How much water a man should drink in a day?

Question

I drink upto 5-6 litres of water a day. Is it normal? Obviously I have to go to bathroom many times to get it drained. Does it depend upon the work environmet? I work whole day in AC, can it affect my water intake? Does it depend upon age?

Thanks!

Answer 1

your water consumption sounds excessive.

Contrary to popular myth, you can drink too much water.

There is no reason to drink as much water as you are consuming unless you live in an extremely hot environment and do a lot of physical labor.

Do not obsess about drinking lots of water. Your body will let you know if you need water.

I work in an office with A/C, but do intense weight-training 3-4 times/week and do 1-3 days of cardio. My liquid consumption in the summer (80-100 degrees F) consists of:

1> 3 cups of juice (24 oz)
2> 8 cups of water (48 oz)
3> 1.5 cups decaffinated green tea (12 oz)
4> 2-4 cups of milk (16-32 oz)

6 liters = 203 fluid ounces.

My daily consumption of fluid = 100 to 116 oz. You are drinking twice that amount, but in water alone.

There has been an over emphasis on consuming large quantities of water. Don't obsess about it. There is no reason to drink excessive amouts of water.

Answer 2

It all depends on how fast your body "digests" water and liquids.

Some will say that one liter of water is adequate quantity for daily intake. Myself, I drink at least 2 to 3 liters a day, not counting other liquids I ingest (milk, juice, coffee, alcohol, etc...).

Like Vitamin C, your body will "discharge" any over-amount of liquid you will intake. So if you drink 5 liters a day and your body would only need, say, 3 liters, then you will urinate the excess liquid, no harm done.

Also, if you are very active and do many physical activities such as sports, your body will dehydrate faster than if you don't do much, so it becomes more "normal" that your daily intake increases with the amount of physical activity.

There have been stories about people actually "drowning" in their own liquids due to massive intake, but these are mostly rumours and speculations at this point. You can drown when your lungs are filled with water, but you would seriously need to forcefully chug down incredible amounts of water (and at a great pace) to do so.

If you are worries, you can always consult your doctor for more details and clarifications.

Cheers!

Answer 3

I'm sure there are many factors to take into account when trying to come up with the amount of water a person should drink. I know the norm is 8 glasses a day, but that doesn't work for me. I drink a lot more than 8 because I am active. Listen to your body. Have water available to you at all times, and drink up when you feel thirsty!

Answer 4

u could never drink too much water i don't think. so basically that's pretty normal