Water intake? Please read

MrsSullivan08

Okay, so I am just curious if it is really necessary to drink 8 cups of water a day? I would like to know pros and cons if anyone knows....will this effect amount of weight lost??

mallory3411

You need to drink water. Find the amount that works for you (gross I know but until your pee is light light yellow or clear). 8 cups isn't what everyone needs.

I drink at least 3L a day. Your body needs water for cells, functions etc and weight loss. Water helps get rid of toxins and regenerate.

mallory3411

Water will also counter act the sodium you eat everyday... too much sodium and not enough water will cause weight gain.

plaid405

I was told by a trainer that the liver is what burns fat. The kidneys clean the body. When the kidneys are overworked (soda, tea, coffee etc...) the liver must stop burning fat and help your kidneys clean your body. So when the liver is helping the kidneys it's not burning fat like it should. So water is a very very good tool to keep your liver burning fat.

Gshields42

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

The best quote to me is the bit at the end:

"Although not trained in medicine or nutrition, I intuitively knew that the advice to drink eight glasses of water per day was nonsense. The advice fully meets three important criteria for being an American health urban legend: excess, public virtue, and the search for a cheap "magic bullet."

But as Mallory said above, your urine should generally be light yellow. You don't want it completely clear, because that probably means that you are on the higher end of hydration spectrum, which can actually be detrimental (along with toxins, water removes nutrients from your body, particularly sodium). If your urine is dark or pungent smelling, then you aren't drinking enough and are probably a bit dehydrated. Generally, your body will tell you when to drink. If you are thirsty, drink. If you aren't thirsty, don't go out of your way to drink. In actuality, a large (possibly majority) percentage of your water intake during a day will be through water in food.

Making sure that you are keeping yourself fairly well hydrated can indirectly help with weight loss, as your body translates hunger and thirsty signals very similarly, leading you to think you are more hungry than you are when you are thirsty. This can lead to increased caloric intake, and as a result slower weight loss (or gain). It doesn't directly effect weight loss in either direction, however.

bellavie23

Honestly, I started drinking 8 cups a day just this last week (I am on day 4 of drinking it), mind you I do LIGHT working out right now because of getting a hip tattoo done, Im sore. With dieting, I have lost close to 3 lbs, and by dieting I mean watching my calories, I dont eat salads or anything like that, I eat what I want, I just count my calories and cut sodas completely out. Water is a natural destressor and helps in tons of other ways. It really depends on you and how much you work out to how much you should drink, but you should def be drinking quite a bit if you want results, it naturally helps rid fat, so try, even if you set a goal to drink 1 cup every 2 hours or something

QueenJayJay

This is a hot topic on MFP. Ask a doctor. :flowerforyou:

wickedcricket

yes. it is neccessary. next question

alexbelly

i always have a hard time reaching the 8cups/day goal. But I have to say, since I've been drinking more water my skin looks fantastic!

savlyon

On the contrary I have been told by a nurse that you should drink 1 oz per pound of body weight. Apparently Tosca Reno (Eat clean diet, wife of Oxygen's editor) holds to this same theory.

agleckle

I dont use specific ounces, I just use this as a general rule of thumb: drink enough water to have at least one clear urination a day. If your urine is always yellow or worse, orange-y, then you are dehydrated. Very pale yellow or clear urine is what you should aim for.

QueenJayJay

I dont use specific ounces, I just use this as a general rule of thumb: drink enough water to have at least one clear urination a day. If your urine is always yellow or worse, orange-y, then you are dehydrated. Very pale yellow or clear urine is what you should aim for.

If you take a B vitamin, this doesn't apply. It will turn your urine yellow.

xTenaciousJx

i drink 4-6 and dont' think that everyone needs the 8 cups...every body is different, i do drink 16oz after every meal and then if im thirsty through-out the day ill drink more....
i have usually pale yellow (mostly clear) urine every day.

deluda

Water will also counter act the sodium you eat everyday... too much sodium and not enough water will cause weight gain.

I totally agree with this. I have a sensitivity to salt and when I eat too much drinking enough water will help avoid the ER!

johnwhitent

The body needs 8 to 10 cups of water daily but gets water from other sources (food) so drinking 10 cups is overkill. There are several peer reviewed scientific studies that can be found on the web to demonstrate this. Meerkats survive with no water during the dry season getting all of their water from food. Humans are not meerkats, but I find that this statistic makes the point (though no human needs to try to emulate a meerkat in this respect!) Additional water can help with helping one feel full and such so there are benefits, just don’t get all tied in knots trying to reach 8 glasses per day!

