Drinking water

.blitz

Had a bit of professional physio the other day and was told to 'drink more water'. The physio was cute so I didn't want to get into an argument with her but what are your thoughts on forcing 2 litres of water down your neck every day?

I've tried it a few times in the past but generally I'm not thirsty let alone dehydrated so it just goes straight through me. Biking I can drink 2-3 litres no probs because I'm sweating buckets but 2 litres a day just sitting in an office? It seems all wrong. :?

BorisSpencer

I seem to remember that the old guidance of 8 glasses a day included water from all other sources, but this was always ignored by people trying to sell water coolers.

The Northern Monkey

I can't drink much more than a 500ml bottle of water a day.... i'd be pissing like a racehorse every hour or so.

Anonymous

.blitz wrote:

I've tried it a few times in the past but generally I'm not thirsty let alone dehydrated so it just goes straight through me. Biking I can drink 2-3 litres no probs because I'm sweating buckets but 2 litres a day just sitting in an office? It seems all wrong. :?

I can't get that much water down normally, but I did try it over a brief healthy living stint when I was in college, and it certainly made a difference. The only change I made was to drink lots more water.
You spend the first few days peeing like a racehorse, but after that, your body settles down.

these days I just try to make sure I get a lot, I don't bother measuring water, or even making a rough guess, just drink a pint or so occasionally.

I'm led to believe the reason it's important, is because we need water to flush the by-products of being active from our muscles. Without enough water, we can;t get the waste out, and the fresh fuels in.

And Boris is correct, the water intake includes water from foods.
But seriously, more water, up to a point is generally good, if you can remember to drink that much. By the time you're thirsty, you're already partially dehydrated.
The point at which drinking too much water causes problems is, frankly insane, so just try and drink craploads.

The Northern Monkey

yeehaamcgee wrote:

just try and drink craploads.

Sounds messy

Where are my stabilisers?

I got into the habit of drinking everything out of pint glasses at uni, so I drink loads of water/squash everyday, easily 2l.

I've got glasses which are 330ml and they just feel a bit wrong, a couple of gulps and I need a refill!

Don't think it always does the job though, coz if you drink it really quickly, it just goes straight through and I think I read somewhere that this can be bad?? Not sure about that though.

supersonic

I drink about 3 pints of diluted cordial per day. Just seems a habit really!

But as above, get a lot from foods, but do need some extra.

jonnyc2420

As above - i think little and often is probably better than gulping down loads then peeing it away in one go..... as a rule i drink about 2 1/2 pints during the day, an extra bike bottles worth in the gym and then tea etc as added extras.

Easyriding

I was told once that if your pee is clear or light straw in colour, then you're drinking enough for your kidneys to be clear and hydrated. Any deeper in colour - you need to drink more.

supersonic

Does beer count?!

Easyriding

I keep hoping so!

Anonymous

supersonic wrote:

Does beer count?!

Yes, actually.

Buckled_Rims

You can't win really! If you drink not enough you dehydrate and die! If you drink too much you'll drown!

Anonymous

You need to drink one hell of a lot to drown. And I think what happens before you drown is that your throat swells up, cutting off the windpipe. Something like that, anyway.

Buckled_Rims

yeehaamcgee wrote:

You need to drink one hell of a lot to drown. And I think what happens before you drown is that your throat swells up, cutting off the windpipe. Something like that, anyway.

You can drown in an inch of water! In many cases it's not water that constricts the wind pipe. If you drown in your own vomit it's usually less then 1/2 a pint! All it takes is just a small blockage.

Why did I eat carrots???????????

Anonymous

you certainly won't drown by drinking an inch of water, unless the glass is several hundred feet in diamater.

Briggo

I'm presuming Tea also counts as I drink loads of the stuff.

robertpb

Drinking lots of water is a marketing piece of hype, liquid intake is what is needed also included is the amount in food for your daily allowance.

My normal consumption is 2.5 litres of green tea per day, plus extra drinks when out riding.

Anonymous

robertpb wrote:

Drinking lots of water is a marketing piece of hype

Marketing? From who exactly? Did my physio secretely work for Evian? Does my riding mate, (who's opinion I value on things like this since he studied sports nutrition, by the way, not just some random friend ) get paid every time he tells someone to drink water, by Volvic?
No. It's just a slight misunderstanding, and simplification.

