Crystal Light? Water Tracking?

erpar4

Just wondering if anyone counts crystal light as water? I only track pure water but I drink crystal light frequently. A registered dietitian told me that "fluid is fluid and it will hydrate you". I'm not sure if this is true, but I feel like my kidneys would still have to filter out the crystal light from the water, sooooo it seems to be more like juice to me, even though there are no calories. I have no idea what I'm talking about though haha

What do you guys think? Is adding crystal light or MIO or Dasani drops to your water still count as water????

GuybrushThreepw00d

I follow the rule, if I add water to it... then it's water.
EG. I make a coffee from a nespresso machine, it's a shot of espresso. I add 250ml of water and milk. Therefore i log 1 cup of water.

If you're adding drops of something to water, then it's still water.

skymel14

I track water, Crystal Light and MIO. For me coffee would NOT constitute water.

erpar4

Thanks for the help guys! I think I'll be tracking my crystal light now

hmhteacher

I vote yes! I would get very little water a day if I only counted plain water. I'm a huge MiO fan!

GuybrushThreepw00d

For me coffee would NOT constitute water.

What if I drank the espresso first, waited 10s then drank the water. You'd track the water then?

Ready2Rock206

I have yet to have anyone actually explain to me what water turns into once you add flavor - mine is still a wet liquid - so therefore I count it.

Hexahedra

Your body doesn't care, all water-based drinks count as water.

http://www.jacn.org/content/19/5/591.full

peacefulsong

I've never really understood why some people don't count things like coffee or juice as water. That's sort of like saying yeah I ate a donut but it wasn't pure sugar so I ignore how much sugar was in it.

MissingMyOldSelf

Honestly, I know it's not "correct", but I track all liquid, including coffee, tea, crystal lite, diet pop, etc. There's days that I will only have 4-5 glasses of liquid, and days where I can have 20. It all depends on my body. I can't force myself to drink, even though I know I should.

As long as you're hydrated, that's what matters, IMHO.

PriceK01

I track water as water, tea as tea, coffee as coffee. I don't drink Crystal Light, but if I did, I would track it as Crystal Light. What's the point of tracking if you aren't going to do it accurately??

AnvilHead

I have yet to have anyone actually explain to me what water turns into once you add flavor - mine is still a wet liquid - so therefore I count it.

BeachIron

I wouldn't count the powdered crystal light so much but I think it's safe to count the water you add to it. If you buy it pre-mixed then you're in a quandary of how to account for what portion is liquid and what portion is solid, and you DO NOT want to get this wrong.

gracekelli

I count Crystal Light as water.

LorinaLynn

If only pure water counted as water, my kidneys would have shut down decades ago.

BrainyBurro

anything with water molecules in it counts as water. no matter what else is mixed with it, if it has H2O, it counts.

any answer that is at odds with the above SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE answer is invalid and the person who posted that answer should immediately be put on ignore.

your body doesn't care how it gets those water molecules, just so long as it gets them. whether it's tap water, coffee, yogurt, celery, etc. it doesn't matter. the only thing that matters is whether or not you bother to log your water intake, and how accurately you can estimate the water content in your foods and all of your beverages.

/end thread

/seriously, this thread is ended.

/move along, there is nothing more to see here.

parys1

:laugh:

Contrarian

I don't track water at all. I'm a badass like that. *struts*

JenSD6

I track water as water, tea as tea, coffee as coffee. I don't drink Crystal Light, but if I did, I would track it as Crystal Light. What's the point of tracking if you aren't going to do it accurately??

And what did you use to make your tea, coffee, and Crystal Light? What is the main and key ingredient that is the vast majority of the contents of your cup?

Be as particular and detailed as you feel like being, but at the core it's all water.

jofjltncb6

What counts as water?



BINGO!!!



Okay, new game starts...

...now.

jofjltncb6

I track water as water, tea as tea, coffee as coffee. I don't drink Crystal Light, but if I did, I would track it as Crystal Light. What's the point of tracking water at all??

There. I fixed it for you.

chubaway

Some drinks are diuretics. I wonder if some people don't count some drinks, like coffee, for that reason.

