How much water should I drink per day?

In this guidebook we inform you about how much water you should drink per day and which factors can influence your water requirements. It points out that the recommended amount of water to drink can vary from person to person and depends on factors such as age, gender, body weight, activity level and ambient temperature. Tips are also given on how to increase your water intake.

What is a person's healthy daily fluid requirement?

A person's healthy daily fluid requirement varies depending on individual factors such as age, gender, body weight, activity level and ambient temperature. However, it is generally recommended that adults should drink at least 1.5 to 2 liters of fluid per day. Some experts even recommend up to 3 to 4 liters of fluid per day. However, it is important to note that not only water, but also other liquids such as tea, coffee, fruit juices and soups can contribute to the body's fluid requirement.

What is your individual fluid requirement in everyday life or during physical activity? Use our water requirement calculator!

Water requirement calculator

With our water requirement calculator, you can quickly and easily calculate how much water you should drink every day. Simply enter your personal details and receive a personalized recommendation for your water requirements. Stay sufficiently hydrated and improve your health!

Why is it important to drink enough water?

Our body consists of 60% water and water is essential for many bodily functions. Water helps to regulate body temperature, aid digestion, maintain blood pressure and remove waste from the body. It can also help reduce the risk of dehydration, kidney stones and urinary tract infections.

In addition, drinking enough water can also help improve skin health and support cognitive function.

What factors influence my individual fluid requirements?

Part of the amount of water you should consume each day is already contained in your food. Sport or strenuous physical work lead to an increased need for water. Athletes can weigh themselves before and after sport. This way they know how much water they have lost through sweating¹.

Finally, it depends on your height, age and weight. You should consume 35 ml of water per kilogram of body weight per day. A small proportion (approx. 300 ml) is produced by our own metabolic processes. Fruit and vegetables in particular often contain a lot of water, so that up to one liter of water is obtained through food intake. This leaves a residue of 1.5 liters of water (if you want to stick to the rough standard of 2.5 liters of water intake per day). This would have to be consumed through drinking water or other drinks. Juice spritzers, for example, are well suited. Contrary to earlier opinions, tea and coffee do not deprive the body of water either, although the recommendation is still particularly directed towards fruit and herbal teas. However, well-filtered water remains the healthiest and most recommended drink. Under no circumstances should the daily fluid intake be covered by juices and spritzers alone. Instead, it makes sense to install a drinking water filter in order to have regular access to clean drinking water that is free from harmful substances and at the same time rich in minerals and trace elements.

Special case of alcohol: Alcohol in the body must be compensated for by an increased water intake.
Changes in environmental conditions, such as extreme heat, also lead to an increased need for water. The high water loss must also be compensated for in the case of diarrhea.

Checklist:

• Body size 
• Weight 
• Age 
• Gender 
• How much fruit and vegetables do I eat every day?  
  
• How much fluid do I consume daily through drinks such as coffee, tea and juices?
• Do I do sport? Which one?
• Do I have a physically demanding job? 
• Do I do strenuous activities in my free time, such as gardening, house building, transportation? 
• Do I regularly drink small amounts of alcohol?
• Do I (exceptionally) have too much alcohol in my blood, e.g. after a party? 
• Do I generally tend to sweat a little or a lot? 
• Do I have a temporary increased fluid requirement due to an illness (e.g. diarrhea)? 

What happens if you drink too much water?

Drinking too much water can lead to overhydration of the body, also known as water intoxication or hyponatremia. Drinking too much water at once can lead to an imbalance of electrolytes in the body, especially sodium levels, which can cause swelling of the brain. Water intoxication can cause the following symptoms:

• Convulsions and epileptic seizures up to and including unconsciousness
• Headache
• Nausea and vomiting
• Heart palpitations ("tachycardia") with an accelerated pulse of more than 100 beats per minute
• Breathing problems
  
• Long-term: heart failure
• Long-term: accumulation of water in the tissue (edema)

Cardiac patients in particular must therefore be especially careful when it comes to consuming the correct amount of water².

However, it is important to note that it is usually difficult to drink too much water and this usually only occurs with very high fluid intake or with certain medical conditions such as kidney problems or diabetes.

What happens if you drink too little?

The human body itself consists of 60% water. With increasing age, this proportion of body water decreases. Water regulates body temperature, for example. It transports important nutrients to the organs and cells. The kidneys excrete harmful substances via the urine. This requires a regular supply of water, otherwise the body becomes intoxicated.

You usually notice quickly if you have not drunk enough. Your concentration wanes and you tire more quickly. This is why it is particularly important to drink enough water when driving. In old age, these early detection systems often fail. This can lead to more serious consequences. Tiredness turns into confusion. Headaches increase. Finally, circulatory collapse can occur. The kidneys fail. Dehydration is acutely life-threatening. Another form of damage is deficiency symptoms due to a lack of minerals in the body as a result of not drinking enough. A fluid deficiency of just two percent is enough to start impairing mental performance. A water deficiency of 12% or more can be life-threatening³.

How do I get myself to drink enough and regularly?  

Regular drinking is a key factor in meeting our daily water requirements. This is sometimes not so easy. Working people who are under stress often simply forget to drink enough.

A study by Techniker Krankenkasse shows that only 70 percent of adults surveyed are convinced that they drink enough fluids every day⁴.

As a rule, after a while you feel thirsty, so you will automatically drink. However, elderly people in particular can suffer from a lack of water in their bodies because their natural need is no longer as pronounced and they do not drink enough. Care services must ensure that dehydration does not occur, especially in the case of people with dementia.

If you feel that you are not drinking enough water, there are simple tricks to change this:

Why should you always have access to sufficient water?

Normally, people in Central Europe will have no problems getting enough water every day. Nevertheless, situations in which there is a shortage of fluids can develop more quickly than you might think. One such situation could be a long traffic jam on a highway. Drinking water outages (for example as a result of a power cut or contamination) are very rare in Germany, but cannot be ruled out completely. Increasing droughts in summer have indeed already led to short-term shortages.

Above all, however, athletes and hikers must be careful. This is especially true if you get lost. Even if there is no desert in Germany, there may be situations in which water is not readily available. Drinking from springs and streams requires special knowledge or a water filter to avoid poisoning yourself. However, there are also karst and arid regions in Germany where it is almost impossible to find surface water. In a video about a hike in Franconian Switzerland, the well-known YouTuber and outdoor sports enthusiast Kai Sackmann provides an exciting example of such a situation: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiTfC8f3hMo
So you should always have a sufficient amount of drinking water with you, even on excursions.

@YouTube screenshot (wiTfC8f3hMo)

The best thirst quencher is and remains high-quality drinking water, optimized with a filter like the Alb Filter.
Two health benefits in one: if you use the Alb Filter, you can be sure that you are not only drinking water that is reduced in harmful substances, but that you are also getting your daily intake of important minerals and trace elements.

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