The Definitive Guide to How Much Water You Should Drink

[@tonychinnery]

During a heart check at the hospital, the cardiologist was shocked when I told her I only drank 3 or 4 glasses of water a day, but a professor told me that drinking a lot of water is bad for the heart. Just shows you cannot take on trust what doctors tell you. On the other hand if you ask for the evidence behind their advice they would think you are presumptious.

[@jasong9207]

Thank you Dr Wilson - I have been trying to tell medical students and patients this simple truth for what feels like a long time. I have even more trouble with those people on loop diuretics whos sons and daughters insist on pushing fluids!

[@ChrisCapoccia]

drinking to thirst is plenty for vast majority of situations. picking a single number for water to drink is a fool's errand as activity levels and environmental factors make water requirements wildly different for all the types of situations normal people should be able to imagine. one edge case i've seen myself is on longer bike rides, thinking more than 6 hours, when the exhaustion starts to set in, it doesn't really feel like thirst and hunger signals are really working properly and drinking a little periodically regardless of how i feel seems like a better solution. that said, in the short term, the body is perfectly capable of continuing with a break in water drinking. you'll feel uncomfortable and won't perform as well, assuming you get back to water before any real health impacts, you'll be fine

[@Petch85]

It seems like the optimum amount of water is on a plateau rather than a peak. 😂

[@kemitchell]

Naively, I'd expect the benefits of water to consist mostly in drinking less of literally anything else. Also: What study design showed people choose water over sex, and how did it pass IRB?

[@JMaxwell1000]

Answer: I'll drink however much water I want!