How Much Water?

Everyone knows that it's important to drink water. But how much water do we really need to drink? I was always told that 8 glasses was the magical number. Apparently, that's not quite accurate. It actually varies from person to person depending on their weight. Obviously someone who weighs 200 pounds is going to require more water than someone who is 100 pounds. I found this awesome article that enlightened me.

I should probably let you know that I'm already a "water drinker". I've never been a milk fan (unless it's chocolate) and carbonated beverages make me feel gross, so I've always just stuck with water and smoothies as my liquids. But after reading this article, I realized that I'm not drinking nearly enough water!

According to their calculations (take your body weight and multiply it by .67), I should be drinking 74 ounces of water every day! yikes! And on the days that I exercise, I need to add an additional 12 more ounces. I have a 16 oz. Nalgene water bottle that I keep in my fridge. When it's empty, I refill it, but I don't really pay attention to how many times I refill it during the day. In order to get my 74 ounces of water, I need to finish 4.5 bottles. To help me keep track, I created this nifty little chart:

The dashed lines divide the bottle into 8 oz. sections. Brian's Nalgene is 32 oz., so this is his water chart:

I made these in a 4x6 format so I can put them in frames and stick them to the fridge. Then we can use a dry erase marker to keep track of how much water we've been drinking. Is this something that would help you? Are you shocked by how much water you SHOULD be drinking?

If you would like these charts for yourself, click on one of the links below:

16 oz.

32 oz.