Don't even mention HCL or KOH man. I did earlier on another post and it was removed for spam! Of all things. Suffer from hemorrhoids? Go get your prep H. Leave me out of it.
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026
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Oh lordie lord.
People, don't fall for that influencer water challenge bullshit. Please.
Because a sudden rise in fluid intake without a change in habits is never a good idea. 4l won't usually kill you, unless you have a kidney or heart condition you didn't know beforehand. Which... Happens more often than even I would think.
Which leads to people getting nice cozy edema. If you are lucky only on your legs. If your unlucky you ignore these (being a bit bloated is normal, right) or your body simply doesn't like you and you get pulmonary edema. Which makes you sound like a boiling kettle from afar and ends with my colleagues and me either pushing a very very tight mask on your face that constantly pushes air into you if you want it or not, which makes you nauseated for days...or we straight up chuck a tube down your throat. Which at least has the advantage of you not witnessing the next step. Because we need to make you pee you get the holy grail of all golden shower parties, Frusemide. Which then leads to you,well,peeing litres. The very next step is nurse Edna with her hands that are the size of a snow shovel and approximately the same temperature pushing a catheter down your peehole into your bladder. Feels as bad as it sounds - but if you are awake you will beg her to do it because you literally produce more urine now than you can pee out. If neither helps you and you fucked up your organs really good your kidneys might not make it and you will need emergency dialysis - done through your chest with two catheters the size of a pinkie each pushed into vessels there. Also not a pleasant idea.
Why am I telling you this? Because... If I got a dollar for each guy (and with one outlier it always was a guy,not a gal) I had to work really hard to not let them kick the bucket in my care due to them having a "water drinking challenge"/"new year resolution" over the years I had 12 bucks which is not much but also far more than I would have expected. And for some reasons all of them called 20min before my shift is over.
(Source: Am a critcare paramedic)
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
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4 liters per day is absolutely insane unless you're doing physical labour in the sun all day, but you do you.
4 liters of water per day is completely fine if you are not absolutely sedentary in a cool climate.
(The following is for a healthy male, who requires the most generally)
Average adult in a temperate climate needs 3.7L according to mayo clinic
harvard says a minimum of 3.1L per day
Most people are pretty dehydrated in general. Your piss isn't supposed to be bright yellow.
BBC summarized some journal papers that said that most adults are 1-2% dehydrated. Human thirst mechanisms also degrade as we age, not to mention "nurture" factors like people not drinking enough water when they are young, so their thirst mechanisms are already skewed towards too little water. Also hunger and thirst mechanisms are tied together so dehydrated people may overeat more as their body tries to get more water through food (also contributing to the huge rise in obesity)
There are a variety of unpleasant problems that come from drinking too little water, drinking too much water (within reason, not 12L per day) has the side effects of good kidneys and pissing more often...
Of course, a 140cm person won't need 4 liters, but a 2m tall person who goes to the gym may need 5+.
It is on the upper limit but OP could just be huge. Like GoT-Mountain-huge, if you've seen the series. Then 4 liters is maybe ok.
I’m 5’11, 170lbs and drink about 5 liters a day, only drinking when I’m thirsty. It’s not a problem.
During summer, but working inside, I will easily drink 4 litres. Any temp above 22°C and I start to sweat, a lot. When we had a heat wave one year, around 38°C inside, the water was just running off my hands and soaking the laptop keyboard. Puddles on either side of track pad, and forming on the desk.
Maybe OP just likes pissing.
"Drink before you are thirsty" is a lie that can be traced back to the Nestlé and their marketing departments.
Why is your 'water' suspiciously blue? Then again, if you drink 4L of water / day while ostensibly sitting at a desk, electrolytes might be a very good idea.
And maybe a catheter.
It's wiper fluid. De-ices the kidneys during winter.
Yeah, I never understood these arbitrary water volume challenges. Drink when you're thirsty. If you're you are worried, just take some extra drinks each time. Most hydration issues can probably be solved by drinking water instead of anything else.. like whatever is in this container
As someone with ADHD, I often don't realize I'm thirsty until I have a headache and am about to pass out. Having an even arbitrary water goal forces me to do the math every once in a while and go "oh, I should probably drink something today"
3.7 liters (~16 cups) is the scientific recommendation (source), but you're supposed deduct from that number what you're getting from food, which is why everyone is freaking out about 4 liters of straight water.
That's cause I only eat completely dehydrated food. It makes tracking my fluid intake much easier.
That doesn't sound right at all, as obviously it would depend on the size of your body. The recommendation I've heard is 30-40 millilitres per kilogram of body weight, so by that to need 4 litres per day you'd have to weigh 115 kilograms.
I'm not entirely convinced by body weight either though, because e.g. perspiration is affected more by the body's surface area than mass, and surface area does not grow linearly with body mass. Water loss via respiration is probably the same regardless of your size, because your lungs are still the same size. Cellular metabolism, I imagine, doesn't scale linearly either because as you get bigger you don't get more cells, the existing ones just get bigger, but I know very little about this.
That was NOT a scientific recommendation. If you're not getting sample tested, most doctors would first direct you to urine color and skin snappiness
What the source says:
Studies have produced varying recommendations over the years. But your individual water needs depend on many factors, including your health, how active you are and where you live.
...
No single formula fits everyone. ...
Most healthy people can stay hydrated by drinking water and other fluids whenever they feel thirsty.
...
Your fluid intake is probably adequate if:
-You rarely feel thirsty
-Your urine is colorless or light yellow
The mayoclinic page I linked said the 3.7 liters recommendation comes from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. But yeah, even if it's 3 liters after you knock off the 20% you get from food intake, that's a lot of water.
Was not a recommendation, but an observation on how much people seem to get. National academy of medicine also recommends drink when you're thirsty.
You're supposed to drink water until your urine is clear-ish, I think I hydrate until my hookers aren't yellow.
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I bet that liquid would soak in period pads in no time
Pretty sure the bottle is painted blue and fades toward the top.
Don't force youself to drink more water. You drink when you're thirsty. Just like when you eat when you're hungry, your body will tell you when to drink.
That doesn't work for me and multiple people I know. I drink way too much because of that and they sometimes don't drink anything for over 24h
I'm no expert so take what I say with a grain of salt.
It's not a perfect system for the same reason some people over-eat and some don't eat at all. Your lifestyle could also affect it.
If you are frequently thirsty and no amount of water is quenching your thirst, you might not have enough electrolytes to retain the water causing you to always be thirsty. Apart from gatorade or pedialyte, coconut water is also high in electrolytes...or maybe you have diabetes.
Again, I'm no doctor and I may be talking out my ass and obviously I don't know you or your lifestyle. Just what I remember reading when I had issues drinking water.
I don't drink because im thirsty. I drink because I made it a habit, otherwise I forget.
The bottle is not uniform. It’s more narrow at the grip.
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