How much water is too much??

[Mossley]

Just before I competed a few weeks ago, I went to the doctor to have blood tests just to prove to all those negative, lazy people that what I was doing to my body wasn't harming it. Well, no more than them sitting on the couch day after day eating chips and chocolate.

Anyway when I was there the doctor asked me the usual questions and one was how much water was I consuming in a day. I answered about 4 litres and 3-4 caffeinated drinks a day. She nearly had a heart attack and told me that was far too much water.

Since then I've heard that 1.5 litres a day (for your average person) is about right.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? I've found if I have less I end up with headaches (and similarily if I drink more than that I feel yuck too)

[Growth]

I dont find 1 and a half litres to be a hell of a lot of water. I cant remember the ideal amount but it is definitley possible to drink too much water, it is dangerous and can even lead to death if im not mistaken.

1.5 litres isnt very much at all if you do what we do. Working out a the gym for an hour or 2 will cause you to lose alot of water weight in itself, let alone what your body needs on a regular day to day basis.

[jono]

Just before I competed a few weeks ago, I went to the doctor to have blood tests just to prove to all those negative, lazy people that what I was doing to my body wasn't harming it. Well, no more than them sitting on the couch day after day eating chips and chocolate.

Anyway when I was there the doctor asked me the usual questions and one was how much water was I consuming in a day. I answered about 4 litres and 3-4 caffeinated drinks a day. She nearly had a heart attack and told me that was far too much water.

Since then I've heard that 1.5 litres a day (for your average person) is about right.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? I've found if I have less I end up with headaches (and similarily if I drink more than that I feel yuck too)

i duno .. can you have too much water ???

i drink huge amounts of water.. prolly around 10 L a day or more. i just drink as much as i can. i havnt seen any side affects .. aprt from frequent toilet visits lol.

the only problem i can seee is you might wash out all the vitimins ?

[muffinman]

i dont think the amount of water should be monitored, i just drink when my body tells me to and if one day that may be around 6 litres then the next three litres thats all good, headaches is a sure sign of not enough, to much can kill you as strange as that sounds, it is called hyponatremia, and can lead to severe respiratory failure. you would need to litterally drink non stop almost., or drink massive amounts while pushing yourself to the extreme, eg marathon race. in the summer when ive been doing physical work i was drinking about 10 litres a day.

[Tubbs]

Too much water????

I spent too much time sleeping in school or palying quake 2 to remember what the P.E Teacher said, but an average person should be drinking 8+ glasses (200ml) daily, this is enough to be sure that you are flushing the toxins out of your body.

The only Vitamans and Minerals that would be flushed with the toxins are the water soluable ones that you need to replace daily anyway.

so if you are drinking more than 2L daily i wouldnt worry too much.

[Brad]

From what I've read - no amount is too much as long it's still coming out!! It's when it stops coming out and you still drinks heaps that you can have problems.

The only time your likely to have a problem is if you drink too much water while sweating heavily (your body looses "salt" when you sweat) and if it's not replaced and instead diluted even futher it can cause huge problems (even death)

I drink easily 4 litres per day (yes my workmates think I'm nuts) and I pee 100 times more than anyone else!

[Tammy]

Increased protein intake increases the load on the kidneys. Therefore us body builiders need a slightly increased water intake in order for our kidneys not to be affected by the increased load put upon them. :Increased water intake will not flush out vitamins unless our intake of the water soluble vits e.g. c, b etc is above our requirements. If it is then we will pee it out - hence the term 'expensive urine' is often given to those who take excessive amounts of vitamin c. 3-4L is definitely not too much water to be having given the context that you are having it in.

[Tammy]

By the way were your blood tests all normal?? I did the same thing as I was sick of myparents telliing me I was destroying my body and the only thing that was low was my iron levels, which I have always had trouble keeping up. My conclusion, if one is natural and supplementing what may be missing from their diet with the appropriate vitamins etc then no harm is being done.

[Mossley]

Um, yip, all except one of my blood tests came back normal. I had a high white cell count which indicated that I had an infection/virus somewhere but I felt fine, just really tired but that was to be expected from the low carbs and heavy exercise.

I wanted to prove that I was okay too, got tired of hearing people saying "but it can't be good for you".

Well it just proves that it's better for you than sitting around watching tv!

[foxybrown]

Since I've been training for my comp in Sept, I've been drinking at least 3-4 litres per day and this doesn't include the water I have while I'm at the gym working out...

I've haven't had any blood tests as yet but I may actually do this closer to the comp. I personally don't think drinking this amount of water can be damaging - if anything, I would think it was good for you to flush out all the toxins etc....