Drinking water for weight loss is highly recommended. There are a lot of different reasons for this. It helps you to feel fuller, it helps burn fat, it lets your body process the toxins in your body better while allowing your liver to do its job, and it makes it so that you don’t suffer dehydration or take thirst signals as hunger signs. However, can you drink too much water?
Can You Drink Too Much Water?
In a simple word, yes. The body needs a balance between the salts in it and the water. If there is too much water in relation to the salts then the cells of the body take that water into them and begin to swell. Too much swelling and they are libal to burst. This can happen all over the body, including the cells of the brain. The whole process or problem is known as water intoxication. However, before you use this to swear off water completely and go back to drinking coffee and soda you should make sure that you understand the issue.
People Have Died From Drinking Too Much Water
In 2007 there was a contest in Northern California where a woman tried to hold her wee for a wii. In the coarse of three hours she drank three gallons of water. She got a splitting headache, threw up, and went home where she passed away hours later. This in turn had a lot of people starting to say that you needed to make sure that you didn’t drink too much water or you would die. The truth is it can happen, but some things need to take place in order for drinking water to cause death.
Drinking Too Much Water
Most people who know that there is some danger to drinking too much water or who think there is want some sort of directions such as drink between x amount of water and y because if you drink too much you will die. However, it doesn’t work that way. In most cases the only people who deal with water intoxication are infants under six months who are given several bottles of water a day or watered down formula and athletes who consume too much water too fast after exerting a lot of energy. Usually it is runners who need to be careful because it is easy to drink too much water too fast.
How It Works
The problem isn’t so much the volume of water, but the speed in which your body takes it in. If you drink too much water too quickly then your kidneys can’t process it correctly. Also if you are taking in lots of water after your body has lost a lot of electrolytes (salts) as well then the balance between water and sodium won’t exist.
Drinking water is very important. You should drink a minimum of 64 ounces each day, but most experts say that it is better to divide your weight by 2 and drink that much water. The more you weigh then the more you will need to drink. Exercise, heat, and sodium are all reasons that you would need to take in additional water. You need to make sure that you are exercising safely while doing what is best for your body. To avoid worrying about whether or not you can drink too much water you should drink the water throughout the day. After exercise drink it slowly to make sure that you aren’t taking it too quickly. If you are involved in a lot of heavy exercise then you should weight yourself before and after to make sure that you are drinking no more than the weight that you loss during the activity and continue to do so slowly. Your body needs water and a lot of it. Unless you have a condition that doesn’t allow you to process water and salts correctly you should make sure you are getting lots of water all throughout the day!
