Drinking Enough Water with Creatine

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1

Hey, im not sure if this has already been posted but i havent been able to find it using ‘search’.

Anyway, i have been taking creatine monohydrate for about 2 months now. I was just wondering how i can know if i am drinking enough water. I know that i should be consuming about a gallon of water a day, but since i dont record how much i drink i dont know if im near this.

Lately ive noticed a bit of discomfort in my kidney area, is this a result of not enough water? or is it all in my head. Thanks in advance!

2

probably in your head. It takes some concious effort to drink a lot of water–get to it.

But yourself a portable, big water bottle (I use nalgene) and drink 4-5 full containers/day.

3

pick up a gallon of water a day. make sure u finish it before the end of the day.

4

just have a water bottle everywhere you go. And I mean EVERYWHERE. I drink all fucking day, I have no idea how much I drink, but its alot. Have a drink bottle in your car, at your computer, with you at work, when you eat, even when you go out if you can.

5

Water. You get thirsty. You drink it. There’s no point to constantly loading up on it or forcing yourself to drink it on a regular basis. You’ll just piss more.

Yeah, it’s a good idea to keep it handy so that you drink it right away whenever you ARE thirsty, but it’s water. If you aren’t drinking it regularly, then you’re probably downing some other beverage with water in it. Believe it or not, that counts towards your daily water intake too. It’s even in the food we eat.

Interestingly, researchers are starting to notice with the whole bottled water craze that people are actually drinking so much that they are testing positive for proteinuria (excessive amounts of protein in your urine) which typically only happens your kidneys are damaged or not functioning correctly.

So yeah, it is quite possible that the pressure from all that excess water as it’s being filtered out of your blood stream is interfering with the optimal function of your kidneys.

Source: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2175005

Healthy kidneys NEVER need to be flushed by drinking excessive amounts of water. It doesn’t do anything. You’ll be thirsty well before your kidneys don’t have enough water to function properly on.

Which brings us to creatine. Research has only shown that creatine is an issue for those with pre-existing kidney conditions. Nothing yet shows healthy kidneys having a problem with creatine monohydrate.

So, yeah. While it’s a good idea to stay hydrated, don’t be ridiculous about it. Drink more before you work out. Drink more after you work out. But why not just let your thirst do the talking in the meantime?

As for the discomfort, there are a lot of things going on in that “kidney area” to which you refer, and kidneys are not known for being sensitive to much (comparatively fewer pain-sensing nerve endings), so it’s probably something else… maybe your urinary tract is irritated from the constant deluge you’ve been ingesting? (I’m assuming you have been drinking a lot more.)

At any rate, I’d look closely at how much you’re drinking, if you are drinking frequently, and curtail that a bit to see whether it affects the discomfort before trundling off to see a doctor.

Then again, I could be completely wrong and your kidneys are going super nova.

Good luck!

6

agreed. i just drank when i felt thristy, never saw the reason to drink myself sick with water.

7

Thanks for the help guys. I havent been drinking anywhere near a gallon of water on a regular basis, but i feel i should be drinking a bit more.

Im going to up my water intake and see how things go. The discomfort isnt regular but i noticed it a bit and was wondering if it was because of the creatine. I didnt think it was, but i just wanted to make sure. THanks again.

8

adequate fluid intake WILL keep your kidneys and the rest of your excretion system healthy. waiting till youre thirsty to drink water is like waiting to be hungry to eat. have a gallon a day, especially since you’re taking creatine.