Water

[musclewannabe]

What is your daily water intake goal? How do you make sure you reach this goal? I was going to make mine be a gallon of water. Does this sound reasonable? Can I include tea to be a part of this? Or does it have to be caffeine free stuff?

[Tannhauser]

Well, I'm sure you will get some contrary opinions to mine on this issue, but here goes:

Why do you need a 'water target'? The body has elaborate homeostatic mechanisms to ensure that you have the amount of water in your system that you need. Under most circumstances, you will know when to drink: you'll feel thirsty. This behavioural mechanism has served us perfectly well for tens of thousands of years.

If you're working all day on a construction site in San Antonio, jogging on the Chilean Altiplano, or working out in a non-air con gym in Louisiana, then yes, it might be sensible to keep topping up.

However, the idea that we all need to flood the body with supraphysiological amounts of water isn't really based on research evidence. It's more of a faddish idea dreamed up by an Indian doctor that somehow went direct into the health community.

It also isn't true that coffee and tea dehydrate the body, so it's fine to get your water intake from those sources, though it might be prudent to take it easy on the caffeine.

Bottom line:

1. Sip some water when you're training.
2. Take a look at the colour of your urine. If it's pretty dark, time to get some fluid.
3. Otherwise, drink when you're thirsty or at regular intervals if you prefer.

[Tannhauser]

snopes.com: Eight Glasses of Water a Day

The doctor at the root of the belief is Iranian-born, not Indian. My bad. He is Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, which is a super-cool name at least.

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by musclewannabe

What is your daily water intake goal? How do you make sure you reach this goal? I was going to make mine be a gallon of water. Does this sound reasonable? Can I include tea to be a part of this? Or does it have to be caffeine free stuff?

Honestly, no idea, I just drink I sometimes wonder when all the water counting craze started, as if people don't have enough to track already with P/C/Fs and calorie intakes, reps per set, sets per workout...etc

When I was a youth, nobody ever counted water and they all survived pretty well, from what I remember; they drank when they wanted a drink, they drank if they felt thirsty (which we now know means a little dehydrated already) but the point is they instinctively knew how to rectify it without having to track it. If the urine is not light in colour, have a drink; no real need for counting water mls, gms and so forth.

[bamazav]

Like Tann and Babs have said, your body will let you know if you are drinking enough. I almost always have a cup or bottle in hand, sipping all day long. Some days I may only drink about 32 oz, others near a gallon. My allergy med, keeps me feeling thirsty all the time, so I keep water or tea around all the time.