Water, how much is too much?

SammieGetsFit

I searched through old water posts, but if this has been asked and answered, I missed it. Apologies if it's redundant.

I know the water count for MFP is 8 cups of water (64 oz), but I have been operating under the assumption that there's no such thing as too much water (unless you're drinking like 75 gallons). As a result, I count a bottle of water (16.9 oz) as "one cup" for my MFP tracking. Sometimes I have nine of my servings of water a day, and the lowest I've gone is 6 of mine.

That's 101.4 - 152.1 oz for those who don't want to do the math.

Is that too much?

I work out 6 days a week (with a short walk on that 7th day because I can't help myself), and I sweat pretty normally, I suppose. My kidneys seem to be functioning fine. (I won't go into too much TMI territory now, but if it matters I'm not shy.)

What do you all think? Please advise.

Just1forMe

Funny, I was just reading on this yesterday...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/expert.q.a/04/10/water.losing.weight.jampolis/index.html

I was curious to know if there were actual scientific studies on water and weight loss. What I found was this: water will not help you lose weight, flush fat or sodium, etc. What it will do is keep you from confusing thirst for hunger, fill you up before a meal so you may eat less and keep your body from getting dehydrated which can cause your metabolism to drastically slow down. Beyond that, drinking lots and lots of water won't hurt or help you unless you are drinking gallons and gallons per day which can cause hyponatrenia.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/hydrationandfluid/a/Hyponatremia.htm

mscasanova

Im not sure how much is "too much" but I was always advised by Drs and friends that your supposed to drink at least half your body weight in oz of water.. So if you weigh 200lbs 100oz would be "recommended" I would say that for me if I dont drink at least 96 oz everyday I get dehydrated easily especially when Im exercising. I hope that helps a little.

nerdyandilikeit

Im not sure how much is "too much" but I was always advised by Drs and friends that your supposed to drink at least half your body weight in oz of water.. So if you weigh 200lbs 100oz would be "recommended" I would say that for me if I dont drink at least 96 oz everyday I get dehydrated easily especially when Im exercising. I hope that helps a little.

ive been trying this, too, and it seems to make a big difference in just how i feel after exercising

SammieGetsFit

Beyond that, drinking lots and lots of water won't hurt or help you unless you are drinking gallons and gallons per day which can cause hyponatrenia.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/hydrationandfluid/a/Hyponatremia.htm

This is exactly what I was wondering about. The upper limit. I'm nowhere near gallons and gallons. MsCasanova, thanks. I'm in about the "right" range then. I listen to my body and if I'm thirsty, I drink. And if my stomach rumbles, I drink to see if it keeps rumbling or if my brain is playing tricks. But I wasn't sure if it was healthy and Google spits out so many results I was overwhelmed.

TrainingWithTonya

Honestly, it depends on the person. There's no set amount that is "too much for everyone" to be able to give you a definitive answer on if that is too much for you. I drink that much per day, though, with no problems.

The thing with water is that if you are sweating a lot you are losing electrolytes at the same time you are losing water. So if you are just replacing water then you aren't necessarily replacing electrolytes. If you are getting plenty of sodium and potassium in your foods, then you are probably okay, though. Someone who is not exercising or sweating for other reasons, can still get too much water, but it is because they are basically watering down their blood and their electrolyte concentrations get too low. Basically, it is more important to keep the electrolyte concentration levels from dropping too low in order to avoid "water intoxication" because it isn't the water that kills you but the lack of sufficient quantities of electrolytes to control the contraction of cardiac muscle. The same can be true of the opposite, too. Not enough water and too high of a concentration of electrolytes can cause heart arrhythmias, too. That's why the body holds on to water when sodium is high because it is trying to prevent that.

Jenni268

My husband is in the Army and has nifty little Water Consumption Table that he had to carry around through his training. On it, it gives the amount of water needed to keep from dehydrating in 5 different temperature zones doing 3 different levels of activity. It also warns the following:

Hourly fluid intake should not exceed 1.5 quarts (48 oz) and Daily fluid intake should not exceed 12 quarts (384 oz)

It also admits that everyone's fluid needs are different. But 48 in an hour and 384 in a day is A LOT of water. The danger of that is disturbing the amount of sodium in the blood stream, which could cause swelling the brain.

But unless someone is an INTENSE athlete (or out in the middle-Eastern sun) I don't think they come even close to consuming that much water in a day!!

SammieGetsFit

Thanks for the warnings. I know my sodium levels are fine (or rather, a little too high to too high -- working on that!), but I just looked back and realized my potassium isn't high enough (for the MFP levels, which looks like an average of all the various recs I found). I'll adjust that asap.

*loves learning something new everyday and improving and improving!*