"Yellow or Staw = Drink More" Q.

JavaCofe

Hi,

I've heard the mantra often enough and usually try to consume enough to "get clear results" if you know what I mean 8)

What I have noticed is though that even at work where I'm stationary for the best part of 8 hours where I am drinking 1L tap-water/hr + occasional green tea (net result being 30min bladder fill/release) .. that my urine is still tinged. I then notice that on my 30min commute home that around minute 20-25 I get de-hydrated and suffer muscle/brain fade

I don't think I'm doing anything funny outside of my excessive tinkle routine (that I've been doing for months now).. so not sure what's going on.

Not to give you a whole diet breakdown, but I usually hit about 1.5kCal/day intake which is around the 30:50:20 (Carb:Protein:Fat) level through lean meats and strict minimum of processed sugar/fats.

Any ideas?

antfly

Ignore the saying, it shouldn't be clear, it should be straw colour. You are drinking too much.

No Sweat

I'm not a medic, but common sense suggests you are drinking too much.

A full bladder every 30 minutes is way too frequent. If you had not stated your fluid intake, it might have suggested other systemic problems! 'Normal' urine has some colour.

No-one in normal office conditions, with normal kidney function, needs to carry around a constant supply of water, for fear of dehydration. Despite what the sellers of sports drinks and bottled water will have you think, tea, and the kind of coffee that Brits and Americans mostly drink (i.e. NOT 'espresso'), are NOT dehydrating as there is not enough caffeine in them to cause your kidneys to excrete more water than they contain. Food also contains appreciable amounts of water, so contributes significantly to your daily through-put of water.

The idea that drinking lots of water will 'flush out toxins' is also a load of marketing tosh if your kidneys are anything like 'normal'.

On the other hand excessive water intake can be damaging.

JavaCofe

Ok maybe pissing 14 times during work was stretching it a bit, and 8L would prob be bordering on bladder damage!

Point I was trying to make was that I drink as soon as I'm thirsty and dont wait to hold it in unless I have to. (This routine actually caused a bit of agro recently when I was flying and had figured about 45min from gate to time I could get out of my seat for a pee. Turned out there was a que for takeoff and I had to use every relaxation technique I could think of to keep control!)

No Sweat

I'm suprised that you can experience apparent dehydration after only 25 minutes of exercise sufficient to noticeably reduce performance.

I know we are all different, but I wouldn't even consider taking fluids with me for a 30 minute run. I know it's not fashionable to say so, but I didn't take water with me on a 60 minute run this morning. I wasn't racing, so absolute performance was not an issue, and I knew I could drink when I got home.

Without wishing to appear dramatic, perhaps you could consider consulting a medical professional?

antfly

You are drinking a dangerous amount of water, that could be why you get tired. You should have a diabetes test as well.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... r-can-kill.

Herbsman

No Sweat wrote:

I'm suprised that you can experience apparent dehydration after only 25 minutes of exercise sufficient to noticeably reduce performance.

This. Unless you're riding as hard as you possibly can, on the equator, at 1pm.

Get a grip and stop drinking so much!

sloppyschleckonds

JavaCofe wrote:

and strict minimum of processed sugar/fats.

WTF?

ct8282

Dude, as has been stated, you are drinking far too much if you take on 1 ltr per hour throughout the day! Net result is that you are dangerously unbalancing your electrolytes such as your salt levels. You know when you hear of people collapsing at the end of marathons and dropping dead? Well, this is largely due to the fact that they sweat profusely during the run which dehydrates but also reduces the bodies electrolyte levels, and then they guzzle far too much water which further dilutes the bodies salt levels further. This is a dangerous recipe!

You should be taking in maybe around 2 to 3 litres a day on a normal day and your pee should have a slight yellow colour to it. This would suggest normal levels of hydration. Peeing every 30 mins is excessive.

JavaCofe

Thanks for your feedback guys!

Firstly some of you may not have read my 2nd post - I was exaggerating my intake somewhat. I take in more than my work-colleagues do(ie about 500ml plain water/day), but have previously put that down to them not being concerned with dehydration since they don't "self motivate" themselves along the ground on a bike like I do - most use public transport. -- I realise this may being the wrong tact so am going to be tailing down my intake.

Secondly. When cycling in London there are many, many safety threats on the road - chief amongst which are the 'Borris Bikers'. Usually when I rock up at lights I'm surrounded with 10~15 cyclists and cycling in the pack is pretty dangerous as nobody keeps to their "lane" or has any situational awareness. So I blast my heart out from door to door taking caution at said interchanges and anywhere near pedestrian-heavy zones.

Lastly comment on processed sugars, I was referring to McDonalds'esk "pumped up" high GI shiz.