Water is the main component of our body and makes up 60% of our body weight. If you are having 70 kg body weight then around 42 kg weight is contributed by water. So, taking care of water intake and drinking enough water each day is crucial for nearly every function in the body. Let me clear your concept of daily water intake for proper benefit.
Quantity: A daily intake of 1.5 to 3 liters is sufficient for the majority of us. But the amount can vary depending upon profession, physical activity and clinical conditions. A software engineer sitting in an air conditioned room and working on a laptop will be requiring less water intake in comparison to a person working outdoors or athletes doing physical activity.
So, how to find out whether you are consuming adequate water or not.
First check color of urine: Pale yellow is the ideal color. Dark yellow urine means that your water intake is not sufficient and you need to increase your water intake. Complete white urine is suggestive of excess water intake.
Quantity of urine: A normal healthy individual is having 1 to 2 liters of urine output in 24 hours.
Frequency and amount of void: A normal person can pee between 4 to 10 times a day with passing 200 to 500 mL urine every time.
You need to increase your daily water intake If you are passing dark yellow urine and peeing less than 4 times a day.
You need to decrease your daily water intake if you are passing large quantities of complete white urine more than 10 times a day.
If you find all these complex, let me simplify for you.
Take a normal daily using glass with 250 ml capacity.
- Start drinking with 8 glasses of water per day.
- You should be peeing pale yellow urine 8 (range 4-10) times a day.
- Also listen to your thirst.
If you are having dark yellow urine while peeing less than 4 times a day with 8 glasses per day, start increasing your water intake by 1 glass per day till it normalizes. If it doesn’t normalize even with 12 glasses per day (3 liters/ day), something may be wrong and you need to visit a doctor.
Caution: Urine color may change with certain medical conditions eg jaundice, kidney disease or with certain medications and this formula won’t work.
Next blog, I will be writing regarding the ideal time to drink water for maximum benefit.
