Hi all,
Just wondering ... How much water does everybody drink? I think I may be drinking too much.
I'm having about 4 1/2 litres a day, sometimes more. I think that is roughly 1.2 US Gallons. I've just had a blood test result back from the Doctor showing low Sodium, which he said probably indicates that I'm drinking too much. I'm going to feel pretty stupid if that's true! :oops:
I guess I've gotten paranoid about not having enough and that causing a firm BM. The last thing I want is to damage my health in another way ... another avoidable way, by doing something dumb.

4 1/2 litres is way too much hence the drop in sodium, I usually drink between 1 and 2 litres a day but that's during the summer months, at the moment I'm only drinking 1/2 a litre a day, the reason for this is my stools were too soft causing pain and need firming up a bit.
I would definitely cut down on the amount you're drinking that much is not necessary since the body will only assign a small amount to the bowel anyway.

I drink around 2 liters of tap water a day - I also drink about 2 mugs of caffeinated tea a day and 2 mugs decaf tea. Plus the fiber drink and movicol (2 more glasses of water!) All in all then, probably a bit more than 2 liters.
Movicol (I think) has electrolytes in it - but maybe you could use some other drink with some electrolytes in it too - like a sport drink? But I haven't thought that through, and don't know all the ingredients, so I'm not sure whether that's a good idea or not.

I found a water intake calculator on the net that I thought was interesting. One of the factors was whether you live in a hot climate or cold climate - here the air is very dry and cold, and that definitely means you have to increase your water intake.

I drink a gallon a day and like you BB, I have some decaf and caffeinated tea. I noticed when we have colder weather that I'm thirstier so that makes complete since to me that we need to increase our water intake. I've heard that more calories are burned in colder weather while the body is trying to stay warm, I bet that's why more water is needed?!
I've been thinking about drinking a sports drink daily.
I've never heard that miralax has electrolytes. That's interesting.

I think that's the difference between Movicol and Miralax - that Movicol has three extra ingredients that Miralax doesn't have (Miralax is only the polyethlene glycol '3350').
Here's something from a website...
These extra ingredients - sodium bicarbonate, potassium chloride and sodium chloride (electrolytes) have been included among this drug’s ingredients in order to help ensure that this medicine (this laxative) achieves its goal without causing the organism to lose or gain significant amounts of sodium, water and potassium.
PS - I love the "organism" part - I feel like an ameoba!

posted twice!

from what I've read Miralax can remove electrolytes from our body? Does that mean I should be drinking gatorade or something since I drink about a gal. of water a day?
http://www.ehealthme.com/ds/miralax/electrolyte+imbalance