water intake and the ladies'/men's room
 

The thing about drinking a lot of water - how often do you have to pee?

I have a small bladder so while I try to drink sufficient amounts of fluid, I sometimes have to pee ridiculously often. Sometimes I feel like I have to pee 10 minutes into my exercise routine - which is just annoying! I try not to complain, I mean I am generally healthy... but it seriously impedes some of my daily activities. Then I read and hear about all this water that we should be drinking and I just wonder... so how much water do you drink and how often do you have to pee? And do you find that if you sip your water all day long you're constantly going in and out of the bathroom versus if you drink a lot of it at once?

If you are consistant with your water intake, eventually your body will adjust and you wont have to pee as often. Its most difficult when you are ramping up water intake, but you will adjust.

I used to work in a "clean room" where you had to gown and degown everytime you went in or out so I ended up holding it a lot (not healthy) and then also learned how to void completely even when I thought I didnt have to go. That helped a lot. I do pee often, but nothing like when I was pregnant so I am not complaining!

Theoretically I would think sipping it would be better, your body has a chance to absorb and use the water rather than just shunting the excess out.

Like ennay said, after a while your body will adjust. I was going pee ALOT more during the beginning of my journey than I am now.

I know it's sometimes hard to find a bathroom or to take a bathroom break, but the absolute WORST reason not to drink water is that it makes you have to pee! LOL! Seems like a lot of women try to avoid this--and then we wonder why we get so many urinary tract infections.

Be sure to go to the bathroom before you start your exercise--that might help. Always know where the bathrooms are. If you have to stop 10 minutes into your routine, that's OK! The body knows what it needs to do. And like the others said, it will get better as you get more used to having more water.

Also, don't drown yourself. 64 to 80 ounces of water a day is enough.

Jay

I just drink when I am thirsty. Much of my fluid comes in the form of tea. One doesn't have to drink a magic number of ounces of water in order to lose weight. It is important to drink enough fluid to not be dehydrated, but if you aren't feeling thirsty, the chances that you are dehydrated are low. If you are drinking to the point where you have to go pee every ten minutes, you're over doing.

People will likely respond to say that I'm wrong in this. They just *know* that force drinking water is the way to lose weight. But there is no proof that this is so. It's just a pervasive myth.

beautifulone,
I hear where you're coming from...I work in a call centre, and except for our three breaks a day, we're supposed to keep our logouts from the phone to a minimum. As a result, I've cut my water intake during workdays to about half of what I used to do. Then when I get home, I try to make up for it.

Sipping instead of guzzling is a good idea...I'll try that, since I usually drink half a bottle at a time. *lol*

Well, I have to admit that I don't drink anywhere NEAR as much as 'people' recommend. I never feel thirsty though, so I must be getting enough fluid from the food I eat (mostly fruit and veg). I have regular medical checkups, and they come out fine. In fact the doctor was pretty impressed with the last one, and she knows that I have a LOT of trouble drinking the 'recommended' amount.

I heard that the longer you stuck with the increased water consumption, the better it got, but I gave it THREE months, which I thought was long enough for my body to adjust, and I couldn't do it any longer. I teach, and I just couldn't leave my classroom that much anymore. Other staff were very supportive, but I still felt bad. Three months after I started, I was STILL going to the bathroom heaps. I just decided that I lost all of this weight without increasing my intake of 'drinks' and nobody has ever said that I appear dehydrated and I don't think I have any symptoms of dehydration, so I think I'll just have to write myself up as being 'abnormal' and live with it. I just can't keep visiting the bathroom all day, waiting for my body to 'adjust'.

Anyway... that was a little more than I planned on writing. I think this topic always just gets me thinking, because there are SO many different perspectives and I just don't seem to fit into the norm with this one.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do about drinking Beautifulone.

Zelma

I try to take in about 64 ozs of water and yes your body will adjust. If I have had several days where I haven't met the intake I find that when I up it again and get it back to where it should be then I have to go more often again.

It is possible to not feel thirsty but still need water.

I hardly ever feel thirsty, so I rarely drank water. A couple of bouts of kidney stones taught me that I need to drink water whether I "feel thirsty" or not. But I don't overdo it, either. I don't think it helps weight loss to overdo water, personally--I just have lots of other reasons for drinking it.

Jay

Thanks.. the thing is, my body doesn't adjust. I'm not drinking more water just now.. this is an ongoing issue. Like I'll pee before leaving the locker room and a little bit into my exercise, I feel like I have to pee again - although there isn't much left. Makes exercising difficult for sure, and is frustrating on a daily basis - some days less than others, some more.

Speaking of, how much extra fluids should we be drinking when we exercise to make up for the water loss and rehydrate ourselves?

You know, there used to be one exercise I did that always made me FEEL like I needed to pee, when I really didn't have a full bladder. It put pressure on my bladder, I guess--maybe because of my weight. I haven't done that exercise in a long time, so I don't know whether it still would do the same thing.

Jay

I wonder sometimes if losing weight will help with this urinary frequency if that's what this is. I hope certainly hope so.

It could be possible that you just have a weak bladder. I know my step-mom pees ALL the time, and her doctor put her on medication to control it. Some people are able to adjust to drinking more water, and some aren't. Personally, I get about 80 ounces a day and I pee maybe 3 times a day, and once at night.

This sounds like something different is going on.

There was yet another water topic (there's always yet another water topic, it seems) a while back and someone posted some great links that amounted to "there's no actual evidence that most of the human race is dehydrated or needs to drink huge amounts of water." Really. It all traces back to... nothing.

If drinking more water makes you feel good, great. Feeling good is good. But if your doctor is happy with your health and nutritition, you shouldn't feel like you need to be drinking more water just to meet some mythical "should".

I was seriously peeing every 10 mins and wondered if I was drinking too much, however I noticed today that I don't have to do that anymore - guess my body has adjusted, 8 weeks later.