A Question About Water
lisakatz2
Posts: 528 Member
I often read about the importance of keeping hydrated. I drink four 16.9 ounce bottles of spring water a day and feel topped off by that, especially since the weather where I am is not yet hot. However, I've read that I should be at least doubling that. I'm 5'4" and 199.5 lbs. Is all the stuff I read about extreme hydration for real?
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Drink tap water. Bottled water is very wasteful.
Anything you eat or drink counts towards hydration. There's some people that think we need more water than we actually do.2 -
Los Angeles tap water tastes nasty, trust me!1
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There is no universally necessary amount of water. If your urine is pale yellow (not clear, not dark), you're adequately hydrated. (It could be very bright almost neon but still light yellow if you're getting more than you need of some certain vitamins, and that's OK, too.)
Beyond adequate hydration, extra water does nothing for weight loss, unless you subjectively find that drinking extra water before or with a meal helps you feel full faster, or stay feeling full longer.
Water is hydrating, but so is coffee, tea, soup, fruit, and generally anything that contains liquid but that isn't so very diuretic that we shouldn't rely on it. (Coffee and tea are not that diuretic, for the average person, so they count.)1 -
The answer depends on your age, activity level, and a bunch of other variables.
One Harvard source says 4 to 6 cups, while another Harvard source says 9 to 13 cups.
You might want to use a different measurement to check if you’re drinking enough.
https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-tell-if-youre-dehydrated#signs-in-adults
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And don't forget that everything you eat that has some inbuild fluid also counts, including fruit and veg, yogurt and so many other things contain fluids as well.2
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Drink tap water. Bottled water is very wasteful.
Anything you eat or drink counts towards hydration. There's some people that think we need more water than we actually do.
Correct that some people overhydrate however the tap water comment I’d disagree as some is terrible and not understanding why bottled water is being wasteful.0 -
tomcustombuilder wrote: »Drink tap water. Bottled water is very wasteful.
Anything you eat or drink counts towards hydration. There's some people that think we need more water than we actually do.
Correct that some people overhydrate however the tap water comment I’d disagree as some is terrible and not understanding why bottled water is being wasteful.
It takes energy to create the bottles. It take energy to transport the water. Most bottled water is actually filtered municipal tap water. Tap water is a good value. Where I live, it costs about $0.0065 per gallon. Bottled water can cost orders of magnitude more.
Some private plumbing inside buildings degrades the quality of tap water. In those cases, you can get a filter to polish it up. Some water sources actually do have off flavors. In those cases, often filters can help, and if not, getting LARGE bottles of water and a dispenser can help. It's usually water that's filtered nearby, not trucked hundreds or thousands of miles or shipped over oceans.
Even though the bottles are recyclable, most single-use water bottles go into the landfill or worse just get chucked.
So - single use bottled water is a waste of energy for production and for transportation, is a waste of money for an end-user, and creates pollution or solid waste. Yep. It's wasteful.
I have several bottles I can fill and carry if I want to bring water with me. Some are insulated in case it's really hot or cold out. Some are just old-school Nalgene bottles. I'll be filling one in a few minutes to take on a canoe trip.1 -
tomcustombuilder wrote: »Drink tap water. Bottled water is very wasteful.
Anything you eat or drink counts towards hydration. There's some people that think we need more water than we actually do.
Correct that some people overhydrate however the tap water comment I’d disagree as some is terrible and not understanding why bottled water is being wasteful.
Because of the plastic. Plastic= bad for the environment.0 -
Recycle itsollyn23l2 wrote: »tomcustombuilder wrote: »Drink tap water. Bottled water is very wasteful.
Anything you eat or drink counts towards hydration. There's some people that think we need more water than we actually do.
Correct that some people overhydrate however the tap water comment I’d disagree as some is terrible and not understanding why bottled water is being wasteful.
Because of the plastic. Plastic= bad for the environment.
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tomcustombuilder wrote: »
Recycle itsollyn23l2 wrote: »tomcustombuilder wrote: »Drink tap water. Bottled water is very wasteful.
Anything you eat or drink counts towards hydration. There's some people that think we need more water than we actually do.
Correct that some people overhydrate however the tap water comment I’d disagree as some is terrible and not understanding why bottled water is being wasteful.
Because of the plastic. Plastic= bad for the environment.
That still uses energy.
First you still have the energy used to make the bottle in the first place. Then you have the energy embedded in shipping the bottle to the place where they fill it with water. Then you have the energy embedded in shipping the filled bottles to point of purchase. Then you have the energy embedded in shipping the empty bottle to some place where it can be recycled. I don't think they use recycled plastic for food products, so they will have to use more petroleum to make the next bottle. The clothes that are made from recycled bottles also shed micro plastics, and we're learning more and more that they pose health risks for creatures that live in the wild as well as to us humans.
If I could design a product that people would pay five bucks a day for even though they had access to it already essentially for free, I'd be a rich, rich man. Evil too....
Recycling is not the sole answer. Remember: Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Recycle is last in that list for a reason. It's the least wasteful option. Best to reduce or eliminate. Next is keep the bottle and refill it yourself. Single-use plastics are really a bad idea. More and more humans are finally realizing this.2 -
I vote no on the single use 16.9 oz water bottles too.
Look into Brita filter water pitchers. I like water colder than the tap also.1 -
Plastic recycling is in terrible shape and not effective. Plastic water bottles pretty much end up in landfills. More disturbing to me is the sight of millions of pounds of bottles washed up on the beaches of many other countries.2
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Yeah, ok: buying water is wasteful. I get it. I mostly drink tap water. But if I live in an area where there's chlorine added, or the water is very salty then I pass. In an area with water from a desalination plant then I do mix bottled water to tap water because the tap water lacks pretty much everything, while in at least one country I lived in might contain cyanobacteria. Some old buildings also still contain lead plumbing, which isn't great for getting all your fluid needs from either. So yeah, while we should not be wasteful with our resources it's not always possible to totally avoid.2
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