Can coffee count as water? I fail to see why not?

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  • saragd012
    saragd012 Posts: 693 Member
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    I didn't realize tracking water intake was a woo offense at all. I also didn't realize people tracked it for weightloss efforts though, I track because I'm prone to dehydration (headaches and stiff joints, especially when I wake up in the morning) and it keeps me more mindful. I don't count my coffee as water, but I don't see why you couldn't, I've just never thought about it. I don't drink soda (taste reasons) but I would count that as water, and I wouldn't be as concerned about my water numbers if I had a lot of soups that day, so I believe it just comes down to tracking fluids, in whatever form.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
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    Definitely counts as water.
    Drink when you are thirsty, stay hydrated, and if your urine is a light yellow you should be good
    About 20% of our daily intake of water comes from food we eat. Watermelon and spinach are almost 100% water.
    The 8 cups/day is a guideline.

  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
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    As a person gets older, sometimes the signals for hydration needs becomes weaker, meaning an elderly person might need to hydrate but not realize it. All three of my remaining grandparents have this problem. My mom's mother had a wake up call on this while in the hospital for a heart valve replacement and finding that being chronically dehydrated had caused problems with her kidneys. She now keeps a large glass of water by her work area and makes sure she is drinking enough.

    My dad's dad, however, has had chronic dehydration problems for years, but absolutely refuses to admit that is his problem. It's so bad in his case that he's having black out spells and was actually send to the ER by his PCP 2 weeks ago after he blacked out driving down the road. The doctor had thought he had a mini-stroke, but it turns out he was severely dehydrated. He thinks that a small glass of orange juice, a glass of water to take his medication with, a glass of water for lunch, and a glass of tea for dinner is all he needs during the day, even though he is physically active and despite the weather. He nearly passed out several times last summer while working on his property near my parents' home, scaring my dad half to death, but he absolutely refuses to admit that its a problem. *sigh*
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    jamesakrobinson wrote: »
    Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »
    jamesakrobinson wrote: »
    I may be missing something... Why wouldn't you just log your coffee as coffee and your water as water? I may be the exception here but I have always consumed a lot of water all day long... and about half a pot of coffee every morning. My actual water intake is already between 4 and 5 litres a day, if I added my coffee total to that it would start to be a little excessive!

    So because you decide to play accounting with a spreadsheet and not add something, does your body pay attention to the spreadsheet or what you actually put in your body?

    If you drank 5 litres of water and 1 litre of coffee, guess how much water you actually drank? if 6 litres is excessive to you, stop drinking that much.

    By your logic you should count soup, and the water in your oatmeal, and
    98% of the value of your milk...

    Yep, you've got it. All of that counts towards keeping us hydrated.
  • AprilMLowe
    AprilMLowe Posts: 447 Member
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    I track all my coffee intake as water. it helps me reach 8 glasses of water day!
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    edited April 2018
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    estherdragonbat wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    mburgess458 wrote: »
    If coffee and diet coke don't "count" as water then my Dad has somehow managed to live to age 80 without drinking any water for decades. He has a couple of coffees in the morning and a couple of diet cokes throughout the day and that's it. He accidentally took a sip from my sister's glass of water a few years ago and almost did a spit-take... made a face like he just tasted something awful and said "that tastes terrible, what is it?".

    People claiming that it's hard to drink water usually annoy me (it's just water, what's the big deal, it tastes neutral and thirst-quenching), but that's hilarious.

    I really think the best analogy is one someone already gave upthread. If drinking some water and eating some chocolate covered espresso beans counts as drinking water, why wouldn't drinking the water with the beans in it count?

    And that logic is partly why I gave up Weight Watchers during the Smart Points Plus period. They had all non-starchy veg at zero points back then (maybe non-fatty fruit, too). But if you used their cookbooks, suddenly there were points involved. So... if I separately logged 3 cups of assorted non-starchy veg, 1 tsp of oil, and 3 oz of tofu, I had 2 points, but the minute I saw those same ingredients in "Tofu and Vegetable Stir-fry," it shot up to 6?

    Their logic was, "Well, the cookbooks also list calories per serving and we want the points to line up with that." Or something. It's been over a decade, I might be misremembering. But it just didn't make sense to me.

