PCOS/Insulin Resistance SupportSupport for us with any of the following: Insulin Resistance, Syndrome X, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or other endocrine disorders.
Think you don't need anyone telling you when and how much water you should be drinking? Think again. By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated! In addition, many people tend to mistake thirst for hunger and consume more food when their bodies are actually seeking fluids. Water, an often-neglected nutrient, is essential for survival. Without it, a person could die within a matter of days, as the body is made up of
approximately 60% water. Often, the first sign of dehydration is fatigue.
Heed the following advice, and you're likely to feel more energetic throughout the day as well as during your workout:
Throughout the Day, Drink:
Eight to ten 8-ounce glasses of water. In addition, active people need to replace fluids lost during activity, so...
Before Your Workout, Drink:
Two hours before - 2 cups (16 oz.).
15-20 minutes before - 1 cup.
During Activity, Drink:
4-8 ounces every 15-20 minutes.
After Your Workout, Drink:
2-3 cups per pound of weight loss. Weigh yourself before and after working out to know how much water to replace.
Tips to Staying Well Hydrated:
Drink a glass of water with every meal and snack.
Carry a water bottle with you when traveling.
Leave a pitcher of water at your desk and drink from it periodically.
Make sure your urine is light in color.
Know where the bathrooms are! It is normal to urinate every 2-4 hours.
For every caffeinated-beverage you consume, you'll need to add one more cup of water, as caffeine is a natural diuretic.
How much do you all drink?
I am aim for 4 32 oz cups a day.
I can't drink more than 1 32 ounce bottle a day... and that is if I drink nothing else. I teach, so I can only use the bathroom when I don't have students.
Thanks for the water reminder, Jennifer. I need to increase my water! I take it more seriously now that I am on Gluc again because I need to take care of my kidneys, and lactic acidosis scares me! I'd like to keep it all moving. Also, since I found out I have fatty liver, I want to try and keep the liver flushing as much as possible.
Anonymouse, I don't know if this is true or not, but I did hear that the bladder can be conditioned by drinking water. I wish I knew where I read that. Somebody was talking about drinking more water and getting the bladder stronger, and that they could 'hold it' longer. Might be worth looking into!
It would certainly be interesting to find out if drinking more water made you hold more...
There is actually a condition known as "Teacher Bladder" because teachers are more prone to kidney infections and UTI's because they can't go to the bathroom as frequently as "normal" people can.
I have been drinking more water lately (Okay, its flavored water, and its not sugar free, but it only has 9 carbs and 30 calories for 24 oz...), and I only drink decaffinated tea (I make my own sun-tea... I usually buy the tea on-line from Stash's and I just love their cinnamon mixed with the wintermint...) without sweetner (of any kind), though I do add fresh lime depending on the type of tea I made.
But I wonder about the fact that its normal to go to the bathroom every 2-4 hours... if that's the case, why are all the commercials for "overactive bladder" saying that you shouldn't go more than 8 times a day?
Wow, then I definitely have an overactive bladder! When I have to go, I-have-to-go. I did find that I had bladder spasms a long time ago and had to take some medicine to relax it, so that may be what is still wrong to me, just a lesser degree. I used to be able to hold it for a longgggg time when I was a spring chicken!
I will see if I can run acrosss that message again, because I'm curious!
I know that for me, when I first begin to increase my water alot, I am running to the bathroom every 20 minutes. But afterawhile, my bladder adjusts and I will go maybe once an hour if am drinking a gallon of water a day.
I too must go when I have to go. No sitting around and just waiting.
I need to drink more water myself. I do that think I am hungry and just want to eat but if I would ahve drank I would have been fine. I think from now on I am going to drink when I think that I am hungry and see how that works.
How much water should we guzzle? People absorb much water from the food they eat. Fruits and vegetables are 80 to 95 percent water; meats contain a fair amount; even dry bread and cheese are about 35 percent water.
‘Obey your thirst’ is good advice, expert says. Are all those people toting around water bottles healthfully hydrated or waterlogged? The Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board hopes to decide by March whether to issue the first official water-intake recommendation.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aug. 19 — “Drink at least eight glasses of water a day” is an adage some obsessively follow, judging by the people sucking on water bottles at every street corner — but the need for so much water may be a myth.
FEAR THAT once you’re thirsty you’re already dehydrated? For many of us, another myth. Caffeinated drinks don’t count because they dehydrate? Probably wrong, too.
So says a scientist who undertook an exhaustive hunt for evidence backing all this water advice and came up mostly, well, dry. Now the group that sets the nation’s nutrition standards is studying the issue, too, to see if it’s time to declare a daily fluid level needed for good health — and how much leaves you waterlogged.
Until then, “obey your thirst” is good advice, says Dr. Heinz Valtin, professor emeritus at Dartmouth Medical School, whose review of the eight-glass theory appears in this month’s American Journal of Physiology.
