Don't feel like eating

ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken

b3achy wrote: »

PennWalker wrote: »

rebaisett wrote: »

The past 2 weeks I have been drinking nothing but water. Could that be the problem? I am drinking well over the 64oz recommended amount. Is that why I don't want to eat? Am I drinking too much?

I don't know much water you are drinking, but keep in mind you can injure your body if you over-hydrate.

http://www.healthline.com/health/overhydration#Overview1

Good luck, wishing you well as you sort everything out.

You've gotten some great comments from others about what you are eating. I wanted to set something straight with the water drinking since 'overhydration' was brought up. If you are drinking up to about 100 oz of water a day / 12.5 cups of water (which could be considered by some as 'way over the recommended 64 oz'), you are probably still not in trouble of overhydration. You may not be in trouble at even higher amounts within reason for your gender, body weight, etc.

Overhydration is when you get too much water into your system which then leads to a sodium imbalance which is called hyponatremia. This imbalance can lead to very serious issues and even death if severe enough; however, drinking some extra water each day over the 64 oz recommendation probably isn't going to get you there. Many sources note that hyponatremia is primarily a problem for (novice/recreational) marathon runners and triathletes, and since most of the water consumption recommendations were originally developed for elite athletes in these sports (4oz - 8 oz of water 3-4 times /hour), they may be too high for the novice who run at a slower pace and are on the course for longer. Others at risk of hyponatremia are people training/working out in seriously hot weather (think football camps, summer sports races). Drinking more water than your body can process (which averages to be over 20 oz of water/hour for your intestines to process and about the same amount for your kidneys to flush) is the biggest cause for your body to retain the water and can lead to hyponatremia. So in a 15 hour day that would be over 300 oz of water. Note: the GA football player who died in 2015 of overhydration had drank 7 gallons of water (that's 896 oz of water or 112 cups of water), significantly more than the recommended 8 cups/64 oz.
https://runnersconnect.net/running-nutrition-articles/overhydration-dangers-drinking-too-much-water-while-running/

So, unless you are drinking well over 5 x the recommendation of 64oz, you are probably not in immediate danger of overhydration. Of course, we're all different, and you have to know what is best for you. For me personally, I have to have at least the 64 oz recommended, and feel that I get some of my best weight loss results from being more in the 80-96 oz range. Though I do spend a lot of time in the bathroom when I'm drinking that much. There are a lot of benefits to drinking more water, especially for weight loss, flushing toxins, keeping headaches at bay, etc. So don't be scared into drinking too much water, but also don't be scared into drinking too little with this talk of overhydration. Like everything else, it's about balance and what is best for you.

Thank you for this. I see so often people speaking on over hydration. The reality is for most of us the risk of that is so slim unless we are drinking massive amounts of water.

ahoy_m8

You seem to have a great outlook, OP. Just wanted to say best to you. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that if I'm losing faster than my target rate (which for my size & BF% is 1/2 pound per week), I'm losing more than fat, i.e. lean muscle (that I work really hard to keep). Don't do that to yourself. Slow & steady is the healthy way--mentally & physically.

b3achy

ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »

Thank you for this. I see so often people speaking on over hydration. The reality is for most of us the risk of that is so slim unless we are drinking massive amounts of water.

Yea, the overhydration scare seems to be a relatively recent phenomena. Last I checked there aren't a lot of beginner weight loss people that are marathon runners or triathletes. When I clicked on the original link that was posted, and saw that overhydration was talked about in such vague terms with no quantification of how much was too much, it caused me to start to dig to find out for myself what was actually considered too much. I'm all about quantifying things. Thought I'd share some of my findings. (Note that my post you quoted had a glaring error that I had to go back and correct in my original post per the Georgia football player consumption. 4 Gallons of liquid is still a lot, but the original article I had read said 7 gallons which is extreme. I should have fact checked better before posting, but it didn't strike me until I was re-reading the post - and I was actually fact checking for the date not the amount of liquid consumed.)

I suspect that since many don't like to drink water (myself included) and would rather have their diet sodas or other energy/workout drinks, they try to justify it in other ways...don't drink too much water or you might get overhydrated or you get plenty from your food so don't bother drinking extra are the most common posts I see. Do you have to drink extra to survive and get the bare minimum RDA amount? Probably not. But does drinking 64 - 128 oz of extra water a day help with weight loss and flushing your system? Probably, so don't discount the benefits of drinking water until you've tried it for a few weeks. We're all different though, so what works for one may not be as helpful to another.