How Many Bottles of Water Should You Drink A Day
Our body consists of 60% of water essential to facilitate all the important machinery in our body. It’s good to be concerned about the amount of water we need to consume. If there’s not enough water, there’s no life. Maybe, you’re using bottles to keep a tab on your drinking goal. Having problems in calculating water intake levels in bottles? Are you thinking, how many bottles of water should I drink a day?
Related Post: Is It Safe To Drink Rainwater
Here are our efforts to detail everything you need to know about drinking water bottles to maintain a healthy drinking habit.
What Does The Consumption of Water Depend On?
How many bottles of water should you drink a day? It depends on numerous factors and differs from person to person. So it’s not simple to make a straightforward decision. But if you consider the factors mentioned below, hopefully, you’ll be able to estimate the right number of bottles to drink per day to reach your goals.
Types of Your Diet
Water gain from ingested foods or drinks is also known as performed water. A good portion of our body fluid requirement is filled up by the foods we consume. Foods have a liquid part that contributes to the body water pool. Also, the metabolism of the food portion produces water which is added to our body water contents.
Consuming juicy fruits, citrus fruits, coffee, tea hugely supplies the required water contents. If you drink lots of coffee or green tea, it gets easier to make up the required amount of water your body needs. Some rainbow fruits and vegetables also contain large amounts of water. On a hot day, a pink watermelon can keep you hydrated for a long period. If you carefully curate your food types, you’ll be able to hydrate your body effectively.
Bottle Size
There are different bottle sizes available in the stores. It’s wise of you to choose reusable bottles. The most common bottle size is 16 oz or 500 ml. It’s best to use bottles that contain 16 to 24 oz water. However, a bottle of 20 oz, 32 oz, or 40 oz can be perfect concerning their uses.
If you practice long-distance running regularly, a bottle of 6-8 oz is enough and easy for you. If you’re conscious about your drinking goals, you can use a 16 oz bottle which is also easy to carry. For long distances, you need to use a large bottle which can be a 40 oz bottle.
However, we’ll discuss later how many bottles you need to drink per day to stay hydrated. As you know about the bottle sizes, it’ll be easy for you to keep a tab on your drinking goal. If you have a 20 oz or 32 oz bottle at your home, you can act accordingly.
Gender
Yes! Gender is a key factor in determining the water consumption rate for you. If you’re a man, you’ll need more water than a woman due to the differences in the contour and structure of the body.
An adult male contains total body fluid, 60% of his body weight, whereas an adult female of the same age and weight usually lacks 5-10% body water contents. Hence water constitutes 50-55% of the total body weight of an adult female.
It’s because of the fat distribution, 15% in a non-obese male and 21% in a non-obese female. A female of the same weight has more fat content than her male counterpart. So, increased fat contents mean decreased water contents.
That’s why women need less water to rehydrate their bodies.
Age
Age also matters in determining how many bottles of water you should drink. A child aged 1-5 years will need more water as the basal heat production is high in children. Infants also need more water due to more urinary water loss.
An adult person requires 25-40 ml water/kg/day, where a child needs 100ml/kg/day, and an infant needs 100-150 ml/kg/day. You see the huge difference in the water requirements by the people of different ages.
How Much Water Should You Drink Based On Your Weight
Most of the calculations we see about how many water bottles you should drink apply to a 70kg person. It’s the norm in medical science to adopt 70kg as a standard.
Anyway, changes in body weight greatly affect the amount of water you should consume. A 90 kg person will need more water than a 60 kg person.
If you’re an adult, your body needs 25-40 ml of water per kg of body weight. So, a 70 kg person will require 1750 ml to 2800 ml of water in a day. A child will need more water a day per its body mass. A child aged between 1 to 5 years requires 100 ml water per kg of body weight. An infant needs much more water, ranging from 100 to 150 ml of water per kg per day.
Physiological state
Some physiological states play a key role in determining the bottles of water you should consume per day. A pregnant mother needs more water to rehydrate her body. Same way, a breastfeeding mother should drink as much water as possible to continue proper breastfeeding.
A pregnant woman needs to drink 10 cups of water per day as she carries another life on her. A breastfeeding woman needs more cups of water that amounts to 12 cups of water.
When a woman passes through her premenstrual period, she needs additional fluid to keep her rehydrated. These specific physiological states need special attention as you should drink many bottles of water to keep your body hydrated.
Climate
In a hot climate, you’ll easily get dehydrated due to decreased humidity. More sweating can lead to dehydration and ultimately to heatstroke. So drink as many bottles of water as possible to keep you running in hot and dry weather.
It’s not necessary to drink too much water on a cold day as your body slightly loses any. Some places are humid and warm and prevent profuse sweating. In these places, a few bottles of water are enough to suffice the thirst.
Physical activity
Types of physical activity also impact the amount of water one should drink to keep hydrated. In a moderate workout, drinking a few sips of water is helpful even if you don’t feel any thirst.
If you go through strenuous physical activities, you need to drink every time you feel thirsty. Few bottles of water after certain intervals of exercise also helps a lot to prevent dehydration. Many personal trainers suggest that if you’re an athlete of average weight and doing intense physical activities, 4 liters of water in 24 hrs will keep you well hydrated.
Diseases
Some diseases require you to drink many bottles of water. Neurogenic disorders like psychogenic polydipsia increase the urge to drink water. These patients can finish many bottles of water one by one. Diabetic patients also feel thirst now and then.
