Listen guys,

I have been stalling for about a 2 and a half weeks. A friend of mine told me to drink a gallon of water a day to get things moving again.

Well, I've been drinking a gallon of water for about five days straight when my boss told me that it wasn't healthy. He said that you can get "water intoxication" and also flush all the sodium out of your body.

I just cant understand how can water not be healthy? I guess he knows, he's a doctor.

So guys, don't overdo it on the H20.

From what I remember "Water Intoxication" requires you drink over a quart of water EVERY hour. I drink about 4 - 5 liters a day... and some consider that excessive. I have no idea how I could ever drink a quart every hour. I will try to find the information I read, but for the most part the behaviour was observed among people with obssessive/compulsive disorders who had been institutionalized.

The amount recommended for LC (64 oz plus 8 oz for every 25 lbs you want to lose) does not constitute excessive.

Nat

Yes the condition is called hyponatremia and mostly affects serious athletes who drink ALOT of water and cause an imbalance in their mineral/water ratio in their brain, which is why it's recommended for these people to drink sports drink b/c of the electrolytes there.
Here's an article toomuchwater
The trick is to find what is enough water, but not too much water.
For the rest of us, make sure you are adding salt to the diet.

Too much anything (salt, water, food, exercise) is bad.. as is too little (salt, water, food, exercise) ~ It's all about BALANCE.

What bluu said

I couldnt find the exact link I was reading last week, but I did find this Sports Medicine - Sodium Needs for Athletes Other than people with psychological impairments, babies (due to their size and the size of their kidneys) and endurance athletes, Hyponatremia isnt usually a problem for most of us (There are cases where it becomes so, e.g. adverse reactions to some drugs) as our diets are quite high in sodium.

Nat

I've just got off the phone from the school nurse telling me they've confiscated my son's water bottle (even though I sent a note in) because children at the school are only allowed to have a water bottle if they have a doctor's note to that effect! I said to her, why? and she said : well if we let one, half the school would be carrying them, and I said: what's the problem with that? I was then told that someone might "put something in them" and when I asked what, there was a dead silence at the other end of the phone. I've called his endo, and I don't think they'll be a problem, but I'm just so irritated! I thought (and I said to the school nurse) that everyone was encourage to drink adequate quantities of fluid (particularly in an un-air conditioned school in plus 80 degree weather). I also pointed out that this rule doesn't apply to the teachers. He's already suffering from an RSD flare and he does NOT need this additional stress (come to think of it, neither do I)! Water fountains are available, but they can only use them when transferring between classes, and the lines get long, they have just over a minute to get from one class to the next, and he's limping quite badly at the moment so he's fairly slow.

This "public" school is so restrictive, they have rules for everything. Even my endo's nurse had never heard of such a thing (and that's a pediatric practice, with lots of diabetic kids.) Grrrrrrrrrr!

Jay

wow !!! that's incredible. i think in general that in the US there are too many counter-productive, illogical rules put there for those without common sense who do crazy insane things, and let the rest of us normal folk suffer the inconveniences.

I read a story not to long ago about children in a public school in the States not being permitted to bring sunscreen to school to wear during a road trip. The reasoning was that if you shared it and someone had an allergic reaction the school was responsible; sunburn was preferable. They were also not allowed to give their friends an advil or tylenol if asked for one. Kind of sad that it has progressed to this, isnt it?

Nat

Well in this school district you wouldn't have a tylenol or an advil to give someone, because those things are banned. Also plastic knives (but not metal forks), cough drops (even ones with no medication in them) and tons of other things. They're also not allowing back packs at the moment because of some graffiti in a boys bathroom. This is a weathy surburban school district - I think there's too much time for them to think of things to ban.

Jay

P.S. It was a school district next to ours that suspended a kindergartener for wearing a plastic axe as part of a fire-man's outfit for halloween - I think that made national news.

Maybe I should stick to drinking the gallon of water a day because when I weighed this morning I broke my looong stall!!! Now I'm out of the 200s. I'm down to 198.

Good for you ChattyKat, that is awesome to hear!! Planning to celebrate that little milestone?

Keep up the good work!

I doubt I'll celebrate the small milestone. I'm sure to gain it right back cause I'm going on vacation and I know I'll probably eat myself silly. I'll try not to though.

this "too much water" warning comes up on every diet site I've seen...so odd. It can only happen under the most bizarre of circumstances--low sodium and potassium levels to begin with, then drinking a high percentage of you own body's blood volume in water within a few hours...quite unlikely! You'd be squeezing it in, your belly would be bloated, and you'd notice.

I did give myself a mild case of water intoxication 20 years ago in treating a UTI. I had about two gallons in two hours and, along with feeling my stomach very full of water, got mildly, pleasantly high. (like half-a-beer high) 30 minutes later, the symptom was gone. no permanent damage.

I did a search for stats on this (a habit I recommend getting into when someone tells you X is true, cuz X often is not true, you know?) and found most deaths (and they're quite rare--worry more about lightning hitting you) from water intoxication are in infants who are force-fed too much liquid. In adults, the few cases seemed to be mostly in conjunction with drug use, where the person was too zonked to listen to simple body signals that this was too much water.

I have a terrible time getting enough water. We are not permitted to eat, drink, chew gum while at work. We get 1 /15 min break in 6 hours. enough time to drop off your tray and have a fast drink. I don't know who make up these stupid rules. I can see the gum thing. I think gum chewing is rude at best, but no water. Yet I see the supervisors drinking gallons of coffee all day long.

wow- you might want to check out the labour laws on that one. i don't see how not allowing you to drink water except for once within 6 hours is legal.....especially with the heat that we've been experiencing here lately.

I start reading this thread and just shook my head not believing how much information we have to assimilate as to what to do, what not to do, what to eat/drink, what not to eat/drink - no wonder I'm fat

Does anyone thing that sometimes the doctors don't know what causes things so they sort of guess? One minute something is fine to eat, the next oopps there's a new study and now it isn't healthy! Yikes...what's a fat girl to do!

minetofix