How much is too much when hydrating?

Editor's note: Editor's note: Adam Rees is founder of GRIT Gym, a gym based on results, creating a culture and lifestyle of performance, strength, health and freedom.

What have you learned about hydration?

Drink a gallon day? Drink half your body weight in ounces each day? Drink until your urine is crystal clear?

Let's get some context around the accuracy of these strategies for a healthy, hydrated body.

Marathon runners, boxers, football players and other heavily perspiring athletes did not drink during events or practice years ago. It was thought to have a negative influence on performance and wasn't allowed. Today, you are likely judging this idea as horrid and blasphemous.

However, where did current day methods for hydration originate? When did we become so extremely sold on this idea there's no way one could ever drink enough water?

Sports are big business. So is the supplement industry. And within each of these is the 'sports drink,' a beverage thought to enhance the performance of athletes around the world.

No doubt, Gatorade changed the world of performance nutrition. However. the genius of Gatorade has very little to do with electrolyte balance. The genius of Gatorade is sugar was added to water. It made sugar readily available in the blood to be very quickly delivered to the muscles and organs asking for it. Rather than having to tap the muscle of its glucose, then eventually dig into what's stored in the liver, the glucose was right there in the blood and easily transportable.

However, since the insurgence of sports drink marketing, a new illness has hospitalized many and even killed some. It's rare, but not outrageously difficult to achieve. Basically, dilute the body far enough and the electrical signals cannot transduce. In the end, you lose control of your bowels and can die. The body took on too much water.

Athlete's are crazy. There's a good portion of the athletic and fat loss population who want to achieve their dreams enough they'd eat anything — if they believed it would help them.

The three strategies — drink a gallon a day, drink half your body weight in ounces each day and drink until your urine is crystal clear — all are popularized by sports drink marketing. The notions most of us have around the absurd level of hydration the body necessitates was spread through bogus research done by sports drink companies. This 'research' isn't science, it's a sales pitch.

Hydration is important. So how much?

I don't know and neither does anyone else, but there's some decent ideas. The best research done would conclude drink slightly beyond thirst is the way to go. However, many people (maybe even most) have a difficult time differentiating between the sensations of thirst and hunger.

So what's the solution?

Personally, and in my experience working with people on their nutrition. I like the half your body weight in ounces of water every day. This at least tailors to the individual. A 5-foot-6, 120-pound 14-year-old girl with 18 percent body fat doesn't need to be drinking as much as a 6-4, 230-pound, 32-year-old male with 14 percent body fat.

However, I'd like to add a couple of twists.

First, it has to be water. The hyper-tasteful sports drinks and foods excite our mouth and we grow accustomed to them. How do you suppose regular food is going to taste at that point? Get used to water and everything else will taste better, too.

Secondly, set up your thirst mechanism for success. Instead of simply focusing on a total (half body weight in ounces per day), let's take 1/8th of your body weight and drink that in ounces before 8 a.m. This is more likely to give your body an idea of what hydration feels like. You'll be able to differentiate between thirst and hunger as well as make better decisions on each throughout the day.

Contact Adam Rees at Adam@GritGym.com