question about water intake..

So from my understanding, drinking the same amount of water on daily basis won’t lead to you gaining excess water weight.. If you drink a gallon a day, you should consistently do that. My dads belief is you don’t need anywhere near that amount of water(he’s old school), he thinks if you’re trying to cut water weight that you should cut your water intake. That’s incorrect isn’t it?

To clarify -
Goal - lose fat, get lean/veins popping
I drink a little over a gallon a day, by the end of the day my veins are popping like crazy(sodium?)
Dad thinks to lose water weight, cut water intake

For most people drinking when thirsty is sufficient. Keep a water bottle with you throughout the day and sip whenever you want. That generally gets the job done.

If you are trying to lose water weight for a weigh in you'll want to drop sodium and water. For walking around everyday, if you want to drop water weight then decrease your daily sodium intake and consider a low carb diet so your glycogen stores stay low (while you are in a deficit with your goal of losing fat) as this holds water.

[QUOTE=Heisman2;1576598161]For most people drinking when thirsty is sufficient. Keep a water bottle with you throughout the day and sip whenever you want. That generally gets the job done.

If you are trying to lose water weight for a weigh in you'll want to drop sodium and water. For walking around everyday, if you want to drop water weight then decrease your daily sodium intake and consider a low carb diet so your glycogen stores stay low (while you are in a deficit with your goal of losing fat) as this holds water.[/QUOTE]

Ah makes sense. Forgot sodium makes you retain water, but also isn’t that kind of odd? Doesn’t higher sodium help with vascularity? So if you’re consuming less sodium, losing water weight, then technically your veins should show more?

The whole water/sodium area confuses me.

I’ve noticed since starting my cut last week I’ve been finishing a gallon off by about 1pm, but I think that’s just helping me cure the appetite some.

If you eat more sodium you'll retain more water in your vasculature so it makes sense to me that would make your veins show more, though I have never read any literature on this specific topic.

[QUOTE=Heisman2;1576599051]If you eat more sodium you'll retain more water in your vasculature so it makes sense to me that would make your veins show more, though I have never read any literature on this specific topic.[/QUOTE]

I gotcha. Might look into it for the hell of it. Not competing or anything, just trying to look the best I can without being ridiculous haha.

The way sodium was explained to me was this - your body always keeps the same concentration of salt to water, we will call it “salt water”. So when you add more salt to your body, it will hold onto more water because your salt water has too high a concentration of salt. When you reduce sodium it will drop water because your body has too low a concentration of salt in your salt water. Make sense? If I eat chinese food with a ton of soy sauce I am always a pound or two heavier the next morning.

The downside of dropping carbs is although it does cause you to retain water, part of that water retention is in your muscle, causing them to look more full. So if you drop carbs it has a tendency to make muscles look a bit more flat.

[QUOTE=TheUnderdog83;1576603231]The way sodium was explained to me was this - your body always keeps the same concentration of salt to water, we will call it “salt water”. So when you add more salt to your body, it will hold onto more water because your salt water has too high a concentration of salt. When you reduce sodium it will drop water because your body has too low a concentration of salt in your salt water. Make sense? If I eat chinese food with a ton of soy sauce I am always a pound or two heavier the next morning.

The downside of dropping carbs is although it does cause you to retain water, part of that water retention is in your muscle, causing them to look more full. So if you drop carbs it has a tendency to make muscles look a bit more flat.[/QUOTE]

Yeah that makes sense. Crazy how many factors go into different areas of bodybuilding. Gotta play with sodium, carbs, etc. Im sure after a prep or two you pretty much have it down to a T