Afraid to drink water... NOT Rational

BuddhaBunnyFTW

I'm a middle aged man on diuretics I drink lots of water and I get up twice a night to pee. I guess I should be afraid too. LOL

callsitlikeiseeit

i would suggest therapy.

chris_in_cal

Congrats on losing 25 lbs. that takes a lot of consistency and dedication. Sure, go to therapy. I'm a big fan and think everyone should go. The outcome is that for some it will do nothing, and for others it will help. Therapy can't hurt.

Another thing, people get really out of control about water intake so you have triggered a bunch of people by your particular issue. If you had said "I can't eat lean protein six hours before I go to bed" it might have been similar. Or "Here is way HIIT doesn't work for me."

Anyway, glad you are here, sure get therapy, try new things, enjoy your successes.

kimny72

chris_in_cal wrote: »

Congrats on losing 25 lbs. that takes a lot of consistency and dedication. Sure, go to therapy. I'm a big fan and think everyone should go. The outcome is that for some it will do nothing, and for others it will help. Therapy can't hurt.

Another thing, people get really out of control about water intake so you have triggered a bunch of people by your particular issue. If you had said "I can't eat lean protein six hours before I go to bed" it might have been similar. Or "Here is way HIIT doesn't work for me."

Anyway, glad you are here, sure get therapy, try new things, enjoy your successes.

It's true. Many of us do get "triggered" when we see a young woman who is heading down a dangerous road, especially when she specifically asked for the help we are suggesting.

But no, being afraid to drink water because it might not all get peed out before you weigh yourself in the morning is not the same as saying "HIIT doesn't work for me".

And no, losing 25 lbs does not require the kind of consistency and dedication that involves needing to weigh the water you are drinking and a fear of consuming it.

brittlb07 wrote: »

This is going to sound crazy but at the end of the night as I approach bedtime I am afraid to drink even water. I am trying to get as low as I can so in the morning I am at an all time low. I should note I use Happy Scale and weigh daily to track trends (this works for me- please don’t suggest I not weigh daily- I’ve lost 25 pounds doing it this way!). I know if sounds rediculous but sometimes the scale jumps close to a pound after a large glass of water. My husband tells me I am crazy and I will eventually pee it out but it totally messes with my stats. And I panic my body is going to retain the water and bloat. I KNOW I am irrational about it but don’t know what to do. I even weigh my water before I drink it so I can subtract it from the scale at bedtime. I almost want to start always drinking a lot at night and just cause my stats to go up for a short time. Then I can compare apples to apples after drinking a large glass of water after my workout but before bed every night.

Does anyone else ever feel this way??? I wish you just instantly peed out the water lol.

OP, this is not healthy. Water weight will go up and down all day, every day, for there rest of your life. It is how your body is supposed to work, and obsessing over it to this extent is alarming. Fear and panic shouldn't be associated with your weight at all, and certainly not for something essential and neutral to fat loss like water. Please talk to someone you trust, if not a therapist.

apullum

chris_in_cal wrote: »

Congrats on losing 25 lbs. that takes a lot of consistency and dedication. Sure, go to therapy. I'm a big fan and think everyone should go. The outcome is that for some it will do nothing, and for others it will help. Therapy can't hurt.

Another thing, people get really out of control about water intake so you have triggered a bunch of people by your particular issue. If you had said "I can't eat lean protein six hours before I go to bed" it might have been similar. Or "Here is way HIIT doesn't work for me."

Anyway, glad you are here, sure get therapy, try new things, enjoy your successes.

Perhaps you're not aware of this, but saying someone is "triggered" has a negative connotation: that they are overreacting or getting unnecessarily upset about something. I don't think that telling someone they need professional help because they are afraid to drink water constitutes an overreaction.

NovusDies

I am not at all "triggered". I am concerned. I crafted my initial response the way I did because the lure of the lower scale number can make people engage in temporarily unwise behavior and I am not sure if that is what is happening or if the OP needs therapy. Those that were more alarmed from the first post made a very sensible suggestion. No one is suggesting the OP needs to be locked up for her own safety just that maybe a weekly visit with someone that can give her tools to help her through this.

Weight loss can be quite a strain on a person and after an doable eating routine is established most of the weight loss happens between the ears. I have had a few moments myself that have given me pause.

HoneyBadger302

OP, I get the impression your weigh-ins are not consistent? Generally, as others have mentioned, weighing first thing in the morning after using the toilet is going to give you the most consistent numbers, however, you are STILL going to have natural fluctuations based on TOM, workouts, higher sodium food the day before, the weather, etc.

