty, drink; when you are tired, sleep."

[jeganka]

i fucking love water. more delicious than coca cola.

[owowhatsthis]

Water? Hah, like that stuff out of the toilets? Why not Brawndo the thirst mutilator?

[NDRNTCH]

Not only do you receive about 20% pure water from your food, but one of the metabolic products of glucose/pyruvate oxidation is water. 2.8 and 3.7 litres is how much water you'd need *without* eating food. 8 glasses (2 litres) is too much for a sedentary person eating a normal amount of food. The advice about drinking when thirsty is quite sound, as that's why thirst exists in the first place. Drinking yourself sick just to get 8 glasses in isn't healthy and can lead to hyponatremia/hypokalemia.

[unvergebeneid]

Well, thanks for translating "8 ounces" into actual units. You didn't show us that courtesy in the survey.

[MattisProbably]

3.7 liters? I barely drink 1.5 liters a day! Where am I supposed to put all that water?
I bet they just find it amusing that their advice makes people run to the bathroom every five minutes :P

[Patapon]

2.7 liters a day?
I don't know how anyone can manage to drink that amount, I'd either vomit HCL or pee every half an hour
I can barely manage to drink 4 glass, how can I approach 12?

[aejlindvall]

Eh, I'm almost never thirsty... I find it really difficult to drink enough water, and is often reminded that I should drink some water when I get a headache. I maybe drink 3 glasses per day. Can you make yourself more thirsty? Even if I'm exercising I have to FORCE myself to drink loads. Ugh...

[MolSno]

I downloaded an app called Water Your Body. I don't know if it's on iPhone, but if you have Android you should be able to find it on Google Play. It reminds you to drink water at certain intervals per day, and even lets you input your weight so that it can calculate just how much water you need per day. It's pretty cool, I definitely recommend it if you want to keep track of how much water you've been drinking.

[RedRogue]

I... I don't really drink water. I know I should but I really can't stand the stuff.
I drink a glass of milk with breakfast, and a glass of apple juice with lunch, and another with dinner.

Even that 8 glasses a day thing seems absurdly large to me, and now you're telling me it's more that twice that!?

Well... I haven't died yet, so that's good. Right?

[bradleypariah]

I have no idea what I'm doing on this Earth. How do I water?

[vl]

Silly question ...
YOU DRINK ENOUGH WATER TILL YOUR BODY FEELS SATISFIED !!!
Case closed.

[MsSqueashy]

#WMAQ
Why do people still believe that you use only 10% of your brain when you use all of it?
Is it because Morgan Freeman said it in Lucy?

[leeburkett]

SciShow 
Hank, why does eating asparagus make my urine smell funky? 

[vengefulenigma]

I've never felt thirst and so never drank much, my average per day is probably somewhere a bit below 1 litre, sometimes as low as half a litre per day and i feel fine. I can't even imagine drinking 3.7L of water, i can't even drink 2L per day.

[tenchimuyo]

The "drink when your thirsty" sounds helpful.

Except I don't actually have a feeling to associate with thirst. I'm sure I've felt it, but not sure when or what it actually feels like.

[OnyxIdol]

If I only drink when I'm thirsty, I get constipated. I only recently started drinking 3+ liters a day and my digestion has improved considerably.

[James_Haskell]

Liters looks like such a weird spelling. Litres looks so much more normal