Chronic loose stool question

I think you forgot the division part. Using that rule of thumb it would be 18 ounces (rounding up).

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No, half body weight (in pounds) in ounces of water.

Ex. - if you are 100 pounds, 50 ounces of water.

Just a rule-of-thumb guideline. More or less depending on weather and activity and personal differences.

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Ex. - if you are 100 pounds, 50 ounces of water.

And coffee/booze do not count as “water” I’m presuming ? Bummer…

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Coffee should count. Probably wouldn’t count booze, but lite beer must count in my opinion. :wink:

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I am not sure: it is a diuretic. We don’t count coffee as an ingested liquid at home. We may or may not be right.

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Let’s say it counts for 1/2 and split the difference!

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Coffee is not the ideal source of hydration, but yes a little bit of coffee would count toward your hydration total. Your body can build up a tolerance to the diuretic affect so it’s fine for most people who drink it often.

Large amounts however would hinder your ability to maintain hydration during activity.

Sorry, alcohol does not count.

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We specifically discussed this with our Docs as hydration came up as an important topic of discussion.

Our Doc said to count all liquids.

It may be different depending on the reason for wanting to hydrate?

My basic test for whether somebody is well hydrated or not is:

  1. How often are they peeing?
  2. When peeing, what is the color?
    Clearly it can get more scientific but that is my basic rule of thumb.
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People tend to overestimate the amount to which caffeine’s diuretic effects counteract hydration. With American-style coffee anyway, you should still be netting positive hydration, albeit less so than if it were water. Caffeinated sodas are also definitely still hydrating (though not a great substitute for water regularly for other reasons).

I think if beer is like 1-2% ABV, it still hydrates you (though perhaps not as much as water). That’s how back in the olden days, people could drink ale (which was very weak) as a primary beverage and survive. If you go much stronger than that, at some point it doesn’t, but I’m not sure the exact number, and I think there are a lot of variables that complicate the equation.

Now, why you would want to drink light beer is another question…

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Last time I was in Colorado, lite beer was legal for my age (at the time).
It took about 1/2 second for us to realize it just meant we had to drink twice as much and pee twice as often.

[That was obviously quite some time back.]

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