Actual water intake?

[Patrick]

I'm not curious about the recommendations but I am always interested to know how much water active people actually drink. Now that summer is here and I'm playing outdoor sports a lot, I'm probably getting close to 1.5-2 gallons a day. A *ton* of it comes off as sweat but I feel like I never go a couple of minutes without a glass or bottle in my hand.

Any dromedary folks out there -- very little drinking, even less sweat? As someone who chugs water like it's a hobby I'm always amazed by the people who have a diet Sprite once a day and don't ever feel the urge to drink anything else.

[LondonTiger]

Discussed in practical programming, Mark put forward many theories but the bottom line was that there's actually very little studies done on water intake on athletes/weightlifters.

the 2ltr/8glasses recommendation was done on sedentary people.

My experience is that it's you should have about 3 ltr of liquids a day.. and of h20 can come from juices, pop, hot drinks, beer etc.. But -/+ the effectr of caffeine/alcohol intake and how it messes uo hydration as well.

e.g. if you're drinking lots of coffee. then You will need to drink more water to make oup for the diauretic abilities..

Also your weight will factor into this as well. If you're a little guy then your water requirements will be different from a bigger guy.

[Patrick]

Thank you for responding with the exact thing I said I wasn't interested in.

[Sami]

lol ^^^

just to correct Tigger, there isn't a net loss of fluid from coffee. You just only count about 50% of the volume towards your total fluid intake. So if you drank 500ml of coffee, you can effectively consider it as 250ml intake of fluid. There's not a net loss that you need to make up.


*googles dromedary*

Yeah, I probably get about 2ish litres of water, as water. Plus whatever else from milk (3 about 3 pints), coffee and food. I frequent the water fountain between sets and try to be roughly the same weight leaving the gym as I was entering (ie stay hydrated).

Maybe I should have more, I don't know.

[anchor]

About 3 of those Nalgene bottles a day, plus about 3 cups of coffee. In addition to that, on workout days I'm at the fountain between just about every set..

[grizzlybuck]

Lots of water, 96-128oz (more on real hot days, as I sweat a ton) just as water, also coffee in varying amounts up to 10 cups (6-8oz cups) but I think it's often overlooked that if you eat a lot of produce you get a lot more water, as fruits and veggies are made up of quite a high percentage of water as well.

[broseph]

Humans are the only animals which feel the need to drink enough water to make their piss colorless. Everything else just drinks when they're thirsty.

In response to the original question, I work in surgery and am therefore unable to use the restroom at will. I drink only coffee and milk at work, a little water during my workouts, and hardly any at home. On a lazy Sunday such as today, I may not drink any water at all, as I just don't get thirsty. But I also rarely sweat. I am definitely one of those "diet Sprite a day" weirdos.

[Dastardly]

average day:

1 glass milk = 250ml water?
3 glasses of water = 1litre
1 bottle water = 500ml
bottle milk = 450ml water?
3xTea = 1litre

I also only drink when I want to. I actually often carry water with me just in case I get thirsty, but I never do. Despite cycling quite a lot and it being summer.

[Gary Gibson]

Humans are the only animals which feel the need to drink enough water to make their piss colorless. Everything else just drinks when they're thirsty.

In response to the original question, I work in surgery and am therefore unable to use the restroom at will. I drink only coffee and milk at work, a little water during my workouts, and hardly any at home. On a lazy Sunday such as today, I may not drink any water at all, as I just don't get thirsty. But I also rarely sweat. I am definitely one of those "diet Sprite a day" weirdos.

My brother!

I'm the same way.

[ColoWayno]

Well, it was 117f here yesterday, but as they say, it's a dry heat.
I get laughed at in my shop because I keep all of my water bottles for an entire day in order to keep track (we only have bottled water here).
I make it through four 24 oz bottles before I leave work for the day. Add to that 24-40 oz of milk, 12 oz of iced tea, the occasional diet coke then more during workouts and in my post workout shake.
This much drinking is a bit of a chore, but the doctor here told me to drink 7 bottles a day after I got sick. She made me drink 3 before I could leave her office.

The good news is we get an exemption on June 14th so we get to have two beers that day. :)

[Doug Jones]

Right now with me just lifting weights and nothing else I drink about 5-6 glasses a day. When I was doing 2-3 hour jujitsu classes during the summer I would go through a gallon easy.

[Ian Kovtunovich]

One to two quarts of water, about 24-30oz of coffee, a shake with about 16oz milk in it (two of these if I'm lifting, which I haven't for the past month). I tend to not drink much water before or during lifting, since I hate having to stop and take a leak, as my garage is detached from the house and it's usually raining here. We'll see what summer does to that habit, though.

And for the record, the 8 glasses a day thing is sorely out of date, and I don't think that's really the standard anymore. For anyone who does want to know.

[Beltshumeltz]

I drink water like the OP.

I immediately drink 500 ml upon waking up, about 500 ml during breakfast, 300ml + some milk at the end of breakfast + 250 ml in a shake during breakfast.

Then through the day I empty my 500 ml bottle of water several times. Usually I'll go through one bottle during each meal, plus another bottle soon after.

And I wake up 2-3 times at night and drink some more, maybe 500-800 ml during the night.

I did this when I was sedentary. The only major change now is that during the 2-3 hours I spent at the gym, I will drink slightly more than on average, especially if I finish my workout with a treadmill run.

I'm probably at 4 to 7 liters per day of water, plus 250ml to 2 liters of milk, plus a bit of coffee.

[jacob cloud]

I easily polish off 1.5-2 gallons on a sweaty day, and at least a gallon most normal days. I just got back from backpacking in the desert and a paltry 5 liters over 24 hours left me seriously dehydrated.