How long does it take your body to adjust to drinking more water?

Question

I understand the importance of drinking plenty of water so I have recently started drinking 2-3 times more water than I usually do. Needless to say, this change has caused me to constantly have to use the bathroom. Does anyone know how long it typically takes for the body to adjust to getting more fluid and I no longer need to have to use the bathroom as much?

I was drinking only about 16 oz of pure water a day and now I would say it's 48-80 oz at this point. I had been told in the past (in health class, from friends and family) that your body does adjust to the higher water intake but I was never too sure about it, since it seems that what goes in must come out...this is why I posed the question.

Answer 1

If your urine is clear every time, it will take about three days to fully hydrate all the tissues in your body. During this time you should expect to put on some weight (3-5 %). Don't look at this in a bad way. It's just weight you should have had all along. All the chemistry in your body happens in water. If the water gets saturated with waste products, the reactions slow down.

After the three day period, you can slow up a bit on the water consumption; so long as your urine remains clear - you are hydrated. After your tissue is hydrated, the only ways balance your water is to cut back on water intake, or do something to increase the output (ie sweat from increased exercise or urinate more).

While it is possible to drink too much water - it is rare. I have seen it under forced situations. What happens is the stomach lining is damaged (similar to how water logged hands ache). Usually, it only causes stomach ache and will make you throw up if you drink more.

Answer 2

You'll always go to the facilities; that's just a 'side effect' of having a good drainage system. Because our body is made up of 70% water, we need it more than anything else. Consequently, it's one of the best things we can do for our bodies without hardly any side effects.

Some of us are not water drinkers maybe because we don't like its taste. But there's something that can be done! Add a few tablespoon fulls of your favorite juice like raspberry or guava or cranberry for a nice change. Not too much though, because that would defeat the purpose of drinking water.

Bottoms up!

Choose me as your 'best answer?'

Answer 3

First of all, you won't stop feeling the need to pee more frequently. When you consume excess water, your body will eliminate it. It doesn't "learn" to use it mor efficiently in some way - if you didn't pee, you'd bloat up, and that would mean something was wrong with you.

The myth about the necessity of drinking "8 to 20 glasses of water a day" has been addressed by many doctors, but the Snopes website describes it in a nutshell. The average person loses about 10 cups of water a day through normal activity; but they also take in four cups of water from regular food, leaving them needing only six cups (about a liter) to make up the difference. Water is also present in juices, tea, and other beverages.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

If you get tired of running to the potty all the time, try drinking less water. Eight glasses isn't necessary, and won't improve your health. This is not to say that water isn't good for you! It helps keep you from getting constipated; it can help you lose weight by making you feel full if you drink before eating. But try drinking only when you're thirsty; your body knows when it needs water.

Answer 4

If you get nauseous from it you should get some fruit juice to drink first thing in the morning because your stomach is basically empty from night time digestion just drink like a half cup instead of water with your breakfast. Also if you have went from a smaller amount of liquids to trying to drink 8 full glasses a day this will make you sick to. Just drink when your thirsty and try not to force it.

Answer 5

I did the same thing. I think it took about 2 or 3 weeks before I stopped having to go practically once every hour. Of course I still go more often than I did before I started increasing my water intake, but it's no where near as ridiculous an amount than at first.

Answer 6

It takes three weeks to form a habit. However, your body is being flushed right now and until it is used to being constantly hydrated you are going to have a bathroom problem. The situation can be counteracted with the amount of salt intake but that will ulltimately cause health issues

Answer 7

A long long while, It took me about 3 months at max. - take it that i had to drink 74 oz of water a day. Due to a kidney failure. So needless to say, it also caused me to urinate alot more than usual and yeah it totally sucked. But then again it also depend on ur weight and height. Me, i am 102 lbs and im 5'2'' 20 yrs old..

I dont know if this all helps you, but it helped me understand, Why in the world i kept getting up at night.

Answer 8

Depends on the size of your bladder and dehydration of your body. You’ll certainly be going more if you drink more, but you know that :)

Give it a week or so for your body to start recognizing that you’re drinking more. Also, try to gulp the water down when you do drink it—this tricks your body into thinking it needs the water more than it actually does, so it absorbs more of it. Stupid, I know, but it works.

If it turns out to be a really big inconvenience, add a little salt to your diet (not too much).

You may also want to gradually drink more, rather than just totally go overboard. You probably shouldn’t be peeing more than every 3-4 hours, so if after a while you’re doing more than that, you’re probably drinking too much, which can be just as bad as not drinking enough.
also look at how much you exercise/sweat, it makes quite the difference.

warm water is absorbed much more quickly into your body than ice-cold, perhaps you could vary temperatures until it works for you


Your body should adjust in approx. 30 days.

Answer 9

You are probably drinking too much water if you have to constantly use the bathroom. Drinking too much water can also be bad for your health causing hyponatremia (low sodium) and in general diluting out the electrolytes your body needs. If your urine is dark yellow you are probably not drinking enough water. If it is very clear you may be drinking too much. If you are actually thirsty all of the time you may have diabetes. If you do not have diabetes your thirst will adjust to your need of water. If you drink just water and drink when you are actually thirsty - your body will get the water it needs. A little extra water wont hurt but many people go way overboard and it becomes a problem. Please talk to your doctor about these things.

Answer 10

What goes in must come out either as err -- well you know, or as perperation....

The danger of drinking too much water is that it can wash the salt out of your blood. This is known as Hyponatremia -- it can kill you
http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/hyponatremia.html

By taking in to much salt and not enough water you can get the opposite problem Hypernatremia
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/hypernatremia.jsp

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernatremia

This condition makes your body hold on to too much water and is hard on the heart. This is why many Doctors (bless their little one track minds) tell people NOT to eat salt. What they all fail to mention is that the amount of salt in the body is critical and falls into a pretty narrow "normal range"

If I were you I would consult with you physician, after you've read about both conditions on the web ...it never hurts to know more than the Doctor (they really hate that) and discuss your overall health, exercise regieme and reasons for drinking more water.

If this a fad diet, that isn't a very good reason. If a doctor told you to do it, discuss WHY he told you to do it.

I had to go 4 times to the emrgency room in 3 differant hospitals complaing of chest pain -- only the fourth Doctor said "GEE You're having a heart attack!" Well DUH!

Unfortunately the damage had already been done by the time I got to the 4th Doctor, so now I am a 49 year old man with a triple bypassed 75 year old heart (yeah it's still my heart)

Here is the sad condition of our medical community today -- the head Doctor of the AMA recently gave this recommendation to ALL physicians US wide; He said, "Doctors should use the Internet more often to obtain better diagnosises for their patients"

I interpret this to mean that we as the American public are basiclly on our own.

There is a statistic that I have seen that basiclly says "that you are 9000 times more likely to die as a result of a medical mistake, than you are from a handgun"

I wish I could include the referace for that but I can't

NLS sndz....

Answer 11

I drink about 8 52oz of water a day. I have a craving for water because of some medicine I take. When this side effect started I had to pee all the time, now I still pee alot but not as much. If you drink too much water or crave it too much it is called polydipsia and can be fatal. I think it took about two months for me to not pee so much.