Questions about water and weight
Samuraiko
Posts: 180 Member
Beginning round 2 with MFP, I find myself with a few questions.
1) At what point during the initial weight loss 'rush' would most folks say it stops being just "water weight" and is actual slow-but-sure "weight loss"? Five pounds? Ten? Twenty?
2) In an attempt to stave off cravings, I force myself to drink water -- if after 3 glasses, I still crave whatever it is, I let myself have some. (FYI - I have a horrendous habit of forgetting to log that water because I'm more focusing on "don't eat that, don't eat that, don't eat that.") However, I don't find myself needing to go to the bathroom any more often than I'd have thought I would, even with drinking more water. Which is slightly puzzling.
3) Since going on the diet, I find myself being thirstiest at night. As in, I usually want a glass of water right before going to sleep. This was not a thing prior to the diet.
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Not a water-related question, but one other that comes to mind. Having cut Coke out of my diet (and thus caffeine) out of my diet, how long does it take for someone to 'detox' off the caffeine? (I don't drink coffee, I don't drink tea, and I've been TRYING to keep the chocolate to a minimum.) And could this be why my body is wanting more water?
Thanks in advance for the help, you guys.
1) At what point during the initial weight loss 'rush' would most folks say it stops being just "water weight" and is actual slow-but-sure "weight loss"? Five pounds? Ten? Twenty?
2) In an attempt to stave off cravings, I force myself to drink water -- if after 3 glasses, I still crave whatever it is, I let myself have some. (FYI - I have a horrendous habit of forgetting to log that water because I'm more focusing on "don't eat that, don't eat that, don't eat that.") However, I don't find myself needing to go to the bathroom any more often than I'd have thought I would, even with drinking more water. Which is slightly puzzling.
3) Since going on the diet, I find myself being thirstiest at night. As in, I usually want a glass of water right before going to sleep. This was not a thing prior to the diet.
****
Not a water-related question, but one other that comes to mind. Having cut Coke out of my diet (and thus caffeine) out of my diet, how long does it take for someone to 'detox' off the caffeine? (I don't drink coffee, I don't drink tea, and I've been TRYING to keep the chocolate to a minimum.) And could this be why my body is wanting more water?
Thanks in advance for the help, you guys.
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Replies
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1. Change your diet for a week or 2 - this includes a fair amount of water loss. This doesn't mean we stop retaining water. Higher sodium, sore muscles, time of month.....we still have the water weight fluctuation thing going on.
2. Water to stave of cravings? Plan a treat (or 2) everyday single day. I don't feel guilty about a serving of ice cream. I plan on eating ice cream (still) when I get to goal. I MANAGE cravings. Extinguishing them?.....good luck with that.
3. I'm not on a diet. Yes, I have reduced calories to lose weight, BUT this is the start of a new chapter. Keeping the weight off is my goal. I need to establish new PERMANENT habits. Drinking water before bed isn't a problem for most people.
Detox is waaaaay over used. Caffeine is (slightly) addictive. But you don't need a 12 step program. Giving up caffeine has nothing to do with weight loss. It's just a choice you make (or not).1 -
1) probably in the 5 - 10 lbs range-- depending on how much you had to lose to begin with.
2) Could be that you were mildly but chronically dehydrated before you started slammin' water regularly. OR you might be retaining more water than usual because of your sodium intake.
3) What's your point/ question about being thirsty at night? Are you asking if it's normal or if it means something's out of order? You're fine.
4) "detoxing" from anything is largely a myth. Caffeine is a diuretic, though. But the effects are over hours-- not days.2 -
Detox is waaaaay over used. Caffeine is (slightly) addictive. But you don't need a 12 step program. Giving up caffeine has nothing to do with weight loss. It's just a choice you make (or not).
Oh, I agree. (And I didn't mean 'detox' in the horrendously overused "I must purge all evils from my body" sense.) I was just wondering if the headache-y thing from going off caffeine was a recurring thing or just over a couple days or so.rosebarnalice wrote: »2) Could be that you were mildly but chronically dehydrated before you started slammin' water regularly. OR you might be retaining more water than usual because of your sodium intake.
3) What's your point/ question about being thirsty at night? Are you asking if it's normal or if it means something's out of order? You're fine.
4) "detoxing" from anything is largely a myth. Caffeine is a diuretic, though. But the effects are over hours-- not days.
