Fat Mike's's Journal, 04 Sep 19

It is generally called water intoxication and yes it can be a dangerous condition to all cells in the body. It can lower the sodium levels in the body to dangerous consequences. In a healthy body with healthy kidneys, I think it copes with around 750ml to 1 litre of water per hour comfortably. So it is not the overall amount of water in a day, but the volume of water you take in in one period of around an hour.  

There is a body of evidence that shows that the human body has such a finely tuned thirst centre in the brain, that by merely drinking fluid (remember coffee and tea and other beverages also count as water) when you feel a bit thirsty, is all the water you need. Water intoxication is extremely rare in healthy individuals, since the kidneys autoregulate one's electrolyte balance by getting rid of excess water and keeping the sodium, potassium etc. Try taking fluids when you are thirsty only for a day, and see where you end up. On non training days where I just do light exercise, my water intake easily drops from about 2.1l a day to 1.7l.  

@ThreeOh8. I am generally a small person - all of 53kg and on average total water and beverages (tea/coffee/fruit juice - no soda!) I have in a day is around 3 litres. I drink ALOT. However, I do notice that when I have anything salty that number (need to drink) increases too. My body doesn't like ANY added salt - but copes just fine with hard cheese which has high sodium levels. Salt definitely has an effect on my liquid intake.  

Elke dag is 'n skooldag! I've never heard of water intoxication before... no guesses as to what I'm googling now 😂  

Thanks. Goggle says more or less the same thing, but one learns not to trust google too much, so hence i put the question out there. Thanks for response 

Too much water can wash your system of nutrients. You know the saying "too much of a good thing"... It applies to anything in life. I personally think that 4 to almost 5 litres of water a day is too much. I would say 3 litres of water is a safe amount. And, fact, any other kind of drink (this includes coffee, tea, fruit juice, soda, alcohol, etc.) dehydrates you ! So if you drink 3 litres of water a day, but you drink 5 cups of coffee or tea as well, you have to replace that cup of coffee or tea with water. For example, 3 litres a day plus a glass for every coffee/tea/other you drink. Hope this makes sense. 

3% of your body weight to sustain, add another litter if you workout and never drink more than a litter in an hour as your kidney can't get rid of that much.  

Thats then quite accurate. I should be on 4 litres and I’m very active during the day for work. So my 4 to 4.7 litres is a good number 

Guys, let's not get carried away here. Mike is a big guy, so his intake is fine for him. And of course taking in excess sodium (salt) will make you thirsty, since the body always tries to keep things within certain livable ranges. The point I'm trying to bring across is, hyponatraemia is rare, and you cannot miss the symptoms (they are not exactly subtle.) So lets not get get our eye off the ball: weight loss and maintenance in a healthy manner. Here's a helpful link in plain English about hyponatraemia : https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-hyponatremia#1 

Last thing: with the exeption of alcohol, coffee and tea has been proven to have such a poor diuretic effect that it actually hydrates you, not dehydrate.  

thanks ThreeOh8 for some interesting facts.....i suck when it comes to consuming water.....