How Fast Does Water Digest? – (Can It Be Dangerous?)

I am currently on an intensive diet myself and spend many hours searching the internet about water, to be precise “how fast does water digest”, because I was worried that I was spending too much time in the bathroom, but after many articles and studies that I’ve read, I’ll give you a quick answer.

In professional language, you should say that water is being absorbed rather than digested. So if you’re drinking water on an empty stomach, that process will b

e multiple times faster than if you’re drinking it during a meal or after a meal. Water can pass through your empty stomach and intestine in 5 to 10 minutes, but if you’re drinking on a full stomach it will take from 40 minutes to even 2 hours for your body to absorb it.

It mostly depends on your body and metabolism, but the difference between those two is huge. Once your body uses up all the water it needs to function properly, it removes excess water. Water leaves the body in four main ways: the skin, mouth, and kidneys. Also how fast your metabolism can be will depend on your genetics, and style of life.

There have been numerous studies about this topic that we based on our articles, like this one from PubMed as an analysis of absorption, distribution, and disappearance of ingested water labeled.

How much should I drink?

This amount really depends on your size, your lifestyle, and your genetics.

The most common answer is about 2.5 liter or 0.8 gallons of water. You should be guided by what your body is feeling but those are approximate values.

If you workout, or wander a lot during your day, you should probably increase your water intake. Mild dehydration can contribute to lowered energy while also increasing your chances of stomach pain or headaches.

As always, your needs will be unique to you, and your doctor can help you decide what’s the amount that’s right for your body.

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How fast can be my digest process?

It can depend on numerous things like genetics, age, gender, hormones, muscle mass, height, and weight but mostly it will depend on your daily lifestyle. A person tha

t works as an IT specialist will have a slower metabolism process than a person that works in the kitchen and do a lot of household duties. 

There is something called NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). We refer by that to the calories we burn through non-sports activities like washing dishes or climbing stairs. We often forgot about them but that’s the key to burning more calories.

Metabolism in general

Metabolism is the process of your body that will convert what you drink and eat into energy. During this complicated process, calories in everything from your stomach are combined with oxygen to release the energy your body needs to operate. Pure water is a different story because it has 0 calories. The water is also the byproduct of metabolism and the water we take externally is used as roughage.

Is it healthy for us to drink water on an empty stomach?

If you don’t overdo it, yes it is. You will help your stomach to clean itself as well as your intestines, but on the other hand, if you overdo it, you can get stomach pain, or even to the point that you will have to puke the water out. Remember that almost all things that we will overdo are generally bad for our health, so don’t be worried too much. 

Drinking water on an intensive diet

That’s the main reason I started to write this article I was worried about my metabolism. I’ve recently started my water-fasting journey, and many things weren’t clear to me at first. On this type of diet, you should only drink water to make your body change into a state of ketosis, to burn fat more efficiently.

It’s a hard process but, I’m seeing positive results so far. If you’re interested in this type of diet we do have a special article dedicated to it. 

So back to the main point… I was worried that I’ve spent so much time in my bathroom. But it comes out to be a totally normal thing because if your stomach and intestines are both empty, your water digestion process is so quick that you can be worried a little bit.

It’s an unusual thing for people (or just me) to drink water on a totally empty stomach because there are a lot of small things to eat all day long, like fruits

, sweets, or even juices, that will fill our stomach with calories, but we tend to skip them in our calories day schedule, but they’re important.

In summary, how fast does water digest

There are a lot of things that manipulate the time how fast water digests in your body, but as an approximate time range, we can say about 7 minutes on an empty stomach and 80 minutes when you’re after a meal.