2 - good points, I hadn't considered those.
3 - yeah, I was curious if anyone else'd had a similar experience.
4 - Again, not sure how long it lasted, and I'm not all hurt about giving it up. Was curious how long the slightly headache-y feel from going off caffeine might last.
Cheers!
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Headaches & lack of caffeine - ouch. I can't tell you how long, because I've never lasted more than a day (ice tea lover). :flowerforyou:1
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How many ounces of water do you drink throughout the day? How many times do you go to the bathroom?
Drinking coffee can also help with some of the hunger pangs. But don't load it up with a bunch of extra calories. Drink it black or use a low cal sweetener.
I drink between 0.5-1 gallon of water a day and it's not uncommon for me to have to go to the bathroom 12x a day. If you've increased your water intake significantly and are not going frequently there may be some other medically related issue.
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How many ounces of water do you drink throughout the day? How many times do you go to the bathroom?
Drinking coffee can also help with some of the hunger pangs. But don't load it up with a bunch of extra calories. Drink it black or use a low cal sweetener.
I drink between 0.5-1 gallon of water a day and it's not uncommon for me to have to go to the bathroom 12x a day. If you've increased your water intake significantly and are not going frequently there may be some other medically related issue.
Normally with meals, about 2 cups per meal (and I usually only eat two meals a day, so four cups-ish). When I'm stomping on a craving, usually it's another 4 cups. As for how many times I go to the bathroom, I think I'm part camel - maybe 2-3 times a day?
And I am not a coffee fan - I love how it smells, I hate how it tastes. (It's a thing.)
I'm not panicked concerned... I'm just trying to look at things a bit more rationally this time around.0 -
Are you also exercising regularly? Starting a new exercise routine can cause water retention, but to answer your original question, water retention can be caused by a number of factors from exercise, to hormones, birth control, increased levels of sodium.
Try weighing yourself at a consistent time, like each morning when you first wake up and go to the bathroom and have an empty stomach. That will give you a more consistent and accurate measurement than just weighing yourself whenever.1 -
BTW, not logging your water is not a "horrendous habit." There's no calories in water, so it's not affecting that, and the whole 8 glasses a day thing is a myth. There's no real need to log water unless you have a medical concern, it's helping you form the habit of drinking water, or there's some other reason that you really want that information.3
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1) I would say it is more of a # of days than actual lbs, and it does depend on the various factors listed above. For my body, it was only the first week, & then it was slow & steady loss after that.
2 (combined with caffeine remark) From my friends who've given up caffeine, it has taken them anywhere from 3-7 days to get over the "caffeine headache". The duration usually depends on how much Coke they were drinking a day, & if they went cold turkey or tried to wean down. Also, if you've given up sodas but replaced those ounces with straight water, your fluid intake hasn't changed from before, just the composition, so your bathroom habits probably wouldn't change either.
3) Have you become more active than before? You might be sweating more out during the day. Even if not, as long as a full bladder isn't waking you up in the middle of the night, I'd day the last glass before bed isn't an issue. If it bothers you, you can always try drinking an extra glass shortly after dinner to see if that takes care of it.3 -
Beginning round 2 with MFP, I find myself with a few questions.
1) At what point during the initial weight loss 'rush' would most folks say it stops being just "water weight" and is actual slow-but-sure "weight loss"? Five pounds? Ten? Twenty?
2) In an attempt to stave off cravings, I force myself to drink water -- if after 3 glasses, I still crave whatever it is, I let myself have some. (FYI - I have a horrendous habit of forgetting to log that water because I'm more focusing on "don't eat that, don't eat that, don't eat that.") However, I don't find myself needing to go to the bathroom any more often than I'd have thought I would, even with drinking more water. Which is slightly puzzling.
3) Since going on the diet, I find myself being thirstiest at night. As in, I usually want a glass of water right before going to sleep. This was not a thing prior to the diet.
****
Not a water-related question, but one other that comes to mind. Having cut Coke out of my diet (and thus caffeine) out of my diet, how long does it take for someone to 'detox' off the caffeine? (I don't drink coffee, I don't drink tea, and I've been TRYING to keep the chocolate to a minimum.) And could this be why my body is wanting more water?
Thanks in advance for the help, you guys.
