Water & Weight Loss!!

taliesyn_

Drinking cold water (iced water) is great for you! It takes your body calories to heat it up (probably not alot) but hey something is something and its good for you to keep flushing water out so it doesnt stay in your system. When you are losing weight water will stay in your body to take up the space of the fat you are losing (body thinks its starving) so if you keep drinking water it helps flush it. You can drink other stuff too just make sure it doesnt have sodium or it can actually help retain water instead of losing it.

1 kilocalorie (the ones we tend to measure as the others are too small, though we still call them "calories"!) is the energy used to heat 1kg of water by 1C. 1kg of water is 1 litre. So, if the tap water is at, say, 5C (not unreasonable) and your body heats it to 36C (pretty close), it ought to burn 31 calories. Ice will of course lower the starting temperature and therefore increase the calorie burn by 2 or 3 per litre.

1 litre is 1.76 imperial pints and 2.11 US pints.

ATT949

Yes! Drinking water really does help.

I focused the other day on drinking a cup of water every hour on the hour while I was at work... That day I drank 10+ glasses of water and the next day I was a pound less!

A rooster crows every morning.
The sun comes up every morning.
The sun comes up because the rooster crows.

That's the "correlation is not causation" fallacy.

I have no doubt that what you're reporting is true but there's no medical evidence, that I've been able to find, that drinking water, in an of itself, has an impact on weight loss in a properly hydrated individual. If you know of a source, please share it!

Really? I don't think anyone is saying its a MEDICALLY PROVEN fact. Is a given, if you eat a higher sodium diet then you SHOULD drink more water. MFP says to drink atleast 8 glasses of water a day. Other articles that I have read says to drink HALF your weight. I personally drink 16-25 glasses a day depending on how much sodium I took in or how thristy I am. And if its a workout day. You can't go wrong with drinking water. Its good for some many other things other then just flushing out sodium.

You're on the right track - drink when you're thirsty, most definitely! That's the mechanism that our bodies use to indicate that we need water.

If you're getting good results drinking that much water, that's great but that doesn't mean it's doing you any good. Further, there's no question that you can lose weight without drinking any "extra" water. Were it not for my running, I'd never drink plain water. There's just no need to do so because our bodies can get all the water that we need from food and drinks.



"You can't go wrong with drinking water." - this is completely wrong.

People have died from drinking water. The most common cases are women who run marathons and, because they're worried about not drinking enough, they hydrate, hydrate, hydrate along the way. And then, after finishing the race, hydrate some more.

And they have ended up dead, even with EMT's helping them.

Why?

What has happened is that they have overhydrated and, since the symptoms of hyponatrmia are very similar to those of heat exhaustion, the paramedics fire up an IV. The problem is that they have so little sodium (or potassium, I don't recall) that their heart stops. And there is nothing that can be done. The parameds just watch them die because they've diluted their blood with too much water.

MFP recommends drinking 8 by 8 for a variety of reasons and I'm not privy to any of them.

One possibility is that they truly believe we should and I'm fine with that.

Another reason is that drinking lots of water helps cut down on hunger pangs and that helps people lose weight. I am all for that!

Another reason is that drinking 8 by 8 is popular and it makes good business sense to do things that other sites do.


I have been using the Internet since 1987 (yes, 1987) so I well remember when the "World Wide Web" was first created. It because obvious very, very quickly that it's very, very dangerous to do something just because a web site recommends it. There's lots of good advice out there but there's lots of advice from "experts" who are complete frauds. Critical thinking and skepticism require much more thought than blindly following advice but I sincerely believe that it's much safer in the long run.

"Drinking upstream from the herd.", one might say.

<added>
I just got a link to this from a website that I visit regularly.

http://thebrowser.com/videos/ten-common-misconceptions-debunked

Skip forward to item 6. It's not medically sourced so I wouldn't take it as Gospel but it does jive with:

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

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2002/aug/080802.html

http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/283/5/R993.full

doonesbury

Me too!!!!!!!

wellbert

Drink when you're thirsty, and keep sodium:potassium ratio in check. Forcing water down your gullet doesn't help anything.

If you feel thirst, you're already dehydrated. That's what I've always read. Most people go around moderately dehydrated in their daily lives, that's why there is a guideline.

Yes, you get a lot of moisture from food. So if you're eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables you don't need to drink quite as much.

That's what you read from well meaning bloggers that are repeating baseless 8-glass a day dogma. most people aren't dehydrated. The body knows when it wants water.

There's a ton of information, from medical doctors, here's one blurb, albeit from a GP:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2014112/Drinking-water-bad-health-Benefits-myth.html

clemsontiger78

I was never a water drinker until several months ago. I bought a camelbak water bottle and keep it at my desk. I refill it now about four times a day, which works out to be 96oz. I reach for it almost unconsciously now. It helped me a lot!

annalee_1

I was not a water drinker but I am now I drink water all day and I always have it with me, I also like to add crystal light to my water when I want something different.

sobriquet84

I've found that 1/2 an oz per pound of weight is plenty. For me, that works out to 6.5 12 oz bottles of water a day (I currently weigh 156). The more you weigh, or the more you sweat, the more water you need. "A gallon per day" is not "one size fits all". A gallon equates to just over 10.5 12 oz bottles of water a day. Good luck with that. Chugging water when you really don't need it isn't doing you any favors, and can actually do more harm than good.

jademh

I used to be a major soda & juice drinker.... I'm not even kidding, it was bad.

Sometime after last summer I quit them cold turkey & stick to water and one cup of milk in my protein shake daily and occasionally v8.

Honestly you get used to just drinking water. In the beginning I bought propel zeros, crystal lights & diet green tea mix to mix into water bottles & it tasted just like juice, but with essentially nothing in it. I'd try that if you're having a hard time because water is definitely the key.

maidentl

Drink when you're thirsty, and keep sodium:potassium ratio in check. Forcing water down your gullet doesn't help anything.

If you feel thirst, you're already dehydrated. That's what I've always read. Most people go around moderately dehydrated in their daily lives, that's why there is a guideline.

Yes, you get a lot of moisture from food. So if you're eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables you don't need to drink quite as much.

Unless your urine is dark, you're not dehydrated.

Russellb97

Moral of the story is tell the scale to kiss your *kitten*.

Another reason to adore you!! ♥

:embarassed:

Thank you