Dilute Urine for a Drug Test

Urine drug tests have been an Achilles heel for many people, primarily recreational and medicinal drug users because they are the most used drug testing type by employers.

Suppose you are looking for helpful information on dilute urine definition and how to dilute urine for a drug test. In that case, you are reading an excellent article that covers the subjects. Read on to discover everything you need to know about diluting a urine sample for urine drug tests to get a negative test result.

Diluted urine in drug tests 

Urine drug tests have become indispensable to organizations and employers, as they are used for pre-employment screenings, and post-accident testing, and are often part of workplace requirements. As a result, you are likely to be asked to take a urine drug test before being offered employment or job opportunity or if you work in a safety-critical area.

A typical urine drug test sets out to detect the use or misuse of prescription and illicit or illegal drugs in a urine sample. The urine drug test involves screening a urine sample in the laboratory for drug metabolites.

For example, an employer may want to discover if a potential employer or his employees consume marijuana. In this case, the employees’ urine samples are tested to detect marijuana metabolites called THC.

In light of beating urine drug tests, people try several tricks, gimmicks, or detoxing methods, one of which is urine dilution. The primary purpose of diluted urine is to influence the detection of drug metabolites in a urine specimen to get a negative test result.

Diluted urine samples 

A diluted urine sample is one with water added to it, or that has a weak chemical concentration. Further, a diluted urine sample is characterized by low creatinine and electrolyte levels and strange colors that are not on the urine color chart.

People often dilute their urine to prevent a drug test from identifying the presence of drug metabolites in the body. However, when a sample has a weak concentration or contains too much water, it becomes unsuitable for urine drug testing. A medical review officer (MRO) may ask a person to retake the test.

Despite the effectiveness of diluted urine samples in passing urine drug tests, you must be careful enough to ensure that your urine sample contains the optimum ratio of excess water and normal urine when you submit your sample. Otherwise, you may be punished for adulterating your urine sample, depending on the circumstances of your drug test.

What can cause urine to be diluted?

What first comes to mind when diluted urine is mentioned is probably someone attempting to beat a urine drug test by adulterating his urine with water. However, that may not always be the case because one could dilute his urine circumstantially. Here, we will discuss the possible reasons for a positive dilute test result.

• Natural hydration

If you are not attempting to cheat a urine drug test, staying hydrated may be the most justifiable and credible reason for dilution. For instance, some people like to stay hydrated because they recognize the health benefits of fluids, especially water. Thus, this set of people is more likely to have their urine diluted.

• High consumption of diuretics

Diuretics aid urine production and can be found in prescription drugs and drinks like tea, coffee, and cranberry juice. As a result, a person who consumes high amounts of diuretics-containing substances is more likely to have his urine diluted.

• Kidney problems

The kidneys filter the blood for water-soluble wastes and toxins to be removed from the body as urine. Thus, malfunctioning kidneys will only produce weak urine with too much water, making it tricky for people to take and pass urine drug tests.

• Preparation for a urine drug test

Before someone can take a urine test, he must provide a specific amount of warm urine. If you ask how much urine is needed for a drug test for employment screening. Then, a minimum of 30 mL of urine is required. However, if a person cannot provide enough urine, he may be asked to return for the test.

To prevent such a case, people tend to consume lots of fluids to ensure that they can provide sufficient urine for the test. Nonetheless, such action can lead to urine dilution, even without the intention to cheat the test.

How do testers detect diluted drug tests?

Depending on how much pee is needed for drug test, urine dilution can be detected through visual inspection. After all, human urine is generally dark yellow, while diluted urine tends to be lighter and even transparent. Thus, the distinct colors may be enough to detect a diluted urine sample in some cases.

Further, laboratory testers can also test urine samples for dilution with two measurements called validity checks. These validity checks are briefly discussed below.

• Urine creatine 

Creatinine refers to the waste produced by the muscles resulting from breaking down an amino acid called creatine. Since the kidneys eliminate creatinine through the urine, thus creatinine is a measure of urine concentration. By this, a tester can determine if a urine sample is diluted or not.

For instance, normal human urine is expected to have creatinine concentration between 20 – 40 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). On the other hand, creatinine levels in a diluted urine sample are between 2 – 20 mg/dL.

• Specific gravity

Specific gravity is another measure of urine concentration. It refers to the amount of water in urine compared to other substances. For normal human urine, the specific gravity falls between 1.002 and 1.030. However, the specific gravity value for a diluted urine sample falls between 1.001 and 1.003.

What does a negative dilute drug test result means? 

