How much water is too much water?

Anaansee

A friend recently told me that I was drinking too much water throughout the day and I was risking flushing out nutrients before my body had a chance to absorb them. I admit I drink a lot of water during the day, roughly 2-3 gallons, but I feel I need to because I excessively sweat during my workouts and live in the south where the average temperature is in the 90's.

How do you know the right amount of water to drink?

L1zardQueen

L1zardQueen

OP, it is possible to drink too much fluid. Your friend is right about the electrolytes.

AustinRuadhain

Here's WebMD with a little more on what L1zardQueen says. Check your pee color, and if it's completely clear back off a bit. The goal is "pale straw" color.
https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/water-intoxication#1

New2ket0

My sister mistook drinking 8 glasses a day (2ltr) for 8 ltr and her doctor said she was drowning her kidneys and killing herself.
When I’ve mentioned this online before I’ve been jumped on by several “fitness experts “ so I’m sure Someone will pop up and share their knowledge 👍

sgt1372

Anaansee wrote: »

A friend recently told me that I was drinking too much water throughout the day and I was risking flushing out nutrients before my body had a chance to absorb them.

Your friend is an idiot. Drinking a lot water will not prevent any nutrients that you consume to be absorbed/used by your body. You body passes only those liquids it can't use.

The often recommended amount of water to drink is 8 glasses a day or about 1/2 gallon.
As for how much is "too much", if you are not drowning, I'd say the main indicator would be if you need to pee so often that it becomes a problem for you. If not, I wouldn't worry about it.

The only caveat that I would add to this is IF you are drinking "too much" water and/or peeing "too much" due to an underlying medical or physical problem. If you are worried about these possibilities, you should consult a doctor.

shaumom

sgt1372 wrote: »

Your friend is an idiot. Drinking a lot water will not prevent any nutrients that you consume to be absorbed/used by your body. You body passes only those liquids it can't use...As for how much is "too much", if you are not drowning, I'd say the main indicator would be if you need to pee so often that it becomes a problem for you. If not, I wouldn't worry about it...

While the first part is true- too much water doesn’t prevent absorbing nutrients- it is not true that the body just passes liquids that it can’t use.

If one drinks too much- and it can happen although it is a LOT of water- you can develop something called ‘wster intoxication’ which involves the elwctrolytes being severely out of wack. It can be fatal. It is most known in cases of infants who are given water (new babies actually can’t cope with plain water very well) or in instances of torture where people are forced to drink too much water, but can sometimes occur in cases of exercise with excessive water intake, say. ( water intoxication- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication )

So if one is drinking a LOT of water, it may be good to double check taht it isn’t too much for safety.

RelCanonical

I agree with the pee color chart above, in that it's a good indicator. The thing you need to watch for is that you sweat out more than just water, and replacing it with only water can cause an electrolyte deficiency. You're not really flushing them out, you're just sweating them out and then not replacing them since you're just drinking water. Most people don't sweat enough to warrant replacing the electrolytes, as they'll get enough in a normal diet, but if you feel you're excessively sweating, you might consider replacing some of the water with an electrolyte drink. Sports drinks are the most common, but there are plenty of options out there that don't have so many additional calories, including powders that you can mix into water.