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How Much Water Should You Drink Per Day and When

By Ethan Boldt

January 24, 2025

Everyone knows that drinking water is important. Water plays a key role in nearly every function in your body. It helps regulate body temperature, transports nutrients, helps keep joints healthy, aids digestion and helps remove waste.

Moreover, water keeps you hydrated and helps balance electrolytes in your body, both of which are important for your fluid balance, muscle and nerve function, exercising and much more.

But how much water do you need per day? When do you need it most? Are there best times to drink water? Let’s get into it.

As always, you should consult your healthcare professional prior to beginning any new dietary or lifestyle regimen.

Benefits of drinking water

The benefits of drinking water and staying hydrated are more considerable than people realize. They include:

• Physical performance, including improved endurance and muscles that are less likely to cramp.

• Temperature regulation, including water helping the body maintain a stable body temperature by sweating.

• Electrolyte balance, with water helping to balance electrolytes like sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in the body.

• Digestive health, including water helping to break down nutrients and then help the body absorb them.

• Joint health, including keeping joints and cartilage lubricated and soft.

• Kidney health, including helping to flush out waste products/everyday toxins.

• Heart health, including helping to maintain healthy blood pressure levels.

• Cognitive health, including assisting with concentration, alertness and memory.

• Skin health, including helping to maintain healthy skin elasticity and overall skin hydration.

• Healthy weight management*, including lowering appetite (helping you feel full), hydrating without calories (water replacing sodas and juices, for instance), boosting the metabolism (especially cold water) and burning fat (water is needed for breaking down fat).

*In addition to a healthy diet and lifestyle, including regular exercise.

How much water per day is needed

The recommended daily water intake can vary based on age, gender, climate and activity level. Plus, it’s gone up over the years. Formerly the “water rule” was drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day.

Today, on average, the Mayo Clinic recommends that women drink roughly 11.5 cups (92 ounces) of water per day, and men drink roughly 15.5 cups (124 ounces).

A more precise recommendation is to drink up to 50 percent of your body weight in ounces of water per day. So if you weigh 160 pounds, you should try to drink up to 80 ounces of water per day ideally. Some experts consider that amount too little, however,

When you need more water

Beyond the average amount of water needed, other factors exist that affect how much water you should drink. They include the following.

• Season and temperature: When it’s hotter outside, you will sweat more and lose water weight; also when you’re exposed to the sun, you are likely to sweat more than usual and will need more water.

• Location: Living at a high elevation or in a hot, humid or dry area, you will need to up your water intake.

• Activity level: Those who are more physically active require more water than those who don’t move as often; this is particularly the case for those who exercise for long periods or in warm environments (see more below).

• Diets: Certain diets require more water in order to avoid less than ideal hydration levels; these include the keto diet, high-protein diets and also intermittent fasting.

• Pregnancy or breastfeeding: Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding typically require more water to stay hydrated. Always consult your healthcare professional about water consumption amounts.

Remember, while thirst is your body’s way of indicating that you need more water, it actually means you may already be less hydrated than normal.

Best times to drink water

In general, the best times to drink water are throughout the day and gradually rather than drinking large amounts in a short period of time.

Here are some specific guidelines for when to drink water.

• First thing in the morning after waking up: Helps you replenish water lost during sleep and may help increase your metabolism for a few hours after getting up.

• Before exercise: Around two to three hours before exercising, drink 16 to 20 ounces of water. Get in around 8 ounces 15 to 30 minutes before.

• During exercise: In general, aim for about 4 to 10 ounces of water for every 15 minutes. That should go up if you’re exercising in a hot or humid environment, or if you’re doing a high-intensity workout. If you’ve lost over a liter (33 ounces) of water or exercised over an hour, consider supplementing with an electrolyte drink.

• After exercise: Drink 16 to 24 ounces of water for every pound of body weight lost due to sweating. Again, if you’ve gone over an hour, supplement with electrolytes (as well as healthy, low-sugar carbohydrates) to aid recovery.

• Between meals: To stay hydrated and also not confuse thirst for hunger, it’s a good idea to drink between meals and snacks.

• Before meals: About 30 minutes before a meal, drink water in order to help your body absorb nutrients.

• During a meal: While some experts recommend staying away from water during a meal, it typically helps with breaking down food and swallowing. If it causes occasional stomach bloating or discomfort, feel free to limit your intake.

• After meals: Drinking water after a meal can aid digestion, prevent occasional constipation and help you feel full. But don’t overdo it and wait at least 30 minutes before having more water.

• Before bed: Around one to two hours before bed, stop drinking water, as otherwise the water intake can interrupt your sleep and make you wake up to use the bathroom.

• When you're thirsty: As said above, if you’re thirsty, you’re already possibly showing signs of inadequate hydration. Drink more water right away.

Best way to hydrate

Drinking plain water is the simplest and best way to help maintain hydration. Use a large glass or drinking vessel to make it easy to hit your water intake goals. You can also choose sparkling or mineral water on occasion.

While most people can get adequate amounts of electrolytes through foods, you may occasionally need additional electrolytes. Replenishing electrolytes can be critical, particularly when you want to hydrate fast because you're sweating a lot or dealing with fluid loss during exercise.

Electrolytes help the body absorb and retain water, so drinking water without electrolytes can mean inadequate hydration in certain situations (like exercising for over an hour, heavy sweating, hot weather, being at high altitude, etc.)

Ancient Nutrition's Rapid Hydration powder — available in stick packs — delivers essential electrolytes for fast-acting hydration, all powered by real food ingredients: coconut water, natural sea salts and red marine algae. These superfoods are less-processed, naturally occurring ingredients that retain beneficial antioxidants and nutrients to serve whole body health. (Some competitors use synthetic sources.)

In addition, this formula delivers essential electrolytes magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium in an optimal ratio for whole-body hydration (because water alone isn’t always enough for effective hydration).

On top of rapid body hydration, this supplement supports cellular health, healthy energy and absorption of key nutrients. It also helps reduce occasional bloating.

Rapid Hydration features two refreshing, tropical flavors — strawberry lemonade and lemon lime — in convenient stick packs that are easy to mix with 16 to 32 ounces of cold water.

In addition, Ancient Nutrition’s Multi Collagen Advanced Hydrate helps you achieve rapid hydration for your skin and body. Available in lemon lime and mixed berry, it features a hydration superfood blend that includes Spanish red cave salt and red marine algae.

This supplement features twice the number of electrolytes (overall sodium and potassium levels) as leading sports drinks. It provides rapid absorption of water and key nutrients plus both skin and body hydration. Simply mix one scoop with 20 ounces of liquid.

Note that Multi Collagen Advanced Hydrate and Rapid Hydration have different levels of minerals and nutrients. Please check the nutrition facts panel of each product for full details.

If you are looking for a high-quality hydration product, Rapid Hydration is a great choice. If you like the idea of getting both your electrolytes and your collagen in one serving, Multi Collagen Advanced Hydrate might be right for you.