how much water is too much?

[LeeJunFan]

How much water can you drink in an avearge day (no cardio), I have heard that drinking too much will wash out your electrolytes.
Any clues?!??!?

 

[cbs]

Yes, you can have too much water. Cause too much water can deplete your potassium levels to ridiculously low levels and that spells trouble. As far as how much is too much, it depends on the person but a safe amount is 1-2 gallons.

 

[LeeJunFan]

Ok ,I am drinking about 14-16 pints a day (thats on its own, I also drink other stuff like diet coke, coffee...etc, do those also count?), would there be any signs of low potassium?
Thanx!

 

[cbs]

yes, i would count other beverages(aka crystal lite, diet soda, etc)

Signs of low potassium are:
-muscle cramps
-becoming weak
-become thirsty(yes, become thirsty)
-Great deal of urination
-Last but not least, your heart may begin to skip beats--a very dangerous sign.

 

[pong21]

If your going to drink 1-2 gallons of water a day. Wouldnt that make you urinate a lot? You have that as a sign of low potassium.

 

[ProtienFiend]

How much water can you drink in an avearge day (no cardio), I have heard that drinking too much will wash out your electrolytes.
Any clues?!??!?

enough to dilute your bloodstream and possibly kill you... or just make you very "drunk" (no i am not kidding)

 

[heregothere]

unless you're eating an absolute boatload of protein, you don't need more than 1 gallon of water unless you're doing strenuous exercise or sweating out a lot of fluid.

 

[super_rice]

i find on the most strenous days (say a whole day playing road hockey or moving stones in the sun) i'll need two or three of those powerade hockey bottles. that's probably 2-3 liters of water. any idea how much that is in gallons?

 

[LeeJunFan]

there are 568ml in a pint and there are 8 pints in a gallon, so 3 litres of water is between 1/2 and 3/4 of a gallon.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

1 Gallon = 128 ounces = 3.89 liters

1-2 Gallons spread throughout the day will be fine. If you have a diet higher in protein, you need extra water to help alleviate kidney stress from the protein. If you take a fat burner, you need more water because many fat burners have a diuretic effect. If you drink a ton of caffeine (more than 1-2 drinks), you also need a little more water because caffeine can be a diuretic.

Drinking water over the course of a normal ~12 hours waking day is fine - you will run into problems if you drink HUGE amounts in a very short period of time - overloading the system without giving your body time to eliminate the extra.