Hello...I have been visiting this website for about 1 month. I love it!! I just had a quick question. When I was at my COD on Monday the couselor asked me how much water I was drinking each day. I told her between 80-100 oz. She told me that I was drinking too much. She said I should only be drinking a certain percentage of my body weight..(can't remember what that percentage was ) Just wondering if I really need to limit my water intake.
Hi...I actually read an article in yesterday's health section of the paper that said too much water was actually bad for you. It can cause all sorts of problems. The article even stated that a woman in Texas died from drinking too much water ( I think she drank gallons). I wish I could find the paper so I could quote from it, but it is already gone.
I wouldn't be overly concerned about your consumption of 80-100 oz. of water, assuming you consume it over the course of a full day. Water poisoning (hyponatremia) does actually exist and can be fatal in rare cases, but it really only occurs when massive amounts of water are consumed in a very short period of time or, most commonly, during long and strenuous exercise (marathon, 100 mile bike ride, etc.) where electrolytes are substantially diminished and large quantities of water are consumed and the athlete doesn't eat/drink anything to replenish electrolytes. For the average person, hyponatremia is not something to be concerned about, just don't chung like 60 oz in a few minutes, and if you run a marathon drink a bit or powerade or gatorade in addition to water. Hope that helped!
i agree with dan on this one too. at my current COD and my previous one, they were always astonished at the fact that i drank 120oz of water each day.
i think the thing you're thinking of is you take your body weight and divide by 2 and that's the number of ounces you're suppose to drink each day.
Ideally it's half your body weight in ounces, then 8 oz for every caffinated beverage you do during the day. Most days I drink the 8 then drink between 3 and 4 during my work-out. If I'm going to be drinking mroe than 12 or 13 in a day, I start popping in the powdered vitamin mixes to make up for the electrolytes.
There was a counselor at the COD (who thankfully is no longer there ) that told me by no means should I be on my 7th of 8th glass by the time I was weighing in at 5 pm. Mind you this was x-mas season when I was working 4am to 4 pm. I out right told her if she got up at 2:30 in the morning she also would have 8 glasses of water easily done by 5 pm.
As for water poisining, one of the guys I went to college with was one of the fatal cases in the news a few years back. He was drinking 5-6 GALLONS a day while biking 20-30 miles several days a week. None of us are training on a bike 100 miles a week or chugging 5 gallons of water a day either.
I drink a lot of water....easily 120 oz or more a day. I drink because I am always thirsty...dry mouth! I'm not diabetic so I often wonder why I am always so dry...but no one seems to have an answer. It's not like I'm pouring salt down my throat. Thank goodness I work at home so I can drink and go as often as I want. Jillian - I've heard what you heard - take your weight and divide it by 2 and drink that much water.
Megan - what does this do:
Quote:
I start popping in the powdered vitamin mixes to make up for the electrolytes.
Day 2 for me and no diet coke or soft drink. That's a huge deal for this chick!
I drink about 100 oz a day and haven't had any adverse effects. Mind you, I don't guzzle it all in one sitting. That's the total amount I drink from early morning until bed time.
I used to drink nothing but Diet Pepsi but since joining the program 2 weeks ago...I have cut waaaay down. I now drink 1 or 2 a day. Other than that it's good old water. I thought I'd miss the Pepsi but I don't.
I drink about 150 oz a day. Someone commented on my blog about water intake and I had already done some research. You body can actually process 3.96 gallons a day!!! You DO need to spread your water intake over the course of the day. Water toxicity is actually caused by the speed in which you drink it, not the amount!
Whenever I see the water issue come up, I have to chime in because a little over a year ago, my mother (in relatively good health except for well-controlled diabetes, mild to moderate high blood pressure, and arthritis) nearly died of water poisoning. She was in the hospital over a week as they tried to get her electrolytes, kidney function and blood counts within normal range.
I don't want to scare anyone out of drinking water, because the risk is low, and nearly impossible if you have a little understanding of how it can happen, but since the risk factors are so common among dieters, I feel I have to play devil's advocate to prevent what happened to Mom.
