MedScape says “Under normal conditions, renal handling of water is sufficient to excrete as much as 15-20 L of free water per day. Further, the body’s response to a decreased osmolality is decreased thirst. Thus, hyponatremia can occur only when some condition impairs normal free water excretion.” A standard plastic water bottle is about 500 mL. Theoretically, a healthy person could drink 30 in a day and not get hyponatremia. (Don’t try this at home, though.) Also, just like drinking six beers in an hour will get you more drunk than drinking one beer per hour for 12 hours, even though it’s twice as much beer, the more spaced out your drinking, the less it affects your body chemistry. So definitely don’t go downing 30 bottles of water all at once. Also, exercise increases the likelihood of hyponatremia and decreases the amount of water you’d have to drink to cause it, because it causes you to sweat, which makes you lose sodium. Hyponatremia isn’t too much water, it’s too little sodium (which can be caused by too much water). Long story short, you shouldn’t aim for completely clear. What you really want is pale yellow. If it’s perfectly clear, you probably don’t want to drink anything for awhile. It does not mean you HAVE hyponatremia, but it does mean you’re at least sufficiently hydrated, if not slightly over-hydrated, and could potentially be risking hyponatremia if you drink much more. (This is more of a “better safe than sorry” thing than anything. Like I said before, you have to drink a LOT to cause problems.) Where the urine color correlation really matters, though, is at the other end of the spectrum. If it’s very dark, you are probably dehydrated. If it’s fairly light, don’t worry about it.
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