If you've lost 25 pounds and have been weighing daily, you should have enough data to see your natural fluctuations. For a slightly different take from what's been suggested, perhaps go back through and analyze that data a bit more. See where you went up and down. Personally, I find the trend app doesn't work great for me - while I record my weight in it daily, I also created a spreadsheet were I enter my daily (morning!) weigh-in, and then each week is averaged, and at the top I can see my starting weight, total loss, and average loss per week. Unlike the app, these numbers are pretty straight forward, and I can also leave notes if something relevant happened.

I like seeing the numbers myself - and it helps me also see how my "high" days slowly move down as my weight moves down, and that it's okay to have a high day, and also what a "high" day means for my body (in my case, it is not unheard of for me to have 3+ pound fluctuations, especially after a race weekend).

I agree with the others (and you) that your fear of drinking a glass of water is irrational, but there may be some easy fixes, starting with when you weigh in. Keep in mind that losing the weight is only the beginning. You are going to deal with daily fluctuations the rest of your life, and if you want to keep the weight off, you are going to need to know what is normal (and healthy) - best to get a good grasp on that now.

ExistingFish

I also suggest seeking counseling. You seem to have an unhealthy relationship with your scale.

From a practical standpoint, I'd suggest increasing your water consumption earlier in the day. Many people limit their fluid intake before bed to avoid middle-of-the-night urination. There is no hard and fast rule that says you have to drink water before bed.

Get your fill of water during the morning and afternoon, AFTER you weigh for the day. Just aim for consistency in your weighing. I always weigh first thing in the morning, before eating or drinking, after peeing.

cwolfman13

brittlb07 wrote: »

This is going to sound crazy but at the end of the night as I approach bedtime I am afraid to drink even water. I am trying to get as low as I can so in the morning I am at an all time low. I should note I use Happy Scale and weigh daily to track trends (this works for me- please don’t suggest I not weigh daily- I’ve lost 25 pounds doing it this way!). I know if sounds rediculous but sometimes the scale jumps close to a pound after a large glass of water. My husband tells me I am crazy and I will eventually pee it out but it totally messes with my stats. And I panic my body is going to retain the water and bloat. I KNOW I am irrational about it but don’t know what to do. I even weigh my water before I drink it so I can subtract it from the scale at bedtime. I almost want to start always drinking a lot at night and just cause my stats to go up for a short time. Then I can compare apples to apples after drinking a large glass of water after my workout but before bed every night.

Does anyone else ever feel this way??? I wish you just instantly peed out the water lol.

You need to put the scale away...and no, the trend app isn't working for you because if it was you would be looking at the trend over time and not weighing your water so you can subtract it. IDK why you're weighing in at night either.

Beyond that, drinking water doesn't cause you to retain water...it has the opposite effect. When you don't hydrate sufficiently you retain water and get bloating.

Your husband is right...this is crazy.

elainemariebenes

i got into a similar bad habit a couple years ago, i was trying to reach a certain goal by a certain date and i got obsessed with weighing myself...all hours of the day, before food, after food, you name it...and getting frustrated if i didn’t see a number i liked. then started trying to manipulate the scale based on if i used salt on my food the night before.

i tried putting the scale away altogether and that lead to a regain that i am now working on, so maybe that is not the best solution for everyone. as with most things in life, finding balance is key.

chris_in_cal

NovusDies wrote: »

Weight loss can be quite a strain on a person and after an doable eating routine is established most of the weight loss happens between the ears. I have had a few moments myself that have given me pause.

This is very insightful. The thoughts, feeling, emotions, psychology to become more healty and fit are all perfectly unique, person by person, and I believe that is why plans, or systems, or even simple advice can be ineffective. Coming up with what works well for me, is ultimately something only I can create (probably with good support, education, and advice too)

Come on folks...in some other thread we should all contribute to a thread "MFP subjects most likely to cause people to get all fired up"

-Macros
-frequency of weighing/scales
-drinking enough water
-techniques for strength training
-eating too few calories

Any of these (and many more) cause strong MFP reactions.

[are you thinking BUT IT IS REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT AND HERE IS WHY ...]

My best to you all, and I genuinely wish health and wellbeing to the OP.

chris_in_cal

The first time I started losing weight on MFP ten years I spent a couple weeks obsessing about enemas. With incredible amounts of care and preparation and fear i eventually bought a $3 kit at the pharmacy, did it, realized it was silly, and haven't thought about it since.

