How much water is nessesary to remove sodium
jenniferanderson3888
Posts: 53 Member
I’m constantly retaining salt. I’m 5 foot 193. How much water should I drink a day to get rid of the extra salt water retention?
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Replies
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I think you're looking at this the wrong way around. The way to reduce water weight brought on by sodium is to eat less sodium. If you keep your sodium levels the same, your body needs to hold onto that water alongside it. Trying to flush out water that your body needs can lead to all kinds of imbalances.24
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Yeah, stop overthinking every little thing, you're gonna drive yourself nuts!
Just eat food and drink water. "Flushing" out water weight isn't necessary nor a good idea and it can actually be dangerous. Drink to your thirst. Some days I drink 150 ounces, some days 50.14 -
We're all carrying around some proportion of water weight. As the others have said, eat and drink reasonably and it will balance out naturally.
If you're suffering from edema, you should seek medical attention.5 -
Yeah, trying to micro-manage water weight is a slippery slope and pretty much unnecessary, and can ultimately be dangerous. Your body is supposed to retain water to deal with electrolyte levels, that's a feature, not a bug!8
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You're about 60% water.
As others have stated this isn't a metric you should concern yourself over as it is largely irrelevant. The general concern is either fat loss, muscle gain, or combination of both.
Drink enough water so your urine is a light straw color.8 -
I wouldn't even worry about water weight. Just let it be where it is and focus on maintaining a deficit for fat loss. Unless you have to "make weight" for a competition or something, focusing on water weight isn't going to be productive.9
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Drinking enough water has many benefits, though. The key is what does “enough” mean. There are so many different “expert” opinions about this. Some say 8 glasses a day, but I had a trainer tell me 1 gallon10
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Drinking enough water has many benefits, though. The key is what does “enough” mean. There are so many different “expert” opinions about this. Some say 8 glasses a day, but I had a trainer tell me 1 gallon
You just want enough to stay hydrated, it'll vary from day to day. Urine color is the best way to tell.
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Drinking enough water has many benefits, though. The key is what does “enough” mean. There are so many different “expert” opinions about this. Some say 8 glasses a day, but I had a trainer tell me 1 gallon
The best guide is the color of your urine. You're going for pale straw color. Darker? Drink a bit more. Almost totally clear? You can ease up on the constant sipping.6 -
What they said, but also, sodium is essential. Having very low sodium levels is unpleasant to say the least.7
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What they said, but also, sodium is essential. Having very low sodium levels is unpleasant to say the least.
Definitely, sodium is an essential nutrient and it's possible to reach "toxic" levels of water intake through electrolyte depletion. It's generally very hard with our modern diets, which tend to be very high in salt, but if someone tried too hard to both reduce salt and increase water, they can definitely suffer some ill effects. Definitely much more common in those with heart or kidney problems, but still possible.6 -
RelCanonical wrote: »What they said, but also, sodium is essential. Having very low sodium levels is unpleasant to say the least.
Definitely, sodium is an essential nutrient and it's possible to reach "toxic" levels of water intake through electrolyte depletion. It's generally very hard with our modern diets, which tend to be very high in salt, but if someone tried too hard to both reduce salt and increase water, they can definitely suffer some ill effects. Definitely much more common in those with heart or kidney problems, but still possible.
Yeah this. I have depleted my own electrolytes before and it was bad. It happened when I was working an an ICU unit of a hospital. It was winter so I was wearing sweaters and I had to wear a lab coat on top of that, then to top it all off the ICU was kept VERY warm to keep patients with poor circulation comfortable. II was also on my feet running around all day which caused me to sweat a lot so I was drinking A LOT of water to cool myself down and stay hydrated. All of those factors combined depleted my electrolytes and I ended up passing out. But I guess if you are going to pass out a hospital is the best place to do it?
The point being do not try and flush out water weight, your body knows what it's doing.14 -
Fitnessgirl0913 wrote: »RelCanonical wrote: »What they said, but also, sodium is essential. Having very low sodium levels is unpleasant to say the least.
Definitely, sodium is an essential nutrient and it's possible to reach "toxic" levels of water intake through electrolyte depletion. It's generally very hard with our modern diets, which tend to be very high in salt, but if someone tried too hard to both reduce salt and increase water, they can definitely suffer some ill effects. Definitely much more common in those with heart or kidney problems, but still possible.
Yeah this. I have depleted my own electrolytes before and it was bad. It happened when I was working an an ICU unit of a hospital. It was winter so I was wearing sweaters and I had to wear a lab coat on top of that, then to top it all off the ICU was kept VERY warm to keep patients with poor circulation comfortable. II was also on my feet running around all day which caused me to sweat a lot so I was drinking A LOT of water to cool myself down and stay hydrated. All of those factors combined depleted my electrolytes and I ended up passing out. But I guess if you are going to pass out a hospital is the best place to do it?
The point being do not try and flush out water weight, your body knows what it's doing.
Lol you don't have to go far! Ah yes, sweating a lot is definitely the easiest way to lose electrolytes. We sweat out a lot of salt. At least you'll know to go for a sports drink of some sort to replenish if it happens again in the future.3 -
RelCanonical wrote: »What they said, but also, sodium is essential. Having very low sodium levels is unpleasant to say the least.
Definitely, sodium is an essential nutrient and it's possible to reach "toxic" levels of water intake through electrolyte depletion. It's generally very hard with our modern diets, which tend to be very high in salt, but if someone tried too hard to both reduce salt and increase water, they can definitely suffer some ill effects. Definitely much more common in those with heart or kidney problems, but still possible.
its actually not as hard as you think - there have been several peoples on this board over the years who have developed hyponeutremia from drinking too much water in their quest to lose weight; most commonly you see it at athletic events when people drink so much water (and they get "sloshy belly") - its bad juju5 -
deannalfisher wrote: »RelCanonical wrote: »What they said, but also, sodium is essential. Having very low sodium levels is unpleasant to say the least.
