My wife must easily drink 2-3 gallons of water per day. The owner of the gym she at which she works out has convinced her this is great.
Haven’t recent studies found that drinking “tons” of water has no evidential benefit and that one should drink only when thirsty.
I think many people believe that drinking that much water is like bathing internally. They also believe in the benefits of colon cleansing. Their insides are “unclean”. Any answers real or imagined are welcome :smack:
The average adult should drink half their weight in ounces each day. Which means, if I weigh 100 lbs., I should drink 50 oz. of water. An active person should drink 75% of their weight in ounces of water. Which means, if I weigh 100 lbs, I should drink 75 oz of water each day.
If your pee is dark, and has a strong odor, you need more fluids.
If your pee is nearly colorless, you are working your kidneys overtime, getting rid of all that fluid.
Tris
I’m firmly in the “listen to your body” camp. Drink only when you feel thirsty, stop drinking when you no longer are. That’s what thirst is for.
What about the saying the one that was going around that if you’re thirsty, then you’re already dehydrated. Any truth to that? I find it hard to believe.
So a slight yellow is what we’re looking for?
What about people who don’t know they need fluids? I’ve never had it, but in the cases of dehydration, I’ve heard that in the onset, you don’t notice that your body requires fluids. Just wondering if this is true or not.
I am like QED, I drink when I am thirsty and stop when I am not=)
Though with the stupid heat on our house is parchingly dry, and my water consumption has gone up from a gallon to about a gallon and a half a day…and I have taken to carrying a small bottle of saline nasal spray for my poor parched sinuses=\
I don’t agree with this either. It used to be my policy to do this very thing. You can become adapted to drinking less than you need. I would often go through the day without a drink and not feel thirsty. I also used to get thumping headaches which were eventually diagnosed as dehydration. Another added “bonus” were kidney stones.
It was made clear to me by my consultant that I should be drinking approx. 4/5 litres of water daily. That’s in the UK where we don’t usually get particularly high temperatures.
Under ordinary circumstances, thirst is a very finely-tuned mechanism, but it’s also pretty easy to ignore, and it’s not quite as wonderful during intense exercise or in high temperatures.
I don’t know that there’s any particular target you need to shoot for–I’ve heard 1 oz. per 2 lbs. of bodyweight, but never any justification–but it’s probably not a bad idea to err on the side of drinking too much water.
I heard an NPR report some months ago that echoed what I have felt all along: Drink when you are thirsty. The body knows what it needs.
You just described the circumstances leading to my first kidney stone.
According to my doctor: Four 12-16 oz. bottles of bottled water, more if you’re thirsty.
Yes, there are medical complications that can occur if you drink too much water, but for most people the opposite problem is likelier.
True. I’m with the “check the pee” crowd. If its only slightly colored, you’re good to go, no color=too much water, strong color=not enough water.
Well, what about the queue?
Anyhoo, I’m fond of polishing off a 2-litre bottle of diet soda a day, plus 5-20 gulps of water after each bathroom visit. It seems to work well enough.
You hear people say to drink 8 glasses of water every day. Then I read somewhere that there has never been a study to confirm this. From that I assume that there has never been a study on how much water a person should drink, period. This seems weird considering all the far-out stupid studies that the government funds. One possibility is that it is known beforehand that the amount of water necessary varies greatly from one person to another, so a study would be worthless.
Water per se is not nessesary- you can get it through flavoured beverages. Sure, too much sugar or caffiene isn’t good for you, but a little isn’t bad at all.
Americans do not get generally enough fiber, for sure. They consume too much sugar. Some don’t drink enough non-sugared beverages.
“Check the pee” isn’t a bad rule of thumb. Also- check your stool. It should be soft, not hard. Slightly loose is better than slightly consipated. After you turn 40, look for blood.
So- get some of that sugar-free fiber powder. Drink a large glass of water or fruit juice or Crystal Light with a tablespoon of that twice a day. If you drink soda, get it with extra ice.
If you feel thirsty, drink. Even beer is OK. Booze harder than beer or wine does not hydrate you, however. Too much caffiene or tea will make you urinate more.
One of the people who says it is my urologist, so I give it appropriate weight.
No, thank you.
Funnily enough, during some lengthy 'flu-induced hallucinations I was having last night, I was composing a very similar question.
I rarely drink water on its own, unless am actually feeling thirsty. My typical daily liquid intake would be: glass of orange juice, two or 3 mugs of tea, large glass (i.e. a British pint, 20 fl. oz) of lemonade. This doesn’t sound enough but I am reasonably healthy [current minor difficulty excepted].
What benefits would I notice if I drank more water - apart from having to go to the bog more?