BrainyBurro

Some drinks are diuretics. I wonder if some people don't count some drinks, like coffee, for that reason.

in normal quantities, the effects of caffeine (the most common "diuretic" in normal drinks) are essentially negligible. the water still goes through you and is used by your body in the process. even in large quantities, it's not really any different that working up a sweat on a hot day. you simply drink more to compensate. fortunately, your body has a mechanism for alerting you to this need. it's called thirst.

"coffee isn't water because it's a diuretic" is one of the most tedious assertions on this whole website, and there are lots of tedious assertions here!

http://www.coffee-break.org/coffee-and-health/fluid-balance

Cadori

anything with water molecules in it counts as water. no matter what else is mixed with it, if it has H2O, it counts.

any answer that is at odds with the above SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE answer is invalid and the person who posted that answer should immediately be put on ignore.

your body doesn't care how it gets those water molecules, just so long as it gets them. whether it's tap water, coffee, yogurt, celery, etc. it doesn't matter. the only thing that matters is whether or not you bother to log your water intake, and how accurately you can estimate the water content in your foods and all of your beverages.

/end thread

/seriously, this thread is ended.

/move along, there is nothing more to see here.

maragretnau

What I have been told is that if there is no calories or caffeine, then you can count it as water. So Crystal light and Mio are counted as water.

PamShebamm

I count Crystal Light as Crystal Light. The water I add to it, I count as water.

gramacanada

I've never really understood why some people don't count things like coffee or juice as water. That's sort of like saying yeah I ate a donut but it wasn't pure sugar so I ignore how much sugar was in it.

This! ^^^^ *ends thread*

kmalex

Here is what my nutritionist said a few years ago: The point of drinking water is to be MORE hydrated. The point of logging your water is to know how well you are doing at staying hydrated.

He told me to count anything water based that DOES NOT include a dehydrating agent (like caffeine) as water. And to count everything that does have a dehydrating agent as half the amount. While the water that you add to tea is still water that you drank, you do not get the same benefit from it as you would if you had not also drank a dehydrating agent.

So, per his instructions, Crystal Light would be counted as water (no dehydrator). Coffee/Tea I would count as half what I drink because they also dehydrate me some making it hard to know how much of the water actually re-hydrated my system.

Hope that helps!

scrapjen

I've tracked my exercise for years, and just started on the food tracking, but I guess I've never felt the need to track my water. Are people just tracking it to make sure they get enough/the recommended? I think I drink quite a bit (I guess maybe I SHOULD track to be sure). I drink when I'm thirsty, and sometimes to try and ward off hunger. I feel plenty hydrated, even though I've never tracked.

... I do go the Crystal Light route for much of my liquid intake (a generic version, and I actually do water it down quite a bit).

BrainyBurro

Here is what my nutritionist said a few years ago: The point of drinking water is to be MORE hydrated. The point of logging your water is to know how well you are doing at staying hydrated.

He told me to count anything water based that DOES NOT include a dehydrating agent (like caffeine) as water. And to count everything that does have a dehydrating agent as half the amount. While the water that you add to tea is still water that you drank, you do not get the same benefit from it as you would if you had not also drank a dehydrating agent.

So, per his instructions, Crystal Light would be counted as water (no dehydrator). Coffee/Tea I would count as half what I drink because they also dehydrate me some making it hard to know how much of the water actually re-hydrated my system.

Hope that helps!

to become a nutritionist, all you have to do is a pay a fee to the state. no credentials required.

do you honestly believe that a 12 ounce coffee only counts as 6 ounces of water? coffee is nothing but filtered water. the diuretic effect is practically irrelevant. and all 12 of those ounces still go through your system and are used to carry waste products out of you. if you want to subtract 1 ounce per cup of coffee, which is still more than the actual diuretic effect, that would be fine. but to subtract 50%? that's crazy. by that flawed logic, if all did was drink coffee all day, you'd have to drink a FULL GALLON OF COFFEE to meet your 64oz of water guideline, which isn't even a scientifically derived guideline in the first place.

i'm all in favor of drinking lots of fluids. in fact, i drink mostly water these days. in a month, 99% of my beverage intake is plain old tap water, but sometimes people get just a bit too tightly wound trying to meet this arbitrary 64oz goal.

DahliaBanker

I track my crystal light or tea but I also include it in my cups of water.