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This isn't really a question, but rather a discussion starter. Throughout my time being on this forum and on this diet, I find that we don't really discuss much about the importance of drinking water on ULC days and Carb Nite. Sometimes I read advice that says, drink plenty of water. But that kind of advice just rolls off the tongue without much emphasis on it.So since, we are on an ultra low carb diet, we run the risk of being dehydrated rather quickly, increasing our need for more water. We basically have to drink A LOT of it.I've been guilty for not drinking as much water as I should throughout my life. Before being on this diet, and after. I've been mostly getting my fluid intake from coffee, alcohol, and protein shakes. So throughout my day I'd be dehydrated, and as soon as I get to the gym, that's the only time when I start drinking any water, thus beginning my hydration process. This is wrong.When we are on our ULC days, we constantly burn off glycogen stores in our muscles and liver, and the water that binds to those stores gets released into the blood stream. When we allow our water levels to be low, we can exacerbate acidosis.The benefits of staying hydrated, is that it can help with beta-oxidation, which helps burn fat as fuel. It also helps greatly when you're in the gym, by increasing your strength by almost 20%. Hydration can help with constipation. So as a side note, it is NOT recommended to take any kind of laxatives as that would cause us to lose massive amounts of water and electrolytes, which would cause worse side effects for us than for people on a higher carb diet.Another benefit is that it dilutes ketones, which are the by-product of fatty acids that are broken down for energy within the liver. They can be used as energy for the heart and brain. However, when ketones are produced, through decarboxylation, acetone is formed. Generally, we want to maintain a balance of ketones in the blood stream, so when the levels of ketones produced rises, so does the pH level, which is basically leads to Ketoacidosis. So you need constant water to keep flushing out the ketones.If you are dehydrated throughout the day, it can take about 6 hours for our strength to return after we start hydrating ourselves. So the best time to start drinking is 6 hours before the workout.I've actually taken up a strategy for the last month, based off of scoobyworkshop - I'm assuming some people here know who he is:1. Wake up, drink 1 liter of water since everyone is dehydrated while sleeping2. 6 hours before the work out. Drink every half hour and check the color of your urine until the color is a light straw color or clear. A darker color means that you have elevated levels of ketones.3. When the goal of step 2 is done.. drink every 1-2 hours.
Sorry if this is a bit too “all over the place”. I was basically checking over my notes when I was conducting my research.Summary:We lose water way too quick.This leads to loss of strength in the gym and increased ph levels in the blood.Drinking plenty of water returns that strength in a 6 hour time period, helps burn fat, increase strength, helps with constipation, and dilutes the ketone balance.1. Force yourself to drink 1 liter of water in the morning2. 6 hours before the gym, drink every half hour till color turns from dark yellow to light3. Drink every hour.4. Hit the gym.After doing this for a month, my mom actually noticed my face looking healthier, I'm starting to think my clearer, and my workout has been pretty much more effective - not just saying it.
Just wanted to flag up something: I've been mostly getting my fluid intake from coffee, alcohol, and protein shakes. So throughout my day I'd be dehydrated, and as soon as I get to the gym, that's the only time when I start drinking any water, thus beginning my hydration process. This is somewhat of a myth.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24464774
Well earlier this year sports scientists in Australia did an extraordinary experiment that had never been done before (British Journal of Sports Medicine, September 2013, Current hydration guidelines are erroneous: dehydration does not impair exercise performance in the heat, Wall BA).This group wanted to find out what happened to performance after dehydration. So they took a group of cyclists and exercised them until they lost 3% of their total body weight in sweat.Then their performance was assessed after rehydration with either 1) nothing, 2) enough water to bring them back to 2% dehydration or 3) after full rehydration.So far nothing unusual, but the difference between this and almost every other study that's ever been done on hydration was that the cyclists were blind to how much water they got. The fluid was given intravenously without them knowing the volume.This is vital because we all, and especially athletes, have such an intimate psychological relationship with water consumption.Remarkably, there was no performance difference between those that were fully rehydrated and those that got nothing. This study was part of a growing movement to "drink to thirst" which hopes to persuade athletes not to over hydrate with the potentially fatal consequence of diluting your sodium level, causing hyponatraemia.Perhaps the result shouldn't be so surprising. Humans evolved doing intense exercise in extreme heat and dryness. We are able to tolerate losses in water relatively well whereas even slight over hydration can be far more dangerous. In simple terms, being too watery is as bad for you as being too concentrated.