Yeah, I did something silly and 'dangerous'...but nothing to see here move along. Nearly all of us are going ro be O.K.

kimny72

chris_in_cal wrote: »

The first time I started losing weight on MFP ten years I spent a couple weeks obsessing about enemas. With incredible amounts of care and preparation and fear i eventually bought a $3 kit at the pharmacy, did it, realized it was silly, and haven't thought about it since.

Yeah, I did something silly and 'dangerous'...but nothing to see here move along. Nearly all of us are going ro be O.K.

I'm going to guess you have never personally known someone who suffered from an eating disorder. That's not a luxury all of us have had. Far more people end up not okay than you would think. I'd rather suggest OP get some help when she might not need it, then not suggest it and risk her taking that as a signal that that kind of obsessive behavior is normal.

The comments here aren't about drinking enough water. They are about fear and panic associated with neutral things. Thousands of people hurt themselves and sometimes die as a result of eating disorders, it isn't a silly thing to caution against.

lgfrie

elainemariebenes wrote: »

i got into a similar bad habit a couple years ago, i was trying to reach a certain goal by a certain date and i got obsessed with weighing myself...all hours of the day, before food, after food, you name it...and getting frustrated if i didn’t see a number i liked. then started trying to manipulate the scale based on if i used salt on my food the night before.

i tried putting the scale away altogether and that lead to a regain that i am now working on, so maybe that is not the best solution for everyone. as with most things in life, finding balance is key.

I too am a scale lover. By the way, to be clear, I am the person who said much earlier in the thread that she should give her husband the scale for a while and delete the trend app. That said, it isn't like I don't understand frequent scale use. I weight in every morning, which keeps me plugged in in a positive way, and for a while I was weighing multiple times a day. The analytical side of it was intriguing to me some time back -- weight changes before/after dinner, before/after exercise, etc. I would weigh just before bed, then just after waking but before peeing, and then after peeing, and was fascinated by the results. For instance, I discovered that if I drank a lot of water before bed, I would perspire up to 0.6 lbs of it out overnight (before peeing) which would otherwise not happen if I didn't drink water, and then all the rest would come off in the pee. To this day, I still don't understand where that 0.6 pounds of perspiration actually went, since I didn't wake up damp. But anyway ...

It isn't like I don't understand scale fixation, although now I only weigh once a day.

But I have never, ever, ever intentionally denied myself water so as to get a better morning readout. I think that is the line in the sand right there, where interest and enthusiasm turns into self-destructive behavior. The OP has crossed into self-destructive behavior and needs to do something about it, whether that means putting away the scale for a while and dumping the trend app so that the constant counting and number hypervigilance recedes, or the harder way - therapy. Something has to change, though.

Water helps with weight loss and produces better scale readings. The more water, the better the scale readings. Maybe if the OP just internalizes that, it'll stop this bad behavior.

But mainly, I think the trend app has gotta go. For some people, those apps encourage unhealthy attempts to try to force each new day to a new low weight, and also cause demoralization and frustration when the weight bounces around, as it will inevitably do, sometimes leading to the end of a diet. Those apps can become very counterproductive.

chris_in_cal

kimny72 wrote: »

it isn't a silly thing to caution against.

Of course not. But try telling the average american that the most likely cause for them dying prematurely is driving their car (which is true) and prepare to be excoriated for not being serious about the dangerous things like global warming, terrorism, farry liver disease, standard american diet, etc.

Can you hear when I say I agree that eating disorders and unhealthy, and that hopefully those with them can get help?

And some issues really fire people up?

Having known someone with an eating disorder makes my opinions have merit? That's not true.

kimny72

chris_in_cal wrote: »

kimny72 wrote: »

it isn't a silly thing to caution against.

Of course not. But try telling the average american that the most likely cause for them dying prematurely is driving their car (which is true) and prepare to be excoriated for not being serious about the dangerous things like global warming, terrorism, farry liver disease, standard american diet, etc.

Can you hear when I say I agree that eating disorders and unhealthy, and that hopefully those with them can get help?

And some issues really fire people up?

Having known someone with an eating disorder makes my opinions have merit? That's not true.

I certainly wasn't saying your opinion doesn't have merit, just that I disagree with it and believe you are missing the point, possibly due to not having personal experience with EDs. But I'm more concerned about OP understanding the responses, so I'm not going to contribute further to derailing the thread.