is black coffee considered water?

Strokingdiction

Coffee slows down your metabolism. Drinking early in the morning do now help you on your fitness journey.
Since your body is over 90% water you need water, not including in your drinks. Don't forget that the calories in coffee counts toward your daily intake.

What? It slows down your metabolism? Where did you get this information? If anything, the caffeine give a slight and temporary boost to the metabolism.

Strokingdiction

I only count plain water as water. I wouldn't count coffee or tea unless it is decaf. Even then, I personally wouldn't count it though I know some people do. My dietitian tells me for every cup of coffee or tea (with caffeine) I drink to drink two cups of water to counteract since caffeine is a diuretic.

i read that even tho its a diuretic, it doesn't actually dehydrate you. not sure how that could be true though.

Think of it this way.

You drink 8oz of strong black coffee. The diuretic effect of the caffeine causes your body to release .25 oz of water. You're still up 7.75 oz and thus 7.75 oz more hydrated.

WendyTerry420

I only count water that came from the top of Mt. Olympus and was strained through a Greek god's loin cloth.

^^ This

But I only log it if it's either a full moon or a half moon, or if's the final day of the solstice.

Chieflrg

Coffee slows down your metabolism. Drinking early in the morning do now help you on your fitness journey.
Since your body is over 90% water you need water, not including in your drinks. Don't forget that the calories in coffee counts toward your daily intake.

Are you a jelly fish?

Most humans are made up of around 65%.

No_Finish_Line

I'll counter your blog with a peer reviewed scientific paper.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19774754

ETA: And now I've read your blog post, not even it supports your claim.

The available literature suggests that acute ingestion of caffeine in large doses (at least 250-300 mg, equivalent to the amount found in 2-3 cups of coffee or 5-8 cups of tea) results in a short-term stimulation of urine output in individuals who have been deprived of caffeine for a period of days or weeks. A profound tolerance to the diuretic and other effects of caffeine develops, however, and the actions are much diminished in individuals who regularly consume tea or coffee. Doses of caffeine equivalent to the amount normally found in standard servings of tea, coffee and carbonated soft drinks appear to have no diuretic action.

evidently its not really a diuretic if you typically drink coffee. it appears that it would not be crazy to log it as water. but id still encourage you to get your 8 cups or whatever is recommend from actual water on top of whatever coffee you drink. the more the better really. so long as you don't drink so much that your brain swells and you die of course

No_Finish_Line

Think of it this way.

You drink 8oz of strong black coffee. The diuretic effect of the caffeine causes your body to release .25 oz of water. You're still up 7.75 oz and thus 7.75 oz more hydrated.

that makes a lot of sense too

bciloveme2014

I drink at least 6 cups of decaf coffee, but I also make sure I drink at least 64 oz of room temperature water on days that I don't workout, when I workout I drink around 112oz. room temperature water. ( if the water is cold, I cannot drink that much water)

RaspberryKeytoneBoondoggle

Absolutely! especially if you sprinkle some raspberry keytones on top!

No seriously OP. This is a hot topic. If you search "what counts as water" you will find pages and pages of opinions on the matter.

rebalee8

If it were considered water, we'd call it water.

If you want to log it as part of your water intake... it's really up to you.

Some people do. Some people don't.

I personally do. I also log unsweetened tea as water intake.

That said. I pretty much do it as a lark because I like the happy face I get on my Fitbit Dashboard when I reach the goal (I'm all about the happy faces) as the whole "we need 8 glasses of water a day" thing is basically bunk. Very few of us are dehydrated on a daily basis as we absorb water from what we eat and drink.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eight-glasses-water-per-day/

Etherlily1

Caffeine does not slow metabolism it provides a slight increase and can provide a performance boost to a workout, but has no benefits for weight-loss. If taken to extreme and mixed with other drinks, namely alcohol, it can become lethal. It does have a diuretic effect, but it is counterbalanced with water taken in from the tea and coffee making up for the more frequent trips to the restroom. It can have some negative GI consequences and result in the temporary appearance of an anxiety disorder if intoxication levels are reached (DSM - 5). That all said, it doesn't exactly count as water. You are getting some benefit from it, but I wouldn't say it's enough to consider it water. Water is water. Tea is tea. One is made with water, the other is water.

tennisdude2004

I consider it coffee flavoured water.

