[gringochileno]

(04-18-2012 06:44 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  

(04-18-2012 05:38 PM)gringochileno Wrote:  

It's an alright rule of thumb but it's pretty simplistic. Sometimes you need a lot more than 8 glasses (it's hot out, you've been exercising a lot), sometimes you don't need that much. If your piss is clear you're well-hydrated.

That sounds like a valid, simple and nice criteria. Are we talking about almost-water clear piss here? Sometimes I drink more water than what I'm used to and yet still piss yellow.

There's nothing wrong with pissing completely clear but a slight yellow tinge is OK. What you really want to avoid is pissing dark yellow, then you're definitely dehydrated.

(04-18-2012 07:34 PM)TheShiningOne Wrote:  

(04-18-2012 06:44 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  

(04-18-2012 05:38 PM)gringochileno Wrote:  

It's an alright rule of thumb but it's pretty simplistic. Sometimes you need a lot more than 8 glasses (it's hot out, you've been exercising a lot), sometimes you don't need that much. If your piss is clear you're well-hydrated.

That sounds like a valid, simple and nice criteria. Are we talking about almost-water clear piss here? Sometimes I drink more water than what I'm used to and yet still piss yellow.

Actually, there is as much danger in overhydrating as in underhydrating. Your piss should not be water-clear, it should have some color (but not be too dark either, which means you are dehydrated). It results in demineralisation, loss of energy, lowered metabolism, sensation of cold...

When you present those symptoms, you should eat something salty and/or sweet and dry.

check that article for more:
http://180degreehealth.com/2012/02/how-m...+Health%29

From the article:
"For our cells to produce energy, they need a certain concentration of glucose and electrolytes at any given time. When levels become too low in the intracellular environment, the cells have no choice but to start dumping out water in buckets, which often triggers a very strong and sudden urge to urinate and/or bouts of frequent urination as often as 5-6 times per hour. You might see this happening when you haven’t eaten in a really long time, after a stressful event, or in the middle of the night around 4am.

When overhydration occurs, the electrolyte and glucose “batteries” of your cells get flooded and cannot produce energy normally. The result is you feel horrible and trigger an adrenaline response, with any number of different symptoms – certainly reduced peripheral circulation (cold hands, feet, and tip of nose). For whatever reason, it is easier and easier to achieve overhydration the lower metabolism gets. It’s as if sugar and salt is increasingly difficult to hold on to, or is in scarcer supply at the cellular level, in a reduced metabolic state."

Unless you're running marathons you're very unlikely to get water intoxication just from consciously increasing your intake. This kind of stuff usually only happens if you're really chugging it down and simultaneously losing salt over a long period of time (people who run marathons and take a long time to finish sometimes get water intoxicated because they sweat out a bunch of salt while consciously re-hydrating).