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Well the grain of truth is this - people in temperate climates who are not doing sustained physical exercise do need around six to eight cups per day but that can be contained in food, alcohol or caffeinated beverages.Yes, beer and coffee do not dehydrate you to any noticeable extent (there's a nice paper where some medical students got to drink quite a lot of beer and had their urine studied - British Medical Journal (Clin Res Ed), December 1982, Acute biochemical responses to moderate beer drinking, Gill GV).There is no evidence that adding the eight cups of water to everything else you drink will do you any good and it could do you harm (American Journal of Physiological - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, November 2002, Drink at least eight glasses of water a day. Really? Is there scientific evidence for "8x8"? Valtin H).But the great thing is that just like a top-level athlete you don't need to worry about exactly what that total daily requirement is because your body will sort it all out for you.If you drink too much you pee it out. If you drink too little you get thirsty and pee less. It's all exquisitely well-controlled in the same way that your intake of oxygen is well-controlled.Saying that you should drink more water than your body asks for is like saying that you should consciously breathe more often than you feel like because if a little oxygen is good for you then more must be better.
As for water diluting the blood's pH to prevent ketoacidosis, that's really not a concern either:http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketoacidosis.html
The ketosis that happens on a ketogenic diet is not dangerous because it is regulated by insulin levels within the body.It's simply the metabolic process of burning your own body fat for fuel, and unless you are diabetic and lacking insulin, or you are a raging alcoholic, it is perfectly safe. Levels for people with a working pancrease and insulin production rarely get above 8mM.
I'm not sure if this directly correlates to anaerobic exercises like lifting weights vs aerobic exercises.The reason why I'm saying this is because when lifting weights, there is a large variable, where we can be lifting low weights in high volume, or low volume and heavy weights, different muscle groups, and it's all interval. Where as cyclists perform a constant rhythmic workout. My question is, (from the perspective of a weight lifter) would the workout fully maximize our power or our duration in the gym if we were fully hydrated than if we were dehydrated?Secondly, there was no mention of their diet. Being cyclists, as Kiefer mentions, is that their bodies become efficient. This means their body is great at retaining fuel. Given that they are also consuming some levels of carbs that retain water weight. It's hard for me to determine if this study can apply for people on this board. Our bodies on a low-carb diet won't retain water for the same duration as a cyclist can, meaning, we lose water at a faster rate.If there's a new study, I'd like them to rate muscle stimulation, using weight lifters (using different varieties of lifts, beginners to professions); and what happens if they had a low-carb diet as opposed to a high carb diet - to measure water retention during the workout. Also what happens Another note: hyponatremia, is very rare. The overdose is hardly warranted because we're talking about extremes here. This can happen with marathon runners, or guys who do water drinking competition, etc. This shouldn't really dictate to how much we should be limiting our water intake prior to the gym.
I might be way off here but isn't Creatine a muscle hydrator?So by having Creatine in the morning with ~500-600ml water, as well as pre and post workout wouldnt you keep yourself hydrated anyway, without drinking 4 litres of water each day?Apologies if I am completely off here.
Heh! I hadn't thought of that. I'm going to try this out actually.
I only raise it as a point because I can neck a bottle of water fine and then its out of my list of things to do cos when I work I am so busy doing shit that I just don't remember to do it (even though I sit on my ass at a desk all day). So if i neck a bottle then sip on another, I know that I will get that average of 2 litres without including the gym, which is what I try and aim for.Even to the point where I have reminders on my phone to do it. lol
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