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Shop nowWe all know how important water is, but how much water is in the human body? Understanding that water is essential to our bodily functions is a key motivator for staying healthily hydrated. If we can begin to understand how all the different parts of our anatomy need water, we may find it easier to remember to drink enough fluid every day.
In this article, as well as revealing how much water is in the human body, we also take a look at how it’s distributed, and how each part uses water to function.
Over half of our bodies are made up of water. The actual amount of water in your body will depend on your weight, age and gender. As you age, your body water percentage will decrease.
At birth, around three quarters of our body weight is water. As we grow, our body fat increases and our lean tissue decreases. Fatty tissue contains less water. Therefore, over time, our weight and the amount of fatty tissue our bodies contain affects our body water percentage.
An average healthy male between the ages of 19 and 50 will have a body water percentage of around 60%, whereas an average healthy female in the same age range will have a body water percentage of around 50%.
From birth to six months, a baby’s body water percentage will be around 75%. From six months to 12 years, a child’s body water percentage will be around 60%. In teenage years, around 56% of a female’s body weight will be made up of water, compared to around 59% of a male’s. The average body water percentage for a female over 50 is 47%, whereas as male’s is 56%.
You can calculate how much water your own body contains by using the Watson formula:
Female formula
–2.097 + (0.1069 x height in cm) + (0.2466 x weight in kg) = total body water in litres
Male formula
2.447 – (0.09145 x age) + (0.1074 x height in cm) + (0.3362 x weight in kg) = total body water in litres
To then calculate how much that is as a percentage of your body weight, you simply divide your total body water by your weight (in kg) and multiply that answer by 100.
For example, a 1.62 metre high female weighing 55 kg:
-2.097 + (0.1069 x 162 cm = 17.3178) + (0.2466 x 55 kg = 13.563) = 28.7838 litres
28.7838 litres ÷ 55 kg x 100 = 52%
While this isn’t going to be precise, it serves to give a rough idea of how much water is in your body. A healthy range for females up to 50 is 41% to 60%, and for males up to 50 it’s 43% to 73%. For the over-50s, a healthy range for females is 39% to 57%, for males it’s 47% to 67%.
Water is one of the key ingredients of all the major parts that make up the human body:
Everything in our body is made up of cells, and over 70% of each cell is made of water. Water is stored in intracellular fluid (the fluid within cells) as well as in extracellular fluid (the fluid outside cells). Water is everywhere in our bodies, and that’s why we need it so much.
Here are the top ten little everyday miracles that water performs in our bodies to keep us in tip-top health:
In this article, we’ve explained why water is so important to our everyday health. With over half our bodies being made up of water, we need to replace the fluid we’re naturally losing all the time.
It’s always best to replace like for like, so drinking plenty of pure water during the day will help us function properly. A great way to easily stay hydrated is to have a hot and cold water dispenser to hand that purifies your tap water, ensuring that it can be as tasty and healthy as possible.
Take a look at the Our Taap Home Water System - it’s just like having mineral water on tap.