If you’re suffering from kidney diseases or heart failure, you should limit water consumption to a certain extent. Water intake varies substantially due to many factors. It’ll be wise to consider those facts before you drink bottles after bottles of water.
How Much Water Does The Body Lose A Day
It’s important to know how much water your body loses a day. Then you can estimate if you need more water input to keep water balance on the right track. A normal person loses an average amount of water a day. But if you’re going through an intense workout or moderate exercise, you’ll lose more water than normal.
In a 70 kg adult, water output ranges from 1600 ml to 2600 ml. It’s the average estimation where 1600 ml is the minimum output for a 70 kg adult. Our body loses water mainly through urination.
But a great amount of water also comes out of the body through breathing, sweating, and stool. Transpiration occurs through expired air, whereas perspiration occurs through the skin. These events occur beyond the consciousness of an individual hence known as insensible water loss.
Obligatory water loss amounts to 1500 ml/day, which means you lose this amount through various channels. It needs to be refilled to keep dehydration at bay.
Here’s a water output chart for a 70 kg adult.
| Nature of Water Output | Obligatory (ml/day) |
| As urine | 500 |
| Perspiration (via skin) | 550 |
| Transpiration (via expiration) | 400 |
| With stool | 150 |
| Total | 1600 ml/day |
If you drink more water, your urine output will be more. If you drink 1650 ml water per day, your urine output will be 1500 ml/day. That’s how the excretory system beautifully balances the body water system.
How Many Cups Are In A Water Bottle
Water consumption is sometimes measured in cups and ounces. So it would be best to know how many cups of water resemble a bottle of water.
Cup is an old English system of measuring mainly the cooking materials and servings. However, cup units vary in measurements in different countries. Though it’s 240 ml in the US, a cup of water denotes 250 ml in the commonwealth countries. This slight variation doesn’t normally cause problems in cooking and servings.
You’ll find a variety of water bottles in the stores. But the most common water bottles are
- 16 oz
- 20 oz
- 32 oz
- 40 oz
Here 1 cup means eight fluid ounces. So, a 16-ounce bottle contains 2 cups of water, and a 20 oz bottle includes 2.5 cups of water. 32 oz and 40 oz bottles are the larger versions that can hold 4 cups and 5 cups of water, respectively.
If you’re up to a goal to drink given cups of water, now you can easily choose between as the amount of water is correlated above.
How Many Bottles of Water Should You Drink A Day
There are plenty of opinions out there discussing how many bottles of water you should drink a day. It’s a complex calculation as water consumption depends on many things and varies substantially from person to person.
But here, I’ll try to draw your attention to taking the right amount of fluid that your body needs to flourish in full.
There’s an easy-to-remember rule known as the 8×8 rule that can help you achieve your drinking goals. The rule suggests that one should drink 8-ounce bottles or glasses eight times a day. Many health experts recommend this method as it’s easy to follow and goes with most of the average Joes.
But certainly, the amount isn’t constant and varies substantially in different individuals. According to the recommendation of The US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, an adult should drink-
- 11.5 cups a day if he’s a female (5 bottles)
- 15.5 cups a day if she’s a male (6 bottles)
A male needs 3.7 L of water in the liter unit, whereas a female requires 2.7 L of water per day.
So if you’re a male and using a 20 oz or 600 ml bottle, you need to drink six bottles of water and a bit more. As a female, you’ll need to drink five 16-ounce or 500 ml bottles per day.
But there’s more to it. The US Dietary Guidelines do not recommend any certain drinking goals as they vary greatly. Rather they emphasize taking plain water than juices and flavored ones.
The NHS of the UK also issues an opinion which says that in temperate weather, an adult needs to drink 1.9 liters or four bottles of water a day.
However, there’s an easy way to determine the bottles of water you need to drink concerning your weight. As weight varies from person to person, this formula will help you calculate your water requirement properly.
In adults: 25-40 ml per kg per day
In children (1-5 years): 100 ml per kg per day
In infants (less than 1 years): 100-150 ml/kg/day
Knowledge about the nature of water intake will greatly help you pick the right choices for your drinking goals. As we know from above, our body loses 1600-2600 ml of water per day. Your water intake should be a minimum of 1600 ml to facilitate waste disposal to fill up the water requirement.
I’ve included a table showing the obligatory amount of water you should drink to free your body from metabolic waste.
| Nature of Intake | Obligatory (ml/day) | |
| Drinks (pure water & beverages) | 650 | |
| Intake | Food water | 600 |
| Metabolic water | 350 | |
| Total | 1600 ml/day |
Here you see that we get a minimum of 600 ml water from the food, and from their metabolism, we get 350 ml water. So both of these contribute to half of the minimum requirement for our body. With that said, we need to drink a minimum of 650 ml of water per day to keep cells alive. Drinking standards should amount to 1650 ml of water and beverages per day. So total intake of water intake amounts to 2600 ml/day.
Don’t worry that you’re drinking too much water because water intoxication is a rare condition that only happens in certain psychogenic conditions. If you drink 21L/day, you’ll form water intoxication that might lead to death. But it’s so rare and difficult to drink such a huge amount of water in a short time. Hopefully, you found the answers to your question of how many bottles of water should you drink a day.
If water seems scarce or costly in your areas, you can harvest rainwater and then filter it. However, if you have tooth sensitivity, avoid it when it’s cold.
References:
Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews of Biochemistry/ 7th Edition
Harper’s Illustrated Biochemistry/ 29th Edition
ABC of Medical Biochemistry/ 6th Edition
