How to Determine if You Are Drinking Half Your Body Weight in Water

How to Determine if You Are Drinking Half Your Body Weight in Water
By Brian Richards from Livestrong.com

Drink half of your body weight in ounces in water every day.


Water accounts for approximately 70 percent of an adult's body weight. While we get a lot of water from the foods that we eat, it is important to drink plenty of water to replenish any that gets used throughout the day. Adults should try to drink half of their body weight in ounces of water per day, according to Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj. This means that a 160 lb. man should try to drink 80 oz. of water per day. This number increases if you live in a warm or dry climate.

Step 1

• Weigh yourself to determine your precise weight.

Step 2

• Divide your weight in pounds by half.

Step 3

• Convert this number to ounces. This is the amount of water you should try to drink each day. For instance, a 160 lb. man should attempt to drink 80 oz. of water per day.

Step 4

• Fill a glass, water bottle or any other receptacle from which you frequently drink with water. Pour the water into your measuring cup to see how much water your receptacle holds.

Step 5

• Multiply the number of cups your receptacle holds by 8 to determine the number of oz. the receptacle holds.

Step 6

• Divide the number of ounces of water you should drink per day by the number of ounces your receptacle holds. For instance, if you weigh 160 lb. and have a water bottle that holds 10 oz. of water, divide 80 by 10 to arrive at 8. This means you should drink 8 full water bottles per day.

Warnings

Generalized advice is never as good as advice given to you by your doctor. Only your doctor can determine if you should drink more water.

Tips

Spread your water consumption over the entire day rather than drinking a lot of water in a single sitting. This will help keep you from feeling waterlogged. If you need help remembering when to drink, set a timer to go off every 90 minutes and drink a full glass or water bottle when the timer goes off.

Rather than using plastic water bottles, invest in a reusable bottle that you fill with filtered water. This will save both money and landfill space.

Things You'll Need

Scale

Measuring cup