There are some studies that show people should drink 8 glasses of water every day. This question isn’t so much about how much water someone should drink but whether it should be spaced out.
If someone drinks 8 glasses of water once they get up because it works with their lifestyle and then just has fluids when thristy throughout the rest of the day, is there any disadvantage to this?
Alternatively, is there some benefit to spacing those 8 glasses of water throughout the day?
Thank you
It absolutely should be spaced out. Unless at the direction of a doctor (for specific disease processes), there is no benefit to flooding your kidneys with fluid—and it can be deadly.
The body typically does an exquisite job maintaining hydration and electrolytes balanced. Flooding the body, though, impairs its ability, and can flush too much sodium and other electrolytes out, which can be very dangerous.
Spacing the fluid gives the body the hydration it needs without risking excess loss of electrolytes.
Aim for intake that keeps your urine pale straw yellow. If it’s clear, ease up on fluid, and if it’s too dark, increase.
You should drink water when you are thirsty. If you aren’t thirsty and don’t feel like drinking, then you probably shouldn’t be drinking.
As a rough guide your pee should be a light straw color.
If you drink too much at once, then you will just pee it out and your pee will be clear. Then later on your pee will be dark since you don’t have enough water.
Just keep some water near you, so whenever you feel the urge to drink or are thirsty, then you can drink. There really isn’t a need to force your self or measure how much you drink.
Theoretically a person can die of water toxicity- if consuming an extreme amount of H2O in a short span - but it’s super rare.
Slowly refilling is the way to go. People will also technically get done hydration from food…but you’ll breathe out water vapor at night. A glass in the morning helps :)
The point of every cell in the body is to keep things in ‘homeostasis’, a rigorously maintained consistent state. From this we can infer that a big change in anything is not good, as well as long periods without the things it needs. The cells in the body act to compensate when these things happen, to return to homeostasis, but they aren’t perfect and work more effectively with a slow intake. Pushing them to extremes is a bad idea, so try to keep a constant flow of stuff going in over the day rather then short bursts.
You absolutely don’t need 8 glasses of water a day especially if you aren’t eating a ton of fiber which dehydrates your colon.
But yes you should space out your water consumption. Mornings, 30 minutes before meals, and before bed are the best times to hydrate.
8 glasses is made up. You get water through food, other beverages, and water.
Mostly you should drink to thirst across the day, and increase intake in hot weather, during exercise or if you notice signs of dehydration (eg darker urine, headache).
Older people, especially menopausal women, do experience reduced thirst sensation so they made need more.
I’m sure if you did it before your activities some and after it’d help rather than drinking them 4 hours before. And also timing is important so you don’t have to pee before a work meeting 3 times you know. It’s really according to your schedule
There was no study about 8 glasses. Someone just said that and everyone rolled with it. Different people should drink different amounts of water depending on weight, how much they sweat/how active they are, gender, age, etc