Too much water?

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tru82
tru82 Posts: 35 Member
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Can you drink too much waterr? If yes, can it hurt your weight loss process? Any advice would be wonderful. Thank you! :)

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  • amcook4
    amcook4 Posts: 561 Member
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    Technically yes, but it has to be A LOT of water at a time, it is called Water Intoxication, and it is very rare. But chances of this happening are very very slim, so for the most part, drink up!

    The biggest gauge of knowing how much water you need is your pee, if it is yellow, drink more, if it is clear, you are drinking more than needed.

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  • tru82
    tru82 Posts: 35 Member
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    Oh wow... Thank you so much!! :)
  • Altagracia220
    Altagracia220 Posts: 876 Member
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    Drinking lots of water is good for you. It helps flush out sodium you've consumed among other things. Drinking a lot of it will NOT affect your weight loss :)
  • MatthewOttewell
    MatthewOttewell Posts: 13 Member
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    Too much water without enough electrolyte intake can make you feel confused and give you a nasty headache. That being said, it will not affect your weight loss. If you don't restrict sodium/vitamins/minerals it gives you a lot more leeway to drink as much water as you want.
  • tru82
    tru82 Posts: 35 Member
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    Thank you all :) Good to know
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
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    If you follow your thirst in general and then also supplement a reasonable amount of extra during exercise or by slowly sipping throughout the day, you'll be more than safe. Only people who vastly overdo it or people with certain types of kidney problems are at all likely to overwater themselves. For example in psych class they mentioned a woman who accidentally killed herself by guzzling 17 gallons of water in one day. I would probably throw up long before getting to that level.
  • tru82
    tru82 Posts: 35 Member
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    HA HA HA !!! Well I'm averaging like 60 Oz a day lol
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    tru82 wrote: »
    Can you drink too much waterr? If yes, can it hurt your weight loss process? Any advice would be wonderful. Thank you! :)
    1. Yes. In fact drinking too much can actually kill you. An example: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16614865/ns/us_news-life/t/woman-dies-after-water-drinking-contest/#.VTVbxCFVhBc
      However, I don't think the majority of people could get to this point without deliberately trying. Like the contest in the article above were a woman was seeing how much she could drink without using the bathroom. If I remember correctly, she consumed about 2 gallons worth in a 3 hour time frame without going to the bathroom.
    2. Not drinking enough water can cause you to retain water, but I don't see how drinking enough to be hydrated could actually harm weight loss.
  • pichu318
    pichu318 Posts: 172 Member
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    Try using an app to count your water intake. Try not to go too far over it. I really like Water Your Body. It will give you an idea of what you should be drinking based on your weight :)
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    tru82 wrote: »
    HA HA HA !!! Well I'm averaging like 60 Oz a day lol

    I often get over 100 oz a day and haven't had any issues.

  • kjm3579
    kjm3579 Posts: 3,974 Member
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    I had a class with a triathlon coach last week and her formula for water consumption was to take your weight in pounds, divide by 2, and drink that number of ounces of water each day -- that does not include water used in coffee, etc.
  • greenautumn17
    greenautumn17 Posts: 322 Member
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    According to webmd, you should aim for 1/2 to 1oz per pound of body weight. So 150 lb person needs to drink between 75 and 150 oz. The higher end for active people or hot climates, the lower end for more sedentary or in colder climates.
  • theresaTerriM
    theresaTerriM Posts: 28 Member
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    Personally I aim for one gallon a day (128 oz). It is really good for flushing out excess sodium so you don't retain water (someone already pointed that out I think).

    It helps hydrate your muscles too so you don't get muscle cramps. If you are getting muscle cramps chances are you aren't hydrated enough. (Although there are other causes but if you aren't well hydrated this is a common cause) I found this out the hard way when I was preggo with my daughter 14 years ago! :wink:
    pichu318 wrote: »
    Try using an app to count your water intake. Try not to go too far over it. I really like Water Your Body. It will give you an idea of what you should be drinking based on your weight :)

    Sweet! I have to check this app out now, thanks! :smile:
  • Spyer116
    Spyer116 Posts: 168 Member
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    you can die from water. but that would be extreme, like 6-8+ Litres (depending on many factors) in a very short time.
    But 2-4+ litres / day is about good, depending on your activity level mostly.

    If your urine is completely clear or near it, maybe drink slightly less.
    Pale is good.
    Dark coloured isn't necessarily a cause for concern. It would be that usually the first time after waking up, but that's just cause you've gone 8+ hours without any, due to sleep. But throughout the day, it should rarely be like that.
    If you drink coffee or other high caffeine drinks, your urine will be pale as they are diuretics and 'force' water out of your body, even though your body might still need some of that water. But you still need to drink a decent amount of water then. since they'll dehydrate you.
  • peachyfuzzle
    peachyfuzzle Posts: 1,122 Member
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    Depending on the day, I might drink 1.5 - 2 gallons.

    What Matthew is referencing is a condition called "hyponatremia" which is when your blood volume decreases due to your blood sodium levels being too low.

    This state can cause confusion, cramps, headache, dizziness, tiredness, and in rare cases even death. However, the amount of water you need to drink over a very short time is a pretty extreme amount. Your kidneys can process about 800 - 1000 mL of water (.8 - 1 liter, or 27-33.8 fl oz) per hour, and you'd need to exceed that by quite an amount to force your sodium levels down far enough as to where you're in a sufficient hyponatremic state to produce noticeable side effects.

    One caveat to that though is the body only has the ability to process water at about half that rate when exercising, so keep that in mind.

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