Am I drinking too much water?
stefunnymariee
Posts: 10 Member
I'm a 5'6 152lb female and I've been drinking 14 cups, 112 oz, of water everyday. I read that women generally need to drink 8 cups a day or more if trying to lose weight. But I also read that to much water can be bad so I'm unsure of how much I should be drinking. Please help!!
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That definitely won't do any damage
it is on the high end, but you would have to have significantly more for it to be an issue.
Especially if you are active! I used to drink that much too, the only reason I stopped was because I had to friggen pee all the time!0 -
I drink 12-16 cups a day during the week (I kind of slack on the weekends...). It's doing wonders for my complexion, but I'm not seeing any weight loss benefits
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It's summer here and I'm averaging(135 ounces) 4L everyday0
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I read you should drink half your weight in ounces of water. So you should be drinking at least 76 ounces of water. Not sure if it's true though but I read it someplace.0
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sharonandwyatt wrote: »I read you should drink half your weight in ounces of water. So you should be drinking at least 76 ounces of water. Not sure if it's true though but I read it someplace.
Yikes I'm 140lbs
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stefunnymariee wrote: »I'm a 5'6 152lb female and I've been drinking 14 cups, 112 oz, of water everyday. I read that women generally need to drink 8 cups a day or more if trying to lose weight. But I also read that to much water can be bad so I'm unsure of how much I should be drinking. Please help!!
Fluid helps with fluid retention/bloating (notice I said fluid not water). Basically all of the fluids you drink count towards your fluid intake (not just water). Fluid from food also counts (like watermelon and celery have a lot of "water" in them) although that would be hard to track. The optimum amount of "water"? The medical community still debates this, especially since every body (yes body, not "everybody") is different. A good rule of thumb is your urine color. The darker it is, the more dehydrated you are. You should aim for a pale yellow (completely clear indicates too much). However, be aware some medications and vitamins can cause discoloration of urine. If you are taking ones that do, you may need a your PCP to run a urinalysis/blood work to determine if you are hydrated enough.0 -
I follow the 0.5oz per lb method, more if I'm extra active or sweaty. Never have I been concerned about drinking too much.0
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#6 looks more like you had asparagus0
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You would have to drink multiple gallons in a very short period of time in order for the water to be harmful.0
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btw I need ideally 16 8oz cups of water a day for my urine to be around 1-2 in that graph and for my lips to not be peeling and cracking. Andto help alleviate water retention from excessive salt or just random retention. Had 4 cups last night, retaining water today. Woo.0
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If your urine is brown that's either liver or kidney damage.0
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aside from morning coffee (2 cups) and a cup of tea in the afternoon or evening, i drink almost exclusively water. my cup holds... 32 ounces i think? and i will fill it anywhere from 3-5 times a day (depending on activity and season, in the summer i go through gallons it seems!). my urine is a 2-3 on that list. i can't say it helped with weight loss though, but it certainly doesnt hurt that i replaced 4 sodas a day with it
sadly, stopping the sodas didnt cause massive weight loss either. i was hoping! LOLOLOL 0 -
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During the week I drink upwards of 6 litres of water a day. Thats, what... 200 oz?0
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The only way you can drink to much water is to guzzle a cup or more all at once. That can flood the kidneys, especially if you've been taking any kind of medication. It really overworks the kidney - so drink all the fluids you want as long as you are only sipping all day long and not guzzling.
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AmigaMaria001 wrote: »The only way you can drink to much water is to guzzle a cup or more all at once. That can flood the kidneys, especially if you've been taking any kind of medication. It really overworks the kidney - so drink all the fluids you want as long as you are only sipping all day long and not guzzling.
I've guzzled 32oz of water before and was fine............. I rarely "sip," I drink 1-2 cups (8-16oz) within a minute or two.
If I only sipped I'd only drink 8oz of water every day.0 -
AmigaMaria001 wrote: »The only way you can drink to much water is to guzzle a cup or more all at once. That can flood the kidneys, especially if you've been taking any kind of medication. It really overworks the kidney - so drink all the fluids you want as long as you are only sipping all day long and not guzzling.
I've guzzled 32oz of water before and was fine............. I rarely "sip," I drink 1-2 cups (8-16oz) within a minute or two.
If I only sipped I'd only drink 8oz of water every day.
Same, I happily chug a bottle of water multiple times in a day.0 -
Nature gave us an awesome way of answering this question. Are you thirsty? Don't over think it. Unless you are under some specific conditions where you are likely to dehydrate (extreme temperatures, during physical exercise etc) you really should just drink when your body tells you to.
Oh, and don't listen to that 8 glasses a day nonsense. First off, that is based on an extremely old set of government recommendations. We're talking pre BMI, pre food pyramid, heck even pre four food groups old. We have considerably more knowledge to work with these days. And, even if the information were current and accurate, it includes water found in food; even a slice of bread is mostly water by weight, and it doesn't account for body size.0 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »During the week I drink upwards of 6 litres of water a day. Thats, what... 200 oz?