H20 CONFUSION
It’s about time for all the attention, says Pennsylvania State University nutritionist Barbara Rolls, a well-known expert on thirst. “There’s so much confusion out there.”
Much of it centers on where you should get your daily water.
“There’s this conception it can only come out of a bottle,” and that’s wrong, notes Paula Trumbo of the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board, which hopes to decide by March whether to issue the first official water-intake recommendation.
In fact, people absorb much water from the food they eat. Fruits and vegetables are 80 to 95 percent water; meats contain a fair amount; even dry bread and cheese are about 35 percent water, says Rolls. That’s in addition to juices, milk and other beverages.
And many of us drink when we don’t really need to, spurred by marketing, salty foods and dry environments, Rolls says.
“For most of us, that’s not going to matter — you’re just going to need to go to the bathroom more,” she says.
But for people with certain medical conditions, chugging too much can be harmful, sometimes fatal, Valtin warns. Even healthy people — such as teenagers taking the party drug Ecstasy, which induces abnormal thirst — can occasionally drink too much. So-called water intoxication dilutes sodium in the blood until the body can’t function properly.
Conversely, no one disputes that getting enough water is crucial. Indeed, the elderly often have a diminished sensation of thirst and can become dangerously dehydrated without realizing it. People with kidney stones, for example, require lots of water, as does anyone doing strenuous exercise.
ORIGIN OF 64-OUNCE RECOMMENDATION
But the question remains: How much water does the typical, mostly sedentary American truly need? And what’s the origin of the theory, heavily promoted by water sellers and various nutrition groups, that the magic number is at least 64 ounces?
Valtin, who has spent 40 years researching how the body maintains a healthy fluid balance, determined the advice probably stems from muddled interpretation of a 1945 Food and Nutrition Board report. That report said the body needs about 1 milliliter of water for each calorie consumed — almost 8 cups for a typical 2,000-calorie diet — but that “most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods.”
That language somehow has morphed into “at least” 64 ounces daily, Valtin says. (One Web site’s “hydration calculator” even recommends a startling 125 ounces for a 250-pound couch potato.) And aside from the American Dietetic Association’s advice, few of the “drink more water” campaigns targeted to consumers mention how much comes from food.
Valtin couldn’t find any research proving the average person needs to drink a full 64 ounces of water daily.
Also, contrary to popular opinion, he cites a University of Nebraska study that found coffee, tea and sodas are hydrating for people used to caffeine and thus should count toward their daily fluid total.
Other myths:
That thirst means you’re already dehydrated. That can be true of the elderly, and studies of marathon runners and military recruits in training have found that some focus so intently on strenuous exercise that they block thirst sensations until they’re in trouble. But Rolls did hourly hydration tests to prove that drinking when thirsty is good advice for the rest of us.
That water blocks dieters’ hunger. Studies show water with food can help you feel full faster, but that just drinking water between meals has little effect, Rolls says.
So how much do we need? Until the Institute of Medicine sets a level, “if people obey their thirst and they are producing urine of a normal yellow color, that’s a safe sign,” Valtin concludes.
I got a case of 24 - 16 ounce bottles of these at Costco for under $12.
It's made by the Talking Rain company and they are called Diet ICE Botanicals. It is sweetened with Splenda and has Zero calories and Zero carbs! They come in Passion Peach, Key Lime, Cranberry Raspberry and Strawberry Kiwi... and each one has different "botanical" additives like ginger, green tea, rosehip, clover, etc. Each one has Vitamin C in it, too. I love them
These are fabulous and are a great help to the whole "drinking enough water" issue.
Just wanted to throw this in the ring. If you've seen them and wondered - don't hesitate. They are wonderful!!
I am very bad in regards to drinking the right amount of water that I should. I try, but, never seem to do it. I do drink water as many times as I can, but, like I said earlier, certainly not as much as I should. If anyone should no any better, it should be me since I have already had to get bladder surgery to stretch it since I used to hold it so much. I will say this, though-that bladder surgery was the best thing that I did!!! Big difference. I am supposed to stay away from things with carbonation, spices, etc-of course, I don't always do that. As long as I moderate, it is fine. It has been at least 2 1/2 years since the surgery and I do not have half the problems I used to. Hope this helps; thought I would throw this in for you guys!!
Hi Princess, does 'holding it' make it constrict? I don't know anything about bladders, but it would sound logical that holding it would actually stretch it...is there a non surgical method to stretch?
Lisa, I am going to look for that flavored water, thanks! I have tried VeryFine Fruit 2-0 and it was good. I don't do well with carbonation, so plain water is best for me.
Hopeful Spirits, hope you get back online soon. Nice article, thanks! Learn something new every day!
I am going to be on the look out for those flavored waters. I was amazed that when I looked for a nice flavored water with no calories or carbs, there was nothing. I was better off drinking a bottle of soda. Could you imagine? 40 carbs in a bottle of flavored water? What's the point?
Think you don't need anyone telling you?