Is clear pee good? So what’s next after diluting a urine sample? A diluted drug test may be required, and the result can be positive or negative. If a diluted drug test returns a negative dilute result, the reference urine sample contains more water than normal human urine. Thus, it is challenging to detect drug metabolites in the urine sample.

As said earlier, urine dilution can either be intentional or accidental. However, a typical negative dilute drug test result is enough to raise suspicion, especially in the workplace, as employees may be asked to retake the test. Further, the negative result may be enough to convince an employer that the referenced employee intentionally consumed a high amount of water to cheat a urine drug test.

Lastly, it is crucial to recognize the difference between a negative dilute drug test result and a negative drug test result. A negative test result means your urine sample does not contain drug metabolites, while a negative dilute test result means your sample does not contain drug metabolites but has too much water. The same can be said for a positive drug test result and a positive dilute drug test result.

Positive Diluted Specimens

A typical positive drug test result confirms the presence of drug metabolites in your body. However, a positive dilute drug test result confirms that a urine specimen contains more water than normal human urine and contains drug metabolites. Thus, a positive dilute specimen contains drug metabolites and more water concentration than normal human urine.

Further, a situation like this may mean that a person tried diluting his urine to cheat a urine drug test but failed. So what happens when your urine sample returns a positive dilute result? You will face the same actions or punishment as having a positive drug test result. However, if you dispute the result, a medical review officer (MRO) can review the result and instruct the reference laboratory to re-conduct the test if necessary.

Tips to avoid negative dilute drug tests

Getting a negative dilute drug test result can be as messy as a positive drug test result. So, you need not overthink passing a drug test, provided you don’t take illegal drugs or are sure you haven’t taken them recently. Hence, it would be best to prevent getting a negative dilute result to avoid drug test hassles.

Here are helpful tips to avoid negative dilute test results if you are interested in the effective morning of drug test to do’s.

• Avoid drinking excessive water or any form of diuretics (coffee and tea) for at least two hours before going to the laboratory for a test.
• Ensure you use the first early morning urine because it is the most concentrated.

Further, it would help if you prepared for whatever gimmick  your employer may want to adopt to prevent you from cheating on a urine drug test. Some of these gimmicks are listed below.

• Give you insufficient time to prepare for a test or plan urine dilution by randomly scheduling a test.
• Collect your urine sample before work if your job requires frequent hydration.
• Instruct not to bring any personal item to the laboratory to prevent you from tampering with your urine sample or using synthetic urine.

Dilution techniques for drug tests

You already know why urine drug tests are conducted. If you take illegal drugs and must take a urine drug test at the earliest possible time, you must find a way to detoxify your body and cleanse your urine. Otherwise, you will fail the urine drug test and may face undesirable outcomes.

The urine drug test focuses on the composition and quality of the urine sample you submit rather than the urine volume. So, it would help if you paid more attention to adjusting your urine’s composition and quality without raising suspicion.

What options do you have to beat the urine drug test? Here are three techniques to beat a urine test without faking your urine sample or using synthetic urine.

• Dilution 

If you are interested in the most straightforward, effective, and widely used method, then it is dilution, although the timing is crucial. Dilution involves drinking lots of water  1 – 2 hours before submitting your urine sample for a urine drug test.

Why take lots of water? You are taking lots of water to reduce the levels of drug metabolites in your urine. Thus, making your urine clear enough to render a urine drug test negative.

• Detoxification

Detoxification is an excellent and reliable alternative to dilution. However, it works slower as it can take a few hours to a few days to cleanse the urine. It involves using detox products, such as pills, drinks, and herbal teas, to eliminate drug metabolites from the body naturally.

There are several brands of detox products on the market, and it may be necessary to do your findings to ensure that you buy and use an effective one. In addition to the detox products mentioned earlier, eating foods rich in fibre days before a urine drug test can also help cleans the body of all toxins and drug metabolites.

• Delaying 

Delaying involves buying more time for yourself before taking a urine drug test. With the delaying technique, you push forward your test date until all drug toxins or metabolites thoroughly clear out from your body. Further, you must ensure that you delay going for the test longer than the detection time of the drug you are to be tested for or have taken.

As much as delaying is a suitable method, you may not have the opportunity or luxury of time. Likewise, it may raise suspicion. Therefore, adopting the method is often not advised. Nonetheless, it is an excellent option for passing a urine drug test if you have the time.

Reliability of diluted urine in passing a drug screen

People have different opinions about submitting a diluted urine sample. For instance, some people believe urine dilution is a natural and safe way to pass a urine drug test, while others feel it is a subtle way to cheat a urine drug test. Likewise, some people see urine dilution as unethical and a clear case of urine adulteration.

