Forget The Eight Glasses, Your Weight Decides How Much Water You Need

We all know that water is one of the most essential ingredients of our world and ourselves. It makes up about 65 percent of our bodies and is part of everything we do, right down to the cellular level.

While some people have pushed dehydration to the limit and gone eight or 10 ten days without it, you'll usually die if you don't get any water within three days.

Yet, there's one question that we've found surprisingly hard to answer until quite recently: How much water do we actually need?

We've often heard that we need eight glasses a day and wonder who has the time to drink that much, but it turns out the answer's a little more flexible than that. It's a good thing, too, because many of us really aren't getting enough water.

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Apparently, many of us are drinking as little as half of the water we need.

This is bad news for our metabolism since even a one percent deficiency in water can throw it out of whack.

Dehydration can have some other surprising effects.

For one thing, water keeps our kidneys running smoothly. So if we don't get enough water, we're more likely to get constipated.

It's also the most common cause of kidney stones.

When you don't get enough water, calcium and other minerals in your pee can build up until they form crystals. Those crystals are the dreaded kidney stones.

So we definitely want to make sure we keep ourselves hydrated.

Yet, it turns out a flat rate of eight glasses of water a day isn't going to work for everyone. It actually really depends on who's doing the drinking.

The amount of water you need depends on your body weight.

Your level of activity and where you live play into it too, but your weight is a good place to start.

This chart can help you break it down.

Although, it's not as cut and dry as the chart makes it look. You actually want to drink anywhere between half an ounce to an ounce of water for each pound you weigh.

So if you weigh 150 pounds, you're looking at between 75 and 150 ounces of water each day.

So, how do you know which number is right for you?

If you live in a hot area and get a lot of exercise, you'll want to make sure you're taking in an ounce of water per pound you weigh.

If you're in a colder place and sitting around a lot, you're more likely to need just a half ounce per pound.

Whichever is right for you, remember to space it out throughout the day — it's not a good idea to drink a day's worth of water at once.

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