Yep, it's 203oz. (29.5mls per US fluid oz)
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Unless you have symptoms of dehydration (such as the colour chart above) you only really need to be drinking while thirsty. More water wont magically make fat fall off, and most generalised recommendations are A. as useful as telling everybody to eat 2000 calories a day (people have huge variance), B. based on an old 'drink 2 liters' recommendation (by the WHO if I remember correctly) that everybody took to heart without reading the paper properly and seeing they mean for that to be the net water intake for the day, and a decent chunk of our liquid intake comes from food. Drinking a lot when you aren't thirsty wont hurt you unless you're chugging the stuff non stop (the only people who've ever really been intoxicated dangerously are people who do things like water drinking competitions or those who've taken some party favours which increase the feeling of thirst, not the general population), but it isn't going to do anything helpful either. I know people who drink huge quantities a day, meanwhile I drink a bottle or two a day and I'm perfectly hydrated (more on days involving cardio, though).0
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Alatariel75 wrote: »AmigaMaria001 wrote: »The only way you can drink to much water is to guzzle a cup or more all at once. That can flood the kidneys, especially if you've been taking any kind of medication. It really overworks the kidney - so drink all the fluids you want as long as you are only sipping all day long and not guzzling.
I've guzzled 32oz of water before and was fine............. I rarely "sip," I drink 1-2 cups (8-16oz) within a minute or two.
If I only sipped I'd only drink 8oz of water every day.
Same, I happily chug a bottle of water multiple times in a day.
now, if I chugged 100+oz of water in that same time frame? Lol not good.0 -
Unless you have symptoms of dehydration (such as the colour chart above) you only really need to be drinking while thirsty. More water wont magically make fat fall off, and most generalised recommendations are A. as useful as telling everybody to eat 2000 calories a day (people have huge variance), B. based on an old 'drink 2 liters' recommendation (by the WHO if I remember correctly) that everybody took to heart without reading the paper properly and seeing they mean for that to be the net water intake for the day, and a decent chunk of our liquid intake comes from food. Drinking a lot when you aren't thirsty wont hurt you unless you're chugging the stuff non stop (the only people who've ever really been intoxicated dangerously are people who do things like water drinking competitions or those who've taken some party favours which increase the feeling of thirst, not the general population), but it isn't going to do anything helpful either. I know people who drink huge quantities a day, meanwhile I drink a bottle or two a day and I'm perfectly hydrated (more on days involving cardio, though).
If I don't force myself to drink 16 8oz glasses of water a day, I will only only drink like 0-4 glasses the entire day. Yup, 0. I only start noticing thirst once I make myself drink, and the longer I wait before drinking the less noticeable that feeling is.0 -
FoCoAlphaNerd wrote: »Nature gave us an awesome way of answering this question. Are you thirsty? Don't over think it. Unless you are under some specific conditions where you are likely to dehydrate (extreme temperatures, during physical exercise etc) you really should just drink when your body tells you to.
Oh, and don't listen to that 8 glasses a day nonsense. First off, that is based on an extremely old set of government recommendations. We're talking pre BMI, pre food pyramid, heck even pre four food groups old. We have considerably more knowledge to work with these days. And, even if the information were current and accurate, it includes water found in food; even a slice of bread is mostly water by weight, and it doesn't account for body size.
When I do this I drink 0 cups of water a day. I don't feel or notice thirst until I make myself drink water, but I have clear signs of dehydration (urine, headaches, my lips are terrible and bleed and peel and UGH).0 -
FoCoAlphaNerd wrote: »Nature gave us an awesome way of answering this question. Are you thirsty? Don't over think it. Unless you are under some specific conditions where you are likely to dehydrate (extreme temperatures, during physical exercise etc) you really should just drink when your body tells you to.
Oh, and don't listen to that 8 glasses a day nonsense. First off, that is based on an extremely old set of government recommendations. We're talking pre BMI, pre food pyramid, heck even pre four food groups old. We have considerably more knowledge to work with these days. And, even if the information were current and accurate, it includes water found in food; even a slice of bread is mostly water by weight, and it doesn't account for body size.
When I do this I drink 0 cups of water a day. I don't feel or notice thirst until I make myself drink water, but I have clear signs of dehydration (urine, headaches, my lips are terrible and bleed and peel and UGH).
Everybody is different, and if your body isn't great at letting you know when it needs something the healthier option is to take over and do it manually by drinking even when you aren't thirsty if you need the water. If this isn't the case with the OP, and they do feel thirsty when they need to drink but are drinking above and beyond their requirements because somebody told them there was a magical number you need to hit to lose weight... that isn't necessarily the healthier option too.0
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