What % of me should be water? TANITA says I'm at 56.3%

[Big G]

I just bought a Tanita scale to monitor my water content (after recently experiancing renal failiure due to dehydration). It says 56.3 (persumably that means %), but I don't know what's considered normal or healthy. When am I dehydrated? What % is too low? Can it ever get too high or would my body just pee the excess away?

I surfed around online trying to find out but kept pulling up links to water polo and all kinds of other crazy unrelated crap. Does anyone here know anything about this?

w/thx,
G.

 

[Gordo]

Sports Nutrition: Fuel Movement & Sport

Can it get too high? Sort of, but you'd have to intentionally down a whole lot of liquid at one time to cause an electrolytic shift.

Hyponatremia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Big G]

Shit! Today sucks. I've just been told my new $120 Tanita scale is a peice of crap and is highly inaccurate with bf. Plus, the info shown on your first link says I should be 60-70% water and "fluid loss as low as 2% of total body weight (three pounds in a 150 pound person) impairs temperature regulation and reduces endurance capacity and aerobic performance. Higher levels of dehydration impair mental concentration, alertness, muscular strength and endurance, physical work capacity, and increase risks for heat injury. Deterioration in thermoregulatory and cardiovascular responses due to dehydration compromises athletic performance and can be life-threatening."

My Tanita scale has me at 56.3% which could mean my scale is wrong or I'm deathly ill from dehydration! Neither of which is any damned good.

HOW DOES EVERYONE ELSE MONITOR THEIR WATER & BF (especially water!)?

 

[plewser2006]

i basically monitor mine by a few methods

bf
1. a set of calipers.. use it once every couple weeks
2. look at myself in a mirror and notice any differences in definition.. easiest to notice around the lower abs and in the shoulders.... my opinion

water weight
1. color of urine... should be pretty clear
2. weight on a scale... inacurate but.. if you know how much food and water are going in, and you know what your average weight is.. your not going to lose a significant amount of fat or gain a significant amount of muscle in a days time


example
im 170 pounds comfortably...
if i weight myself after a long day at the beach, ill probably be at like 166 or something
a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds, so you can see that i have lost a half gallon of water([ersperation/urination), or ive taken a massive shit...

if you weigh yourself daily.. or twice daily
youll get an idea of what your comfortable weight rang is

then by monitoring your food and water intake
you should have a good idea of how your doing

 

[P-funk]

how did you suffer so much hydration?

yea, those scales aren't that accurate. and yea....if it is, then you must be dehydrated again.

is your urine tea brown?

 

[Big G]

Hell no! It's clear or damned-near clear 90% of the time these days. It's never been tea brown, even when my kidneys shut down. I'd freak if it ever went tea brown!

I got dehydrated running, I guess. I was running 4-5hours a week on an elliptical running machine (my knees hurt on a regular treadmill) at about 7-10mph, plus lifting weights 4-5x wk too. I was drinking a gallon of water every day but, like I think I said above, the doc said "Maybe you needed a gallon and a half." I said "How the hell am I supposed to know!?"

The other thing the doc said is that the LeanFuel(type) supplement I was taking, plus the amount of coffee I'd been drinking hadn't helped, so I only have one caffiene drink (in the morning) these days, switching to decaf' after that.

I still don't really know the answer to monitoring my hydration level, but I do try to get a gallon and a half in these days. My pee will go yellow if I just ease off the water for an hour or so, but that's surely no indication that I'm near death (even though it was the same color when I did go into renal failure).

I don't know. I'm bummed my $100 Tanita scale sucks though.

 

[alexjroe]

% body water

Yes that means %, if you go to wikipedia and look up "body water" you will get a better understanding, 60% is normal for men, 55% normal for women.

I just bought a Tanita scale to monitor my water content (after recently experiancing renal failiure due to dehydration). It says 56.3 (persumably that means %), but I don't know what's considered normal or healthy. When am I dehydrated? What % is too low? Can it ever get too high or would my body just pee the excess away?

I surfed around online trying to find out but kept pulling up links to water polo and all kinds of other crazy unrelated crap. Does anyone here know anything about this?

w/thx,
G.