I would think 2L is enough, if you drink that (a bit here and there through the day), then any headache and lethargy will not be related to dehydration. Probably more likely your body complaining about not having enough sugar in your blood. I have fasted 3 days and only got a headache first time. A lot of people say the headaches don’t last but an unlucky few are worse affected – how long have you been doing fast days?

Another culprit could be caffeine. If you’re having less caffeine on fast days then you might get a withdrawal headache. The simple solution then is to just drink some tea or coffee! 😀

How does water over-burden the kidneys? Do you have a link tophaircolorists?

I may be mistaken but I thought you needed to drink a seriously large amount of water, like 10L, before the kidneys start to get into trouble?

2L of water is more than enough in a day, that myth came from a study that stated that as the amount of water the body needs on a day and people interpreted it incorrectly to mean just ‘water’ and didn’t take into account that there is liquid in everything we consume.

But I agree, drink when you are thirsty

@tophaircolorists … how much is ‘excess’? 2L of FLUID – it does not have to be water – will certainly not ‘overburden’ the kidneys. 2L of fluid is approx 8 mugs of coffee/tea and taken over a 24 hour period, the body has more than enough time to deal with it. If you were to drink a VERY large quantity of fluid straight off then you may very well have a problem!

Most people make the mistake of thinking they are hungry when they are thirsty so plenty to drink on a fast day helps.

What you think is ‘hunger’ is usually ’empty’ (not the same thing) which is the object of fasting – your system can put it’s energy into repair mode rather than have to deal with digesting food. The body can deal with the fluids without stopping the ‘repairs’.

@skinnycute …8 standard glasses = approx 2L –

but it doesn’t have to be just water, about half of my fluid intake is black (but not very strong) coffee the rest is water with slices of lemon, ginger and cucumber in it. I make up a large jug of the water and keep it in the fridge.