That said, urine dilution has become well-known among drug test takers, and some people even go as far as pouring water into their urine rather than taking lots of water. So, how reliable is urine dilution for passing a urine drug test?

First, the effectiveness of the urine dilution technique depends on the number of drug metabolites in the body and one’s metabolism rate. So, the higher the levels of drug metabolites or toxins in the body and the slower the metabolism rate, the longer it will take to cleanse the urine and achieve the optimum water ratio in the urine. Further, people with higher body mass index (BMI) will likely find it challenging to eliminate some drug metabolites, like THC, that store up in body fat.

In light of the points mentioned above, urine dilution isn’t suitable if the conditions aren’t favourable. For instance, you shouldn’t think about diluting your urine if you consumed drugs in large amounts recently, have a slow metabolism rate, and have a high body mass index (BMI). In a case like this, it would be best to use a detox product to detoxify your body and increase your chances of passing a urine drug test.

How much water to dilute urine for drug test?

It is challenging to say precisely how much water is needed to dilute a urine sample before going for a urine drug test because there are variables involved. As a result, there are claims that between 1 – 2 hours, eight glasses of water is enough to dilute urine. Further, there are claims of 20 Oz, 24 Oz and 32 Oz of water or fluid, while some people also believe that about a gallon of water should be sufficient, although this may be extreme.

According to a study in the Annals of Pediatric Endocrinology Metabolism, the maximum amount of water a person should drink per hour is between 27 – 33.8 Oz. This amount of water is the maximum that a healthy human body can process without adversely affecting the electrolyte ratios in urine. Thus, consuming excessive water beyond this limit within an hour can be disastrous.

Further, a person should not drink too little water as much as drinking too much water to prevent transparent urine and other associated health risks. Drinking too little water also results in over-concentrated urine. Hence, there is a need to find an alternative solution or balance between taking too little and much water.

A practical alternative you can adopt if you must dilute your urine is to drink lots of water till your urine is clear or transparent. In addition, take Riboflavin (Vitamin B) to add color to your urine and prevent your urine sample from looking suspicious once submitted at the testing laboratory. If your urine sample proves diluted at the end of the test, you have more time to detox your body before you are invited to retake the test.

How long do you need to be clean to pass a urine drug test?

Urine dilution may not always be the best way to pass a drug test, especially if you do not want to take a risk. Thus, you may want to consider a more straightforward and natural way to pass a drug test, like drug abstinence. Drug abstinence may be challenging, but passing a urine drug test is worth it.

Moreover, you don’t need to abstain from using a drug for an unspecific time, as you only have to abstain within the drug’s detection time. Thankfully, the detection time of commonly used drug substances is shorter for urine tests compared to other test types like hair follicles and blood drug tests. The table below lists the detection time of commonly used drug substances for the urine drug test.

S/No.	Drug substances	Detection time (up to)
1	Cocaine	3 days
2	Codeine	3 days
3	Heroin	3 days
4	Morphine	3 days
5	Ecstasy	4 days
6	Meth	7 days
7	Ketamine	11 days
8	Marijuana	30 days

If I pass a home drug test will I pass a LabCorp test?

There are several drug test kits around you that you can use for at-home drug tests. However, as effective as some of these kits are, there are no guarantees that you would pass a LabCorp drug test after getting a negative result with at-home drug testing.

LabCorp testing centers understand the importance of drug testing, so they employ cutting-edge technologies to conduct drug tests. Even when your urine sample looks suspicious, or you dispute a drug test result, LabCorp testing centers can revert to another drug test method such as hair follicle or blood test.

Conclusion

Diluting your urine to pass a urine drug test is straightforward and effective. It involves drinking lots of water to increase the water ratio in your body and, thus, your urine. However, urine dilution may only sometimes work because it can make getting an accurate result from a urine drug test challenging.

Further, dilute urine may indicate intentional tampering from the first visual observation of a urine sample and even lead to a positive dilute drug test result. Besides the impact urine dilution has on urine drug test results, it can also affect one’s adversely. For instance, it can lead to overhydration.

You must also note that there are other causes of urine dilution apart from deliberate urine dilution to pass a drug test. Someone who naturally takes a lot of water daily may end up having his urine diluted. Likewise, some health conditions may cause people to have their urine diluted. Therefore, it would be best to confirm that you have no health challenges that encourage weak urine before taking a urine test.

Nevertheless, urine dilution is a tried and tested method to pass a urine test. Also, it is vital to maintain the yellow colour of your urine and ensure that it contains the correct vitamin B and creatinine levels. Lastly, ensure you urinate a few times before submitting your urine sample for testing.