Drinking too much water won't cause any problems, so rather than tell people that their food contains water as well, when food is an unknown quanity, it's suggested that you drink a given amount of liquid.

cloggsy

Not enough water is bad!

Too much water is bad too!

I tend to drink 8 pints+ a day. If I don't drink that much I feel it; sluggish, dehydrated etc.

If your pee is anything other than a really pale yellow, you ain't drinking enough!

Not drinking enough for long enough leads onto bad things; Kidney Stones are REALLY painful!

xcmad

robertpb wrote:

2.5 litres of green tea per day.

Must spend a fortune boiling the kettle

chalky1

I've just been reading some of the above posts ref water consumption, I rode Dalby last week in the searing heat and had hoped to pick up on some tips on here in the Health, Fitness & training forum.

Instead i have just read that that drinking too much water will not cause any problems ?

I think it will !
too much water is far more dangerous than you may realise and is achieved relatively quickly,

type Hyponatremia into a popular search engine,

By the way i,m new on here as you can see from my post count 1..................
I just thought id start as i meant to go on ! Both feet first,

bails87

But 'too much' water is a hell of a lot, for a normal, healthy person.

I have a bottle of water in front of me on my desk all day at work, so it's habit to take a swig fairly often. I probably drink 3 bottles/almost 1.5 pints of 'pure' water and a few mugs of coffee during 8 hours at work. Plus a couple more pints at home, plus whatever else is in my food.

As others have said, if your pee is darker than very light yellow then you're not drinking enough, that's a pretty good gauge.

Aha:

Anonymous

It's worth bearing in mind as well that if you're worried about drinking too much water (SERIOUSLY? that's a metric fuckton of water!) then making sure what you take in is Isotonic will prevent hyponatremia.
So, Lucozade sport, or a couple of Nuun tablets or whatever you want in your camelbak. Or even a pinch of salt.

Frankly, mountain bikers seem to eat so much salty bacons that a lack of sodium seems an impossible problem.

springtide9

Think dehydration is more of a problem than Hyponatremia.

If you are worried about drinking too much, just weigh yourself before the ride and when you get back. I drink huge amounts compared to others, but I loose more fluids than I take in.

I am also not convinced you could carry enough water to cause Hyponatremia.

Hyponatremia is not a myth, but it is only when taking drinking water to the extreme.

Fom what I've read, it would be like giving someone advice about soothing their muscles by having a hot bath, and then the person taking this advice to the extreme and getting into a bath full of boiling water.

MountainMonster

I'm one of the weird guys who loves to drink water, prefer it alot of the time to other types of drinks, just because too sugary of drinks are bad!

cee

I drink a lot of water....

I have a litre bottle on my desk all the time which i fill at least twice a day, plus a couple of pints of squash in the evening.....

Hyponatremia is certainly no myth, not really too much water, more not enough salts outside the cells, so they fill by osmosis and burst.....but realistically...its only going to be an issue if you chug down gallons of water.....or in fact....more likely perhaps.....sweating out tons of salt on a really hot long ride...you would have lots of salty deposits on your skin by this point.

Anonymous

robertpb wrote:

liquid intake is what is needed also included is the amount in food for your daily allowance.

That's the key thing. Noting that most liquid drinks are based on water anyway. Even beer (but spirits are another matter).

Coffee and tea were knocked for a while as being dehydrating but they've been proven to be just as hydrating as water now. Potentially more beneficial in some ways. Just don't overdo the caffeine, or go with green tea etc.

There is interest from big companies in selling bottled water, and it's less so from the traditional spring water companies. It's more from the likes of Coca Cola which is successfully flogging various utterly over hyped bottled water brands, which are basically tap water, and some with the word "vitamins" plastered all over them and are still mainly just tap water plus a load of sugar with a little bit of vitamin supplement in them. The nutritionally sounding stuff is selling in the UK though people aren't falling for the plain tap water stuff so much. The plain tap water stuff sells massively in the US though, especially bizarrely around ski resorts where there should be tonnes of local spring water and most of the actual tap water is perfectly safe to drink!

Offices even fall for it. They spend a fair bit buying in special water dispensers complete with chilling and filtering units. They're basically just hooked up to the tap though. If that's not enough, they're selling the vitamin stuff in the restaurants. Or, just get the free coffee/tea that many of them offer. Will do the same job.