With the virality of #WaterTok, a trending hashtag on TikTok, questions about how much water we are meant to consume is once again making the rounds in various news outlets and on social media. When you add in the explosive popularity of a Stanley Cup 40-ounce tumbler, the question of how much water is enough water per day is an especially curious one. Head below to learn more.
Our bodies are made of 60% water, and many people, myself included, have been raised to believe that we should be drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day – a total of 64 ounces of water. While there is research from the 1930s and 1940s to support that rule, more recent research has found that it might not be necessary to consume that much water, and it certainly isn’t a required – or accurate – amount for everyone.
According to a 2022 study in Science, Herman Pontzer, a coauthor of the paper and a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, said that most people don’t need eight glasses of water a day:
Our study shows that ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t work for hydration. People should listen to their bodies and drink when they’re thirsty. Bigger people generally need more water. Athletes or those who work in physically demanding jobs need more water, as do people in hot environments.
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While it’s certainly not a bad thing to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day, it simply isn’t the recommended amount for every person, and the recommendations for water consumption are much more nuanced than we might realize.
According to the National Academics of Medicine, adult women should be drinking around 91 ounces or 11 cups of water a day, while adult men should be drinking about 15 cups – or 125 ounces – of water a day. Broken down into Stanley Cup measurements, that’s just over two 40-ounce Stanley Cup tumblers worth of water for women, and just over three for men.
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