Water/hydration

[karen2205]

I'm sure I've rambled about this before, but I've never managed to come up with a good answer to the question of "how much water do I need to drink to stay hydrated?" that's founded on decent science.

Points made include:

'8 glasses of water a day' = 2 pints or so. [More is needed in hot weather, I know]
'coffee + tea + other caffeine containing drinks don't count 'cos they're dehydrating' - how does one make up for this? Do they simply 'not count' or does one drink additional water, on top of the 2 pints, to make for them?
'there's lots of water in some fruit and veg' - can this be deducted from the '8 glasses'?
'thirst isn't a reliable indicator of dehydration, by the time you're thirsty you're already 2% dehydrated'
'urine should be pale & copious'

What points am I missing? How do I coordinate them all into a nice, easy to apply strategy for drinking enough water?

Comments

[clare-s.livejournal.com]

I watched an interesting programme on this the other day 2ltrs is the amount of water needed but the majority of this is in the foods we eat. Tea, Coffee and alcohol all count as the net amount is for hydration.

However, if you do want to up your amount have a small 500ml bottle on your desk and aim to drink 1 to mid morning, 1 to lunch, 1 to mid pm and then 1 before home. It's far less daunting than a big bottle