I'd think more in terms of time than pounds, with respect to water weight. If you're quite certain you're in a calorie deficit (weighing all your food, etc.), then give it at least a month.
Most people here seem to find that the quick water weight drop at the start of calorie deficit will last for a week or two. But, given that you're female & 42 (per your profile), I'm assuming you're pre-menopausal still, so monthly hormone cycling can confuse the situation a bit. That's why I'm suggesting a month minimum.
And don't count on "slow but sure", even after that: Most people, especially pre-menopausal women, see ups & downs in scale weight, sometimes an apparent plateau for a week or two with a sudden drop at the end, etc. It will probably be an up & down path, with an overall, longer-term downward tendency, if you're consistent in your calorie deficit. (I'm (now) a kind of tiny person at 120 pounds, and menopausal, but I can add 5 pounds from one morning to the next (in water weight)!)
If you're drinking water, and not urinating excessively, don't worry about it. You want your urine to be kind of a pale color, not dark, though. If the caffeine reduction is causing headaches or other bad symptoms, you could consider a tapering process with something less caloric. But if it's just difficult, not headache-producing, I wouldn't worry about that, either.
One granny-esque piece of advice from this little old lady: Please try to stop focusing on "don't eat this, don't eat that". Focus on trying to identify what healthy foods you can eat, and when you should eat them, so that you feel as energetic & satisfied as possible as much of the time as possible.
Everyone is different in what helps them feel satiated, but many find that one or more of the following is key: Sufficient protein, sufficient fat, sufficient volume (think high-fiber, lower-calorie vegetables & fruit for this last one).
Some people are happier when they skip breakfast to allow for heavier lunch/dinner or evening snacks, some are less crave-y if they eat a bigger breakfast with plenty of protein. Some people like several small meals and/or snacks, some like fewer but bigger meals.
Experiment. Find what makes you feel best. It will make the whole process so much more manageable and easy to stick with.
And allowing for the occasional treat (and not designating "forbidden foods" is a good strategy.
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1) At what point during the initial weight loss 'rush' would most folks say it stops being just "water weight" and is actual slow-but-sure "weight loss"? Five pounds? Ten? Twenty?
When weight loss is, as you say, slow but sure (as an average, not day to day), you're probably over the "rush".
I didn't have a rush when I started, but I already had a habit of drinking water throughout the day and the change to my diet was just to lower my calories, still eating all the foods I previously had.
I weigh myself every morning and taking the 7-day averages, I lost roughly the same week one as week two and six and ten and the ones in between.
Your body is full of water and it should be. The water is gonna go up and down based on a variety of factors and there's not really anything you can do about it.
Or you can, but you shouldn't. Dehydration doesn't look good on anyone.
Keep hydrated and look at the bigger picture.
Good luck!1 -
You will always have up & down fluctuations related to water weight, even in maintenance.1
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Cheers to everyone who's answered me! I appreciate all the feedback and suggestions - I'm 21 days in at this point and down 8 lbs, at 1620 calories per day for a 2lb/week weight loss. So... yay me.
To answer those who've asked about me exercising, no I'm not. I do daily exercises for my shoulders (part of my phys therapy for a bunch of issues with my left shoulder, not to mention the joys of calcific tendonitis in BOTH shoulders), but that's not for weight loss, therefore I don't track it on here.
Right now, I'm focusing on building the habits of eating right and in moderation.0 -
I started drinking more water (about a gallon a day) about a month ago and am now up to over a gallon and a half because I feel more thirsty all the time. The same thing happened to my husband. I think that's normal.1
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mgobluetx12 wrote: »I started drinking more water (about a gallon a day) about a month ago and am now up to over a gallon and a half because I feel more thirsty all the time. The same thing happened to my husband. I think that's normal.
Wow. That is a lot of water. If you really are thirsty all the time, please get yourself screened for diabetes. Many times the only symptom is thirst.1 -
mgobluetx12 wrote: »I started drinking more water (about a gallon a day) about a month ago and am now up to over a gallon and a half because I feel more thirsty all the time. The same thing happened to my husband. I think that's normal.
Wow. That is a lot of water. If you really are thirsty all the time, please get yourself screened for diabetes. Many times the only symptom is thirst.
For myself, I've been screened, and I'm good. (Surprisingly so, considering I have PCOS.) But that is definitely something to keep in mind!0
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