How much water a day is advisable/safe?

[WakeupWho]

I'm trying to get healthier, and lose weight, so trying to drink a lot more water than I have been. For far too long it feels like I've only been drinking about a litre a day, thanks to MH and being ND letting me forget all the time.

Now I have virtually no thirst signals - I have to be almost desiccated to feel genuinely thirsty so I know the general advice is drink when thirsty but that really won't work for me right now. I have to get a bottle of water/squash and leave it right by me, telling myself to take a drink regularly.

I know you shouldn't drink too much at once, like less than a litre an hour to avoid water toxicity but is there a limit per day? I've already drunk over a litre since getting up, probably in need of rehydrating, but if I keep being able to drink so much, is there a limit to how much is safe per day, when I can't rely on thirst?

Remember you get water in food too and other drinks - tea, coffee, juice, etc. - all count toward water intake. Why don't you pair drinking with points in the day to remind you? I think up to about 1.5- 2 litres is fine, you don't want to go over that really unless you have been doing heavy exercise - and in that case it's essential you take on electrolytes too. I think people get caught up on hydration but I don't think it's as complicated as it's made out and the "hydrate" narrative has potentially caused as many problems as it has solved!

A litre an hour is faaaaaar too much over the course of a day and would lead to serious consequences.

The NHS recommend 6-8 cups or glasses of fluid per day. Remember this will include things you eat like soup, milk in cereal etc.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-food-labels/water-drinks-nutrition/

Use a 2 litre bottle as a guide and just sip through the day if you can, or have set drinks in place - a glass of water with breakfast, lunch and dinner, then make a cuppa twice a day and you're almost there anyway.

Thanks for the advice. I'm not drinking excessively in any particular hour so think I'm ok there, was just concerned about the total in a day. Like even 250ml an hour is 3L if you do it for the day so that was my main concern.

If I go over the 2L, say up to 3L is that too much without electrolytes?