    But now it's all zero! And you don't have to measure it or log it. But YMMV! *insert exasperated eye roll*

    Coffee, tea, diet soda, as long as it's non caloric all counts for me.
  • DorothyM11
    DorothyM11 Posts: 22 Member
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    Haha, Never Mind! Didn't realize this would be such a big topic. When you are 63 years old you have seen a bunch of weight-loss strategies come and go and drinking eight glasses of water got in there somehow. I'm not tracking zero type stuff either like coffee either. Just trying to stay within my calories.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    DorothyM11 wrote: »
    Haha, Never Mind! Didn't realize this would be such a big topic. When you are 63 years old you have seen a bunch of weight-loss strategies come and go and drinking eight glasses of water got in there somehow. I'm not tracking zero type stuff either like coffee either. Just trying to stay within my calories.

    Stick around kid, it's a good question and it always gets a little testy regarding water or other misconceived notions. LOL
  • DorothyM11
    DorothyM11 Posts: 22 Member
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    I'm not a big water drinker, so coffee is gonna have to do!
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
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    DorothyM11 wrote: »
    And vodka looks just like water! lol

    I've heard some great things about adding a packet of crystal lite to a liter of vodka.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    bmeadows380 wrote: »
    As a person gets older, sometimes the signals for hydration needs becomes weaker, meaning an elderly person might need to hydrate but not realize it. All three of my remaining grandparents have this problem. My mom's mother had a wake up call on this while in the hospital for a heart valve replacement and finding that being chronically dehydrated had caused problems with her kidneys. She now keeps a large glass of water by her work area and makes sure she is drinking enough.

    My dad's dad, however, has had chronic dehydration problems for years, but absolutely refuses to admit that is his problem. It's so bad in his case that he's having black out spells and was actually send to the ER by his PCP 2 weeks ago after he blacked out driving down the road. The doctor had thought he had a mini-stroke, but it turns out he was severely dehydrated. He thinks that a small glass of orange juice, a glass of water to take his medication with, a glass of water for lunch, and a glass of tea for dinner is all he needs during the day, even though he is physically active and despite the weather. He nearly passed out several times last summer while working on his property near my parents' home, scaring my dad half to death, but he absolutely refuses to admit that its a problem. *sigh*

    Yes, both of my OH's elderly parents were dehydrated...while in nursing homes, where presumably someone could have monitored their intake >.<
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
    edited April 2018
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Sure, if you want to count water. I personally don't count water and consume too much coffee (because of the caffeine), so don't need to encourage myself to drink more.

    Re counting water, I think it's this weird thing pushed in dieting circles as if it mattered when it doesn't. I can't imagine people wouldn't drink when thirsty if water is available, and wouldn't want to drink if thirsty, and personally I've always consumed plenty (I like to have something to drink near me, and I enjoy cold water).

    So I'd say check your pee color if concerned about it, and coffee is great if we are talking black or you are counting the calories and they are reasonable, and you aren't overdoing it like I sometimes can.

    My guess is the main reason for the water thing in dieting circles is that SOME people may be in the habit of drinking caloric beverages and it's a good way to get them off that habit.

    I think it's common to confuse thirst cues for hunger. This certainly happens to me - every morning I wake up "hungry" but it goes away once I start drinking tea, and I'm not actually hungry for a few hours.

    So for that reason alone, I think it's a good idea to encourage people to be sufficiently hydrated.

    I don't log my beverages though. I did initially, then realized I was consistently drinking plenty, so stopped bothering.
  • jrochest
    jrochest Posts: 119 Member
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    jrochest wrote: »
    I think one of the reasons for the drink 8 glasses of water a day rule was to fill your stomach with liquid, which keeps you from feeling hungry. But that always used to be a standard answer for WW clients who weren't losing -- if you drank your 8 glasses a day you were going to 'flush out the fat'.

    Quoting my own comment to stress that I'm NOT SAYING that water 'flushes the fat' -- I'm saying that Weight Watchers USED to say it. A few years ago they suddenly decided it wasn't important at all.

    I got hit with the dreaded Woo. I will always claim Woo when it is my own Woo, but I will not carry Woo for others :smiley:
  • DorothyM11
    DorothyM11 Posts: 22 Member
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    Wait! What does woo mean?
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    DorothyM11 wrote: »
    Wait! What does woo mean?

    It's short for woo-woo, or pseudoscientific nonsense mumbo jumbo.

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