Can drinking a lot of water be considered harmful?

Sometimes I heard from my friends that drinking too much water can actually cause you too lose microelements or other nutrition elements.

Even though I never believed it I could never discuss and explain why that is not the case.

 

So now that I have the opportunity I could not skip to ask that question:

Could drinking reasonable amounts of water(1-2l per day) be harmful in any way (Other that to force you to visit toilet more frequently :-). Of course we assume that given person is healthy.

Hi Artur,

 

Typically the only potential risk of drinking too much water is hyponatremia, which usually happens when sweating excessively while not consuming enough electrolytes such as salt. As long as you are eating food throughout the day and not running marathons in the jungle... I think drinking 1-2 L of water per day should be completely and totally safe.

 

Best,

Chris

Chris - Lets see how much water you can drink in 24 hours? Go!

 

Artur - No. 1-2L of water per day is not enough to harm you or decrease electrolyte/trace mineral content. 

A few years ago a morning radio show with a couple of buffoons hosting had a contest to see who could drink a gallon of water the fastest. The woman who 'won' drank it in like 15-20 minutes I believe. She died shortly after. So there is a potential danger in extreme cases. However, drinking 1 cup every 1-2 hours over the course of the day will not harm you. I have heard though that making it a goal of drinking to the point where your urine is clear is a bit much. Again, it really depends on your activity level and can vary based on how much you sweat out. Some high end athletes drink 2+ gallons a day out of necessity. But for most moderately active people, 2-4 liters a day over the course of the entire day is about the right range.

"Drinking to the point where your urine is clear is a bit much"?

My urine is always clear. In germany, urine which is not clear, is considered bad. Not so in the US?

My dad's urologist recommended peeing clear at least once a day. That was in the wake of a bladder cancer, though. Remember kids, no smoking. Also, don't handle aniline dyes without appropriate protective gear.

Drinking clear is a good thing. Drinking water is in balance with both extra and intra cellular electrolytes. I.E. if a fat unhealthy slob enters a water drinking competition with high blood pressure due to the insane amount of salt they eat then yes there is going to be a problem. Along with extremely poor health you have to be about the dumbest person on earth to accomplish killing yourself with water consumption. 

 

 

Stop getting bent around the axel on things that don't matter. Drink your 1 liter and if you want more then drink more. 

Hi Jeff, on the topic of drinking too much water.. I usually drink 4-5 liters per day, to the point where some nights I get up to go to the toilett which obviously interrupts my sleep. Would you say that this is undesirable? If so, should I probably stop drinking water 3-4h before going to bed?

 

Btw, I'm really enjoying Thrive as until now it has been easy to adapt to my lifestyle

 

Cheers!

Richard, 

 

Thanks for posting.

 

I think you are okay, getting up and going to the bathroom in the middle of the night is a necessary evil for people who train hard. If you drink a reduced amount of water where you don't do that you may wake up behind the power curve. 

 

Try reducing to no water 1hr before bed and see if

a) you don't wake up at night

b) what you feel like / color of urine in AM - If you are "dehydrated" here go back to doing what you were doing. 

Ok, great! Thanks for the reply Jeff!

I will make some experiments

Same boat as you Richard!

I drank a lot of water even before Thrive, and about 2 years ago, I started regularly waking up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. So, I have been tinkering with water intake before bed and found it didn't make much of a difference, or that I would wake up because I was thirsty. I figured it was better to wake up for a wee, given I go back to bed immediately and have no problem falling asleep again.

Do experiment with not drinking some time before bed, it might work for you. Also, if you're no/low-carb, as I was for a bit, try eating more carbs, especially later in the day, as I found it helped with sleeping overall, and that I needed to go the toilet less often during the day, while maintaining the same water intake. I still wake up in the middle of the night, but it happens less often and the amount I pee is smaller, so I'm guessing there's also an habit component to erase from my brain.

There are so many errors in that link Bro that I stopped reading at paragraph 2. That post is a text book example of a false dichotomy. Here is the real deal to getting lean. Do and finish Thrive then do what I have in store for you next and don't listen to internet trolls that haven't been shit athletically speaking and who haven't produced results as a skills coach, strength coach or athletic trainer. 

 

Here I am with the most jacked guy in the NFL LaRon Landry. If these internet dweebs knew half of what they think they do they would be able to produce results like this. But, they cant. 

 

 

Just to make sure, you mean Joshua's post or you stopped at Murray's? I'm all for believing you if you say Joshua's stuff is all wrong (and I wasn't trying to advocate another method but just to illustrate what I was saying) but it seemed to go in the same direction as yours, i.e. paleo is not optimal/good, low-carb is generally a bad idea, etc. It could still go in the same direction but for the wrong reasons, though.

To be honest Im not really sure what Josh's article said. The begining part I did read had a number of incorrect facts. 200g carbs is not the base minimum for example. Unless you test a life long high carb no fat subject but then your bias in subject selection has already determined the outcome. Its confirmation bias.

I also don't know much about what Josh writes because he takes so long to come to a point I lose interest before he has got through the intro.

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

- Albert Einstein

If I am going to read something that takes "time" I am going to read a full study (not just the abstract) or a book. Not a blog post! That is a sure fire way to get bad info.

If Josh advocates the same general principals I do then great. To be quite honest there are a ton of people along this same line of thought. But, the devils in the details. I mean a Honda and a Ferrari are both cars and both operate off the same general principal of internal combustion engine for propulsion so they too are going in the same direction (pun intended haha) but not at the same speed.

As far as Josh as a person. I have met him a number of times at Coach's events and even shared information from time to time. He is a nice guy, he also likes to talk. I have nothing against the man.

If there's bad info, then it is my bad for linking it and I can't wait until we get to that kind of stuff in Thrive, so I can finally understand what happens in there!

Hei Bro and Jeff,

After a few days experimenting I reached a similar conclusion as you Bro. Not much difference, except the time during the night to go to the toilet, 1h earlier or later or something like this... I stopped drinking water even 2h before going to bed. I don't feel any differences in the morning either. Then I also thought that I was not considering all the water from the vegetables I eat hehe.. My dinners usually have tomatoes, bell peppers, brussel sprouts or broccolli, spinach, sometimes kale. I also love sweet potatoes which does contain some more water... all that helps with waking me up during the night.

The only times I notice a big change is if I go overboard one day and eat a lot of carbs, and salty food... then I retain all that water for 1-2 days haha....

As for that link you talk about, I haven't seen it, and I agree that we should just commit ourselves to Thrive for the long run! I'm also looking forward to when we start going over the more advanced stuff!

haha good question! Probably 1 liter a day.