Gail3260

yes. it is neccessary. next question

Oh no it isn't......at least not for everyone.......you could spend your life reading the pros and cons on this site on that topic! I drink no more than one cup a day of actual water and I am fine and losing weight at a steady rate.

Gail3260

The body needs 8 to 10 cups of water daily but gets water from other sources (food) so drinking 10 cups is overkill. There are several peer reviewed scientific studies that can be found on the web to demonstrate this. Meerkats survive with no water during the dry season getting all of their water from food. Humans are not meerkats, but I find that this statistic makes the point (though no human needs to try to emulate a meerkat in this respect!) Additional water can help with helping one feel full and such so there are benefits, just don’t get all tied in knots trying to reach 8 glasses per day!

^^^^^^THIS!!!!

gaz1023

Hi! I'm new...I just wanted to put in my thoughts on water. Yes, it''s necessary to drink at least 8 cups of water. I drink 5 16oz bottles a day, two in the morning, two in the afternoon and one usually when I get home from work (so not be peeing all night). I found I drank less Diet Coke, which I love. Even though I pee all day and I can't stand water (really) I do it becuase I know it's good for me.

hpsnickers1

Okay, so I am just curious if it is really necessary to drink 8 cups of water a day? I would like to know pros and cons if anyone knows....will this effect amount of weight lost??

No. What doesn't get emphasized is that you can get about 20% - or more - of that through food (at least real, whole food, not processed foods). When you eat an orange you are getting mostly water. Even if you drink something that makes you pee you are still getting water (i.e. tea).

If I don't get enough water on one day then I wake up thirsty the next day. My body balances itself out. (Of course my body doesn't retain water since I follow a low-carb eating plan - Primal, that is. Carbs make your body retain sodium and water. I don't even retain water during TOM). And I don't down water before eating a meal, either. Stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) has a specific pH for digesting food and diluting it with water can cause some issues. I prefer to fill up on food.

Gshields42

@Plaid405 - Please, for the love of everything good and holy, don't pay attention to everything your trainer says. Trainers aren't generally (in fact virtually never) medically trained in any way, shape, or form. There isn't even a standard certification or training standard for them. You could bill yourself as a trainer right now, and be as knowledgeable and well trained as the majority of trainers.

In reality, most trainers are more akin to salesmen than they are to medical professionals. Most clients looking for training (particularly those more interested in weight loss as opposed to true exercise/weight lifting advice) tend to be unknowledgeable and frankly, gullible, and trainers feed on that. Their job is to sell their services to you, so they tend towards dire warnings, oversimplifications, and blatant misrepresentations to emphasize why you need their services.

Yes, there are many good trainers. There are many more bad trainers. When I see statements like that, I lean more towards the latter. Please take everything that they say with a grain of salt. There are a great number of stories out there of people that have been injured by the negligence/incompetence of their trainer.

Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional either, nor do I have any medical training. I've read a lot and researched a great deal for my weight loss journey, which is where my knowledge comes from. Most of knowledge coming from reputable sources, so I obviously trust it (else I wouldn't be repeating it), but at the end of the day I have no more training than the average trainer that I'm ranting against.

MrsSullivan08

Thank you everyone for your input.

janalayn

My doctor recommended a gallon of ice water a day. Many people mistake hunger for thirst. If you feel hungry, drink some water first as it may take care of it.

p0stdramatic

I don't understand why everyone makes such a big deal out of this. Is drinking plain water good for you? Yes. Is it the best choice? Yes. Is 8 cups a day going to be detrimental to your health? No. Just do it.

You don't need to drink it all at once. You have approximately 16 hours of awake time to drink 8 cups. 1/2 cup an hour.

danibabs

Whether or not it directly affects weight loss is debatable - and drinking water alone will not cause you to lose weight.

But if you think about the percentage of your body that is water, clearly the more clear water you give it the better it's going to function. I try and drink 100-120 oz and I know it helps my skin, hair, nails, etc all look better and everything about my body just feels better. I get less headaches, I'm stronger and bounce back from things faster, I have more energy, I can think clearer, etc

Even if it's not absolutely essential to drink a certain amount of water, it's one of the best things you can do for your body and it's completely free.

MaximalLife

I credit water as a huge reason I lost so much weight.
Water aids all the functions of the body, and 8 cups is more than enough, because we get some from foods and such.

First, before a meal, I drink a cup; it has no calories and fills up the stomach, making me less hungry.
Second, keeping the body properly hydrated prevents excess water retention.
And there is a bunch of folklore regarding water and metabolism - who knows?
I just know I did much better drinking a lot of water.

