Re: Still not clear on "drinking to thirst"

"In looking over my journal I realized that I average 2-3 ounces of water per day. I was weak and lightheaded the whole time of the WF.

I am thinking that either I do not know what thirst is or I do not get thirsty very much."

Hi Himitsuhime,

It might be helpful to keep in mind that while fasting our body creates about 1-1.2 liter of metabolic water each day from the hydrogen we liberate primarily from burned fat combining with breathed oxygen (yes that's right, they combine to form "h2o"! and amazingly pure h2o at that)... So if you are wondering why you are not getting thirsty (and why you are consistently urinating on a regular basis) this is a big part of the reason.

I strongly believe along with the masters that if your body required water intake you would absolutely feel thirst (beginning with dry mouth and moving into your throat as thirst deepened) and if you were beginning to dehydrate you would begin to have dry then peeling skin among other early symptoms.

Also i strongly agree with Chiron's post of Chrisb1's post:

"It was not the experience of the early and later Hygienists that excess water "flushes out" more toxins.........quite the contrary.
It is also known that dry fasting will eliminate more toxins in a shorter time-frame than water-only fasting. Dry fasting = drinking only according to REAL thirst."

I completely agree with the importance of drinking when we are actually thirsty as Dr. Shelton points out and for some people this could even mean a demand for a gallon of water per day on some days.  I also believe that we become thirstier in a fast the more toxic we are as greater amounts of liberated toxins require greater amounts of water to dilute them to safer levels  and this is why dry fasting usually requires some experience with water-only fasting as preparation.

If drinking more than your body is thirsty for was to make you feel stronger and less lightheaded, it would be because the excess water intake is diminishing the efficiency with which your body is detoxing and thus slowing the detox down.  If slowing down the detox to feel stronger is the individuals goal, excessive water intake is one way to accomplish this and exercising beyond the minimum is another.  A third way would be to lay down less.