Is it more efficient to cart water in a bottle or my stomach? Part 2

More readers wade into the debate on whether it is better to carry a container of water and drink when necessary or guzzle lots of fluid at once

16 April 2025

Outdoor Backpack with Water Bottle on the back of a girl, School, isolated Green background Nature. Education concept; Shutterstock ID 2038295597; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: - — Mariana Serdynska/Shutterstock

Last Word is 51��’s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To answer a question or ask a new one, email lastword@newscientist.com

Is it more efficient for me to carry water in a bottle or in my stomach? (Continued)

Mark Dirnhuber

Bristol, UK

If this purely depended on biomechanics, then the stomach would be more efficient because the load is nearer to the body’s weight-bearing axis. But the stomach is seriously leaky: a drink of a few hundred millilitres of…

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