The symptoms were much like an extreme flu and came on very suddenly, and Dad may not have been concerned enough to call an ambulance right away, if it weren't for Mom acting very out of it mentally and being too weak to stand by herself they might have waited, and she probably wouldn't have survived it.
She was not in poor health, nor had she run a marathon, nor had she guzzled any large amounts of liquids that day or any of the days prior.
She was however dieting (sensibly, on Weight watchers), she was taking a common combination blood pressure medication (not a large dose, and the medications were not new, she'd been on them for months). She was drinking around 3 - 4 quarts of liquid on average (including water, Crystal Light, coffee, milk, soups..., which is fairly typical of many of us on this site.
The kidney specialist the hospital called in, told us that water poisoning is becoming more common among otherwise healthy people, in part because of new medications that affect kidney function, and in part because of the myths and popular misconceptions about water consumption and fluid requirements. For example the "need" for 1/2 oz of water for every lb of body fat (which didn't apply to my mother, but for the very obese, like me that would be nearly twice as much as I should be drinking) or that caffeinated beverages need to be "compensated for" with additional water (already mentioned here). Caffeine does have a diuretic effect, but not as extreme as has often been portrayed, and the effect diminishes over time if you drink caffeinated beverages regularly. So a cup of coffee isn't going to put anyone in a "water deficit," it would be more like say an 8 oz cup of coffee being be equivalent to drinking 6 - 7 ounces of water (and it might be more like 7.8 oz for regular coffee drinkers).
This certainly played into Mom's getting sick. If you drink one cup of coffee, not counting it, or even drinking an additional 12 oz water without "counting" isn't going to be a big deal, but if you drink 3 - 5 like Mom was, and drinking an additional 5-7 cups of water on top of that, well, she had met her fluid requirements for the day, and hadn't counted any of it.
Her weight watcher's leader had told the group that coffee didn't count and for every 8 oz of coffee they needed to drink an additional 8 to 12 oz of water. As a result, she drinking about 6 - 8 cups of water, 2 - 3 cups of milk, and usually about 3 - 5 cups of coffee and then and additional 8 - 12 oz of water to to "compensate" for each cup of coffee. She also sometimes ate soup as a snack and or a meal. Still at a gallon and a half at the very most, that's alot more than the average person consumes, but not that unusual among us posting on 3FC.
Believe me, I am not discouraging anyone from drinking water. I'm sure a lot more people aren't drinking enough water as those drinking too much. In the summer especially, I am likely to drink alot more than I should according to the kidney specialist. But it's always at the back of my mind, because of Mom's experience. Blood pressure issues are common among otherwise healthy people overweight or not. And I would guess a good number of us on 3FC are on the same medication and drinking fluids in much the same way my mom was. Water intoxication is considered so rare, pharmacists and doctors don't think to mention it, so anyone likely to be at risk, isn't likely to know it.
Anyway, for what it's worth, "the other side of the story"
Joni:L I use emergen-C's they're condensed packets of vitamins.
Basically they're gatorades but have massive Vitamin C and like 10 calories a packet. Plus they fizz so it's like drinking a soda.
Interesting- I should look into these- I used to drink Vitamin Waters to up my vitamin/water intake- but quickly realized how much sugar and empty calories I was consuming! Wow, my problem is not drinking enough water! I don't know how you all get enough!
oh, i totally forgot to mention that when i was at the COD yesterday the "counselor" asked me if i'm getting my water in and i said, yes, about 120oz/day. her and another counselor that was eavesdropping said, that's way too much. that if i drink too much water, my body will start retaining it! and that i should stick to 64oz. i said, well, i have read time and time again that you take your body weight and divide by 2. and that's what i'm going to stick to. because that's what i've always done. they were upset that i wasn't going to listen to them. my COD has rarely disappointed me with wrong or bad info and this time i was kinda mad at them for saying that to me.
just wanted to bring that up since we were just talking about it.
Too much water??
) Just wondering if I really need to limit my water intake.
) that told me by no means should I be on my 7th of 8th glass by the time I was weighing in at 5 pm. Mind you this was x-mas season when I was working 4am to 4 pm. I out right told her if she got up at 2:30 in the morning she also would have 8 glasses of water easily done by 5 pm.
