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Comment by Legogris | Hacker News Reader

> This is way WAY too much water, especially if you're drinking anything on top of it. Shoot for 2.5 to 3.5 liters a day maximum. If you do this for any prolonged period of time, or multiple weeks in a row, you're going to have issues.

Source? Or what kind of issues? I average 5~8 l on a normal day and have been for years. The few times I've had my values checked they were mostly fine, apart from the lab being hassled by the huge sample they got for my 24h urine. Naturally I have a bit higher salt intake than most.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

Beware of hyponatremia - you're aware of your salt intake, sure, but it's not just salts in blood that are important!

Hyponatremia can also remain asymptomatic for a long time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia#Acute_versus_chro...

It sounds as though your high intake of water _works for you_ but anecdata does not mean it wouldn't become a health issue for somebody else. Especially if they only do this when fasting and 5-8L isn't their regular intake.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318619#how-much-is...

In theory you could drink slightly under 24 litres a day (assuming you never slept haha) - but your kidneys would have to be working in top form to excrete that 0.8 to 1 litres per hour.

The danger appears to be chugging large quantities of water every couple of hours, which I imagine fasting newbies are more likely to consider to get that "full" feeling

Of course everyone's body is different so you may be fine but 5~8 l for an average person migt be too much. For me personally it might seem crazy looking back to my high school years where I reguralry drank less than 1 litre on days with no physical activities, but I know I was fine back then and was not thirsty.

General advice I have seen is to drink when thirsty and more on hot days, or drink so much that your urine is slightly yellow but not all transparent. Drinking too much water flushes out more minerals from your body. A woman have died after drinking too much water for a contest [0], but that is of course an extremen example. It can happend though.

[0] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/drank-too-much-wa...

> Source?

A mountain of personal experience fasting for extended periods of time. Back of the envelope, over 200 days in the last 3-ish years.

If your salt intake is higher than normal, and you don’t fast for extended periods of time, it’s not applicable.

In general everything about fasting becomes difficult when your electrolytes get outta whack. It’s been my experience that almost everyone who’s otherwise healthy, with ample access to food, and no experience fasting will confuse their body screaming ‘I need salt’ with ‘I’m thirsty’ —- In the developed world we almost never experience the former.

Too much water is just as bad as not enough.

It's funny how electrolytes are still ignored or overlooked by the fasting and keto communities. This meme of doing a "water fast" is bullshit, IMO, and people need to stop talking about it because chugging water doesn't help when fasting unless you're actually dehydrated. Drinking water just causes the body to urinate out more electrolytes, which is exactly what you don't want on a fast. Most people on HN could easily not drink any water for a couple of fasting days, and they'll realize just how overrated water is as a necessity for daily health. Your fat cells, your muscle cells, your glycogen stores, all have metabolic water in them. There's no reason to take in excess water unless you are running low on metabolic water, in which case your body will actually scream for water.

> It's funny how electrolytes are still ignored or overlooked by the fasting and keto communities.

I see you've never visited /r/keto on reddit, then... It is very much pounded by the regulars, and in every guide they recommend. IIRC, /r/fasting is also aware (though not as pedantic about reminding everyone).

Which communities are you referring to?

Fasting I'm not sure, but maybe we've been frequenting different keto communities?

Daily supplementing magnesium/potassium/nacl seems to be part of the standard routine from what I've seen and it commonly comes up on the /r/keto and /r/ketogains.

Agree wholeheartedly.

We’re all bound by the inexorable grip of diffusion, and there’s only so much our kidneys can do to stem the exodus.

Quite miraculous little hunks of tissue though.

So I usually hit 1L as I wake up. I am always dehyrdated when I wake up. I usually crush out another 2-3 litres across the rest of the day. With tea I suspect that it pushed me upwards of another litre. If I work out I'll usually have another waterbottle worth. This is basically what I would do normally.

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