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Recommend caution with 4 litres OP. I did that for about a month once, gave myself water poisoning - hurt to pee, kidneys ached, constantly low on electrolytes. Stopped and it recovered in a day, but was not pleasant.
Keep in mind all liquids count towards your water intake, even diuretics like coffee.
Either way, good on ya for drinking more water:)
Coffee is not a diuretic. It does not dehydrate you, but it does irritate your bladder making you want to pee.
Alcohol on the other hand does pull water out of your bloodstream and makes you pee it out.
Your comment intrigued me, so I looked more into it, as I've never heard of this differentiation based on bladder irritation vs. pulling water from bloodstream. Perhaps a technical definition?
My understanding is that caffeine itself is a mild diuretic, but doesn't dehydrate you when brewed as drip coffee because there's more water than diuretic effect. I assume espresso would have more of a diuretic effect due to the relative caffeine concentration. I used the Britanncia definition and this article: https://www.aicr.org/news/will-coffee-make-me-dehydrated/.
No contention on the alcohol commentary. Happy to be wrong, just contrasted strongly with my understanding :)
Edit: I didn't like the lack of references so I'll add a mayoclonic article https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/caffeinated-drinks/faq-20057965
https://www.rd.com/article/is-coffee-a-diuretic/
A lot hinges on the definition of diuretic. Does it mean, "makes you pee more often/more volume?" (In which case water is a diuretic) or does it mean it dehydrates you? (In which case water is not a diuretic).
That is my understanding of it anyway.
Oooh I love readers digest.
I agree it is based on the definition, and honestly it sounds like we might be arguing two sides of a similar point: I'm focused on the drug action (caffeine as a diuretic), you're focused on the actual beverage (coffee as a hydration drink).
Thanks for the great discussion :)
I don't agree with your characterization of the discussion. My understanding was that caffeine the drug irritates the badder and causes you to pee, but doesn't actually dehydrate you.
That's fair, I'm sorry if I put words in your mouth.
If I'm understanding you, you're focusing on how it's affecting you to increase urination, right? I know nothing about bladder irritation - you could be right, for sure.
My only contention with increased pee volumes is that if you're peeing, you're losing water, so if caffeine is increasing urination, it's dehydrating you, regardless of how it's coming about, no? Is there a part of your point I'm not getting?
Where I'm sitting: caffeine as a drug is a diuretic and causes dehydration in high enough volumes, but caffeine does not appear in strong enough concentrations in drip coffee to cause dehydration. So, coffee is a hydrating drink, but because water outweighs the dehydration impact of the caffeine, rather than caffeine is not a diuretic.
As I understand it, your bladder collects urine, which is water and waste products. Your body, your kidneys, etc, are always trying to maintain a Goldilocks level of hydration. If you drink a lot of water, your body removes the water from your bloodstream and puts it in the bladder so you can pee it out. That way you don't get overhydrated. If you're underhydrating, you will still have to pee eventually to void the water soluble waste products in urine, like uric acid. And if you don't replenish this you'll get dehydrated.
As I understand it, alcohol dehydrates you -- it removes water from your bloodstream and into your bladder, which gets full and causes you to pee. Your electrolytes get more concentrated, and your muscles are less effective. Your body doesn't have the water it needs to properly function unless you drink more water.
Caffeine on the other hand does not dehydrate you this way. What it does is irritate your bladder, causing you to void whatever was in there before you would otherwise need to, but not affecting your electrolyte balance in your blood.
So while both are "diuretics" in the sense that they make you pee, only one is dehydrating you, and is a "diuretic" in that sense.
I work as a carpenter and during the summer it's at least 6 liters on a hot day. I need to or I'll fall of the roof.
I don't do anything special for electrolytes. I feel tired a lot but also during winter so I dunno if it's related.
Difference is: You will very likely feel thirsty - these "water challenges"/new year resolutions where people are at times literally drinking more water even though they feel already borderline nauseated are insane.
And in terms of electrolytes: It's mixed bag: First and foremost we generally oversatisfy our demand with our diets these days and unless you work very unsteady patterns it's unlikely an issue. But: On the other hand electrolyte issues are a fucking mixed bag and, especially in healthy muscular people, tend to stay "good" for a long time until,well, they escalate hard and fast. Literally had a colleague of you fall of a roof due to tachycardia caused by electrolyte issues. (Which every paramedic student around here now hates him unknowingly for because it's an all time favorite for exams now)
So...maybe occasionally eat some nuts, bananas or similar and a bit of cheese after a hard day. Even dark chocolate isn't that bad in that regard.
Honestly I'm an extremely sweaty guy and let me tell you electrolytes will change your life. After doing yardwork I'd feel almost hungover the next day. Started drinking just one electrolyte type mix with my normal torrent of water made a night and day difference.
Thanks. I'm always tired too, maybe some elecs might do something.
Oh 10/10. I used to work construction and would slam a LOT of water on hot days. My comment assumes a more sedentary lifestyle (I was in uni at the time, and the gym is not as hard as roofing).
I agree with the other commenter, those electrolytes might be contributing to exhaustion. I used to cut gatorade in my water, found it helped. 0.75L water, 0.25L gatorade, adjust to taste (cuz watered down gatorade isn't that good lol)
Salt tabs homie. I take them for a different reason but you really should be replacing salts from that much water intake.
Outdoor worker here, needing to hike around in open fields and marshes with little to no shade on 30-35 degree days.
I can down more than a litre per hour doing that
Anything special you do for electrolytes?
Brawndo
you can try lite salt, it's sodium salt cut with potassium salt! (i do this for keto but it should work well for workout purposes too)
Lay in the fields and crave
Mostly just supplement with some Gatorade