Is there such a thing as drinking too much water?

glovepuppet

you piss out minerals, so you can do more harm than good by going way over the normal amount.

if you're actually thirsty for way over the normal amount then you should get checked out because there are health issues which can cause that.

personally, i just go by the colour of the pee. you're aiming for a pale yellow.

MyJourney1960

i have half litre cups MyJourney1960. helps me to keep an accurate track of what i drink

oh right. sorry.

Phrick

you piss out minerals, so you can do more harm than good by going way over the normal amount.

if you're actually thirsty for way over the normal amount then you should get checked out because there are health issues which can cause that.

personally, i just go by the colour of the pee. you're aiming for a pale yellow.

define "way over the normal"

Many professionals (dietitians, doctors, nutritionists, trainers) recommend drinking half your body weight in ounces of water per day. Personally I drink over a gallon. Due to a completely unrelated medical condition I have blood work done every ~6 months - my kidneys are healthy and I do not have diabetes or any other conditions that could underly a reason I drink so much. The only possible contributor is the lithium that I take daily but even then I've been on it 9 years and only drinking this much for about 4 yrs since the last time I determined to lose weight and was told the "half your body weight" thing.

KoRnKraZy

I drink 3-4 1.5L bottles of water a day so that is 5-6L

Have been doing this for 1 year and have had no problems.

runner2runner

Apparently yes! And it can be fatal!

Pearsquared

What's not important is the exact amount of water you drink. What's important is your salt/water balance. If you have a low-sodium diet (which most people don't) you need less water than a person who has a high-sodium diet. If you're a marathon runner or other athlete that sweats a significant amount of the day, you need to make sure you're replacing salt as well as water because both are lost through sweat. If you were to consume just water, it would upset the salt/water balance and can make you sick.

glovepuppet

the standard, blanket advice is 8 x 250 ml glasses/day, which is 2 litres,
which, for my weight, is pretty much bang on the 1/2 in oz calculation.

way over? if i use my google fu i get this:

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blwaterintox.htm

seems that up to 15 litres a day is ok if it's spread out evenly. other than that, the major risks are to infants & endurance athletes.i think i'd vom if i drank that much.

>15 litres = way over