No matter what I read, I never truly believed that I needed all that water (8 x 8). It makes me uncomfortalbe and I HATE having to urgently pee every half hour, especially after bedtime.

I doubt I drink more than 24 ounces of pure water a day (unless I am exercising). I staunchly believe I get what I needed through all the high-water-content fruits and veggies I eat. Maybe I'm right.

See the urban legend at:
http://www.snopes.com/toxins/water.htm

I'm trying to drink more water these days, and it does go through me in about an hour. I feel like it probably does flush my system to some extent, which is good. It also (pun alert) dampens my hunger somewhat. But I did not gain any weight when I started drinking more water, which I take to mean that I wasn't terribly dehydrated.

I think everyone's water needs varies quite a lot, depending on the typical temp of your environment, your body size, clothing, activity level, etc. Just sayng everybody needs to drink 64oz of water is a little simplistic.

On a high protein diet, you are going to be excreting a lot of nitrogen, so it might be easier on your kidneys to drink more water. I think you could probably let your urine color tell you if you are drinking enough. Real dark yellow probably means your kidneys are working pretty hard to conserve water. Nearly colorless is better.

That's a good point, but I don't really consider myself on a high-protein diet (although I do consider myself on low carb one).

While I eat between 20-50 grams of carb/day (generally closer to the low end), I doubt I eat more than 8 ounces of meat and 2 ounces of cheese combined on any given day. Is that high pro?

My urine is pale yellow to colorless.

I always figured that urine color had more to do with supplementation, all that beta-carotene in the typical supplements we lc-ers take.

Given that Atkins is not high protein but high fat , does that mean high fat makes your kidneys work harder than high carb, protein staying the same. Is it because excreting ketones in urine is stressful for your kidneys? I too find it very difficult to up my fluid intake. No kidney problems yet, but I'd like to understand the risks better, rather than this 'high protein diets cause kidney problems' irrelevancy.

I would doubt that some of you little ladies would need as much water as I. I also know from the reading I have done that most of us didn't drink enough before starting this WOL. Adequate water consumption also prevents kidney stones and constipation. I'm sure that many of us drink more than we need, but it's one of those situations where more is better than too little. At least I have not read anything contrary to this.

Drinking too much water will probably be the next thing the anti low carbers attack. I can see it now--LOW CARB DIETS DEPLETE WORLD WATER SUPPLIES AND CAUSE FLOODING NOT SEEN SINCE NOHA!! That would make about as much sense as most of their arguments.

Fatburner, I don't think excretion of ketones would be any harder on the kidneys than excretion of nitrogen compounds from protein breakdown. What makes a kidney work harder, is not having enough water in your system. At that point the kidney's job is to concentrate the solutes and conserve water. The higher the concentration of solutes (be they salts, urea, or ketones), the harder it is on your kidneys (I would assume). So if your urine isn't incredibly dark (unless you are taking B supplements), chances are your kidneys are not being overly taxed.

I do wonder about the effect of ketones on kidneys, since these ketones are supposed to be fairly strong acids. We are well buffered in our blood, so ketoacidosis is not a problem. I wonder if the buffers stay with the ketones as they pass through the kidneys. My guess is that they do, since we are adapted to be meat eaters and fat burners, and since our longterm lc brethren have not run into frequent kidney problems.

On the other hand, we know diabetics often develop kidney problems, since the inability to maintain a stable blood glucose level is hard on all your organs. So I suppose you can opt for the known, as opposed to the unknown, risk.

I personally have felt much better since I dropped my water intake. I now drink about one litre of water a day plus about another litre made up of green tea, weak black coffee and usually a glass of wine at night. I no longer have agonizing leg cramps and don’t spend half my life running to the loo.

This is an excerpt from a chapter on gastrointestinal disorders in the book ‘Life Without Bread’.

The consumption of water should follow the body’s signals: If you are thirsty, drink water; if not, don’t drink water. Contrary to popular beliefs, too much water (or other fluids) may dilute enzymes in the entera and also make the kidneys work harder. So drink as needed.

So this is my philosophy; replace drinks like soft drink and cordial as much as possible with water, drink when thirsty, eat when hungry.

I agree. Adequate water intake is necessary to flush out those ketones and keep you regular. It probably helps prevent keto-breath. I believe that water is generally better than diet soda or beer. But I don't believe more is necessarily better. The "64 oz" rule seems to be like that rule that we "need" 300 g carbs per day. Where did it come from? It's just one of those things that's been repeated so many times, it's assumed to be true.

The leg cramps are a symptom of potassium deficiency. I probably shouldn't make a comment on the other...

Your body need the water because it's made up of 60 or 70% of water. you need to replace what you lose. And it really does help with consitpation.

Actually, depending on who you read, it's not water so much as LIQUID...however most liquids that we enjoy consuming aren't that nutritionally sound so water is the ideal liquid. If a person is mindful of how MUCH liquid they drink a day I think it'll be close to the 64 oz recommended quantity.

no you especailly need that water during the atkins diet. I know its very hard that why I try to flavor the water with his atkins morining mmixes. I drink between 8-15 cups of water a day. 1 reason is because im very serious of this diet and also since this diet takes in too much meat there is sodium and they can be bad for kidneys so it would flush out all of the toxins also the more you drink the more you lose becuase it keeps your metablim active.

See, I do try to drink the water - even though i hate every single sip, but I find sometimes it makes me put on weight.....why does that happen?? It's a bit frustrating when I am all puffy from the water, I try my best to drink 80 - 100floz a day, but sometimes if I'm out for the day or whatever and I don't manage to get it in, I find the next day normally I'm down on the scale - can anyone explain that to me?