Definitely, sodium is an essential nutrient and it's possible to reach "toxic" levels of water intake through electrolyte depletion. It's generally very hard with our modern diets, which tend to be very high in salt, but if someone tried too hard to both reduce salt and increase water, they can definitely suffer some ill effects. Definitely much more common in those with heart or kidney problems, but still possible.
its actually not as hard as you think - there have been several peoples on this board over the years who have developed hyponeutremia from drinking too much water in their quest to lose weight; most commonly you see it at athletic events when people drink so much water (and they get "sloshy belly") - its bad juju
Very true, I didn't think of athletes until sweating was brought up. Water is a real killer, yo.0 -
RelCanonical wrote: »Fitnessgirl0913 wrote: »RelCanonical wrote: »What they said, but also, sodium is essential. Having very low sodium levels is unpleasant to say the least.
Definitely, sodium is an essential nutrient and it's possible to reach "toxic" levels of water intake through electrolyte depletion. It's generally very hard with our modern diets, which tend to be very high in salt, but if someone tried too hard to both reduce salt and increase water, they can definitely suffer some ill effects. Definitely much more common in those with heart or kidney problems, but still possible.
Yeah this. I have depleted my own electrolytes before and it was bad. It happened when I was working an an ICU unit of a hospital. It was winter so I was wearing sweaters and I had to wear a lab coat on top of that, then to top it all off the ICU was kept VERY warm to keep patients with poor circulation comfortable. II was also on my feet running around all day which caused me to sweat a lot so I was drinking A LOT of water to cool myself down and stay hydrated. All of those factors combined depleted my electrolytes and I ended up passing out. But I guess if you are going to pass out a hospital is the best place to do it?
The point being do not try and flush out water weight, your body knows what it's doing.
Lol you don't have to go far! Ah yes, sweating a lot is definitely the easiest way to lose electrolytes. We sweat out a lot of salt. At least you'll know to go for a sports drink of some sort to replenish if it happens again in the future.
Yes I have definitely learned my lesson! This job was quite a few years ago, right after I graduated college so I didn't know any better lol. Looking back there were definitely signs before I fainted; I got constant calf cramps (MAJOR sign of low electrolytes) but I attributed that to walking up 8 flights of stairs several times a day. I also had a headache for a few days that would not go away no matter what I did.
For the remainder of time I was at that job I brought Gatorade with me everyday and made sure to eat a couple bananas for extra potassium.
Nothing makes you quite as embarrassed as having to be wheeled across the hospital to the ER with the tube feed you were holding when you fell all over you and in your hair while a gaggle of your coworkers and patients stare at you.
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jenniferanderson3888 wrote: »I’m constantly retaining salt. I’m 5 foot 193. How much water should I drink a day to get rid of the extra salt water retention?
I think you are thinking of flushing it out after one day or a few with higher than normal sodium, that is when you can "get rid of" the water weight. if your sodium is always high, either lower sodium intake, or increase potassium intake, as water retention has more to do with the sodium/potassium balance than it does with the actual intake of either.3 -
RelCanonical wrote: »Drinking enough water has many benefits, though. The key is what does “enough” mean. There are so many different “expert” opinions about this. Some say 8 glasses a day, but I had a trainer tell me 1 gallon
You just want enough to stay hydrated, it'll vary from day to day. Urine color is the best way to tell.
Urine charts are about as useless as the food pyramid. Also depends on how many vitamins you are taking in and so much more.14 -
If you have a problem that needs fixing you need to see a doctor. If you are trying to control the bathroom scale please don't. You are meant to go up and down on water weight. It is a natural function.
It is a bad idea to get too caught up in a number on the bathroom scale. It can lead to poor decisions like many of us believe you are trying to make. If you feel obsessed with it you should see a doctor because it is unhealthy. Basically when the scale goes up or fails to go down for a period of time you can dislike it but shortly thereafter you need to be able to let it go.4 -
jenniferanderson3888 wrote: »I’m constantly retaining salt. I’m 5 foot 193. How much water should I drink a day to get rid of the extra salt water retention?
If you have edema (excessive water retention to the point of obvious swelling, consistently), see your doctor.
If you don't, don't try to game your body.
Instead, recognize that current weight is a range, not a single number. It's part of normal, healthy body functioning that water weight increases and descreases over a period of hours to quite a few days. That means our scale weight will fluctuate up and down through a range of weights (several pounds range, though the exact number varies by person - mine is 3-5 pounds, usually, at 5'5", maintaining at current weight in mid-130s).
These water fluctuations can hide fat loss on the scale for a surprising amount of time, but the fluctuations are a symptom of health: Don't mess with them.
Losing weight - in the sense of losing stored fat, which is what we really want - is about the long term trend. If we're losing fat, the daily range slowly and gradually fluctuates through smaller numbers, like (making this up) 172-178 pounds during one week, but 168-174 pounds in a week that happens a month or so later.
A weight trending app (like Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iOS, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account, others) can help you recognize the trend amongst the fluctuations, once you have several weeks' daily weights in it to give it something to work with. (But do recognize that it's just a statistical projection, not a magic crystal ball.)
In my weight-trending app, one chunk of my weight loss looked like the graph below. (The connected down-hill-ish line is the trend; the little upright bars connect each daily weight to the trend. You can see that the daily weights bounce all over: That's water fluctuation. (And that's while in menopause: It'll be more extreme for pre-menopausal women!). But the downhill shows that I was losing fat (mostly).)
P.S. I accidentally lost weight too fast for a while during the time period shown in the graph above. Don't do that: It's a Really Bad Plan.
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