Health benefits of drinking water might include: [I said MIGHT]
regulate appetite
increase metabolism
boost energy levels
less water retention
alleviate some headaches
help reduce blood pressure
help reduce high cholesterol
ease joint pain
decrease in risk of some cancers
less chance developing kidney stones
release toxic waste products
improves skin

http://www.weightlossforall.com/benefits-wate r-drinking.htm

persian_star

Agreed that this is a hot topic, and I think it's probably true that it's different for all of us. My story:

I used to find it really difficult to drink enough (just didn't like it) so, as an experiment, I tried drinking a glass every hour on the hour to up my intake. Before this my pee was probably in the 'too dark' camp so I was probably dehydrated, but I wasn't overly thirsty. Since I started I find my body seems to crave it more and get quite thirsty if i don't give it water - i.e. it'll get used to whatever you choose to give it.

I also thought that just feeding it more water wouldn't actually make a difference apart from making me pee more, but actually - my skin felt smoother and clearer. I didn't drink much over Christmas and it went back to feeling dry and crinkly. So this is a short term effect but it does make a difference.

The other thing that may have been a coincidence (I upped my calories at the same time so it may have been that) is it's the first time I really lost any weight. I normally fluctuate up and down through the same 3 lbs, but went one lb under my norm and stayed there... until Christmas (everything went terribly pear - over ate, no water, no exercise - ugh). It may not have been the water but it certainly happened right when I had been drinking those recommended 8 cups every day for a few weeks.

Today I've been so thirsty (due to the central heating being so high I guess) I've already necked my 8 glasses and still feel the need for more! Guess that's because I need it (duh).

Hope that helps :flowerforyou:

laneybird

I think it is all personal preference, Personally, I feel better since drinking water. I'm not wasting calories on tea, soda, etc...just because I am thirsty. I think water has helped me lose weight and I recommend it to anyone who asks. When people ask what I am doing to lose weight, I always says that I drink A LOT of water first. Ofcourse eating healthy, tracking calories and exercising are major factors too. Personally I drink a minimum of 8 cups a day, but usually its between 12-16 cups.

jcpmoore

On the contrary I have been told by a nurse that you should drink 1 oz per pound of body weight. Apparently Tosca Reno (Eat clean diet, wife of Oxygen's editor) holds to this same theory.

Good night! By that argument I'd be drowning! Even at my ideal weight that's 16 glasses per day.

To answer some of the other responses- it doesn't have to be water. You want to have the equivalent of 8 glasses of water or close to it. Foods that are rich in water or fluids count, too, such as celery. If you eat soup, that's got a lot of fluid in it. If you drink herbal tea, that counts. Non-caffeinated and sugar-free drinks (crystal light and such) are controversial, but some will count them. If physically drinking eight glasses of water is too hard, incorporate some other methods of getting your fluids.

HTH

Bronx_Montgomery

large amounts of Water has helped me with my weight loss. How you ask? Because Im constantly getting up to the bathroom every 30 mins. Thats a lot of walking

PercivalHackworth

I wrote on another post

As long as you are giving yourself at least 8 glasses a day... you are good. I drink out of a 20oz cup at work and usually go through at least 3 of them, which gives me 60oz.......plus at the gym I do at least 24oz and then maybe another 8oz when I get home. I don't set a certain goal for water. I struggle with drinking water when I am at home, I barely drink anything for some reason. At work I am on the phone all day so I tend to need more there.

Totally Incorrect :-)

You need to drink when you feel you need to, and no force yourself.
Drinking more is as dangerous as drinking less. (Increase level of water, while decreasing sodium level via the diuresis)
In fact for an exercise, you better should have small but numerous intakes, but that doesn't mean you need to drink more.

There are imho two REAL indicators : the feeling of being thirsty (the most important one), and the urines color. (less pertinent)
Drinking more is useless (appart preserving performance during an exercise). In 2002 and 2008 two big studies explained how useless it was to drink over your need, appart going to toilets more often.
Moreover people tend to forget all the water they drink via the food they eat. That is why in fact we don't feel that much the thirsty feeling

Read that :
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-302--8785-0,00.html
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/batman.html
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/12/08/the-myth-behind-drinking-8-glasses-of-water-a-day/

AnninStPaul

I was told by a trainer that the liver is what burns fat. The kidneys clean the body. When the kidneys are overworked (soda, tea, coffee etc...) the liver must stop burning fat and help your kidneys clean your body. So when the liver is helping the kidneys it's not burning fat like it should. So water is a very very good tool to keep your liver burning fat.

I saw this in a fitness magazine article once -- long ago -- haven't been able to source it, but it sure does sound good!