Jestinia

I only count water that came from the top of Mt. Olympus and was strained through a Greek god's loin cloth.

^^ This

But I only log it if it's either a full moon or a half moon, or if's the final day of the solstice.

:laugh: At both of you!

Strokingdiction

Caffeine does not slow metabolism it provides a slight increase and can provide a performance boost to a workout, but has no benefits for weight-loss. If taken to extreme and mixed with other drinks, namely alcohol, it can become lethal. It does have a diuretic effect, but it is counterbalanced with water taken in from the tea and coffee making up for the more frequent trips to the restroom. It can have some negative GI consequences and result in the temporary appearance of an anxiety disorder if intoxication levels are reached (DSM - 5). That all said, it doesn't exactly count as water. You are getting some benefit from it, but I wouldn't say it's enough to consider it water. Water is water. Tea is tea. One is made with water, the other is water.

And both hydrate which is the point of the water counter here one MFP.

thavoice

I personally dont count anything as water except for, well, water.
Technically one can but if I am wanting to drink XX amount of water, I drink XX amount of water and any coffee or other beverage with water in it is just a bonus.

It seems like those who are all anal about counting every ounce as coffee as water also are the ones that are wanting to count house and yardwork as exercise and eat back some of those calories

Sure..you may be exerting yourself but, like coffee, make it a BONUS. Tough yard work? Ok. Use that as a bonus up and above any exercise you do.

Some call it cheating or whatever, but I call it settng myself up for success and works in any margin of errors I may have in food, drink or exercies that calculated too low or high than in reality.

Little extra water here, rounding up in calories consumed, rounding down calories burned in exercise and using hard yard work as a bonus all adds up!

JTick

It seems like those who are all anal about counting every ounce as coffee as water also are the ones that are wanting to count house and yardwork as exercise and eat back some of those calories

Yeah, I am definitely doing something wrong. :noway:

thavoice

It seems like those who are all anal about counting every ounce as coffee as water also are the ones that are wanting to count house and yardwork as exercise and eat back some of those calories

Yeah, I am definitely doing something wrong. :noway:

Oh stop getting all butthurt about it.

WendyTerry420

It seems like those who are all anal about counting every ounce as coffee as water also are the ones that are wanting to count house and yardwork as exercise and eat back some of those calories

This doesn't make sense. Are you trying to say that people ought to be logging their non-caloric fluid intake or they won't be successful?

Holly_Roman_Empire

I personally don't count it as water. But my coffee doesn't have any calories, so I don't log it anyway. I do log the creamer I use though. I only log water as water.

Coffee has calories, just like everything else does. It may be negligible to you, but someone who drinks a lot of coffee, well, it could add up quickly.

Tell me, how many calories does black coffee have? How quickly will those black coffee calories add up?

4 calories per 8 ounce cup. But I'm sure you could have looked it up faster than I told you.

It adds up as quickly as my morning is slow.

BigT555

Coffee slows down your metabolism. Drinking early in the morning do now help you on your fitness journey.
Since your body is over 90% water you need water, not including in your drinks. Don't forget that the calories in coffee counts toward your daily intake.

it speeds it up if anything, caffeine is a stimulant. but the effects are negligible regardless

also caffeine is a MILD diuretic, it doesn very little to dehydrate you, and any urge to pee after downing a pot of coffee is most likely result of the water in said coffee. i would count it as water personally, but i dont log water at all

Aaron_K123

Caffeine is a diuretic but I think people are exaggerating how big of a diuretic it is. The water content in a cup of coffee is going to make up for its caffeine contents diuretic effects and then some. Is a cup of coffee equal in hydration to the same volume of water? No. But its not as different as people make it out to be.

I'm pretty sure the only thing that is going to counter the ability of water to hydrate you properly is sodium because for every 400mg of sodium your body has to retain something close to one liter of water to keep it dilute enough to match the ionic strength of your blood. Basically sodium holds water in you but prevents it from being as "hydrating".

So bottom line if you are really really worried about your hydration level the amount of sodium that is in your intake plays a much bigger role than how many cups of coffee you have or even how many cups of water you drink (provided that you are drinking water).