stop drinking 8 cups of water (because it's "good"), and get

PaleoPath4Lyfe

perhaps i should have made the last line of my post the first: the point of this is not to get you to stop drinking if you're happy. it's to let you know you don't need to, if you don't want to or don't like water (like me).

You are spreading misinformation to people. It is harsher on the kidneys to not drink much water than it is to drink plenty of water.

cath_thegreat

I can never seem to get that much pure water down in a day. I drink a lot of herbal tea, and I like to think that this is just as good. Sometimes I find if I drink this much water I flush the potassium out of my body and the muscles in my feet and legs cramp up in response.

The net/net is probably that you have to do what feels right for your body, but you won't die/get sick/not lose weight as effectively if you don't glug water all day long. I just like the feeling I'm flushing out the toxins!

mallory3411

Everyone has to drink what the feel comfortable with.

Personally I love water. I used to hate it. Now I can easily drink 10 500mL bottles in a day. Some are more and some are less.

I wouldn't count things like coffee, pop and juice as water intake but that's just me.

xraygeek

The thing about coffees, teas, sodas, etc...they contain caffeine and other additives (even the "decaf" has caffeine), and caffeine can dehydrate you. There is a point in time where too much water is officially too much water! Cells denature and things kind of turn into that senator off of X-Men where he turned into a puddle...not quite as dramatic though.

I have heard varying points of view of water consumption, and I think it should be based mainly off of your pee. As odd as that sounds! If your pee is a light yellow to clear, you're hydrated. If you're sporting anything darker than lemonade, you better be drinking water. And the "thirst" trigger is your body telling you that you're dehydrated.

I've talked to doctors--most suggest 64ounces a day, minimum. I've also talked to doctors about weight loss and water. They suggest half an ounce for your weight. I weigh 196lbs, so according to that, I should be drinking around 98 ounces of water a day. I don't always get that number, but I get my minimum 64.

Overall, you can get your liquid intake from food sources like fruits and veggies and by drinking coffee and tea, but putting something as wonderfully clean and pure as water into your body honestly can't hurt it. We all say that we have to eat in moderation--we have to drink in moderation too! Drink as much as your comfortable with, hopefully with a minimum of 64 oz a day.

fteale

I would also serious contest that drinking more water makes your skin, hair, mood or digestion noticeably better. You have to be pretty dehydrated for those things to be compromised.

xraygeek

And when I say "tea" I'm mainly referring to black tea. Herbal tea is not caffeinated.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

She's right! You should drink not 8 a day! DRINK 16 cups a day! Not sure where you get this info but your body is make up mostly of water. When you are not drinking it is causes dehydration. Go 3 days without it and let me know how you feel about water after that!

:happy: :drinker:

Jennyisbusy

I try to drink 100 ounces of water a day :drinker: My skin is awesome and I can pee like a horse. Jealous?

chachita7

Hmmmm... to each its own - before there was coffee, tea, soda, etc... there was water, it was what was provided since the beginning of time for us Humans to drink - how much, how lil of course is debatable - I myself believe in drinking plenty of water, it makes me feel good about myself - makes my skin look better, doesn't make my teeth yellowish - i am sure you get it by now...

fteale

The amount of caffeine in tea has a negligible diuretic effect.
While we are not he subject, green tea actually has more caffeine in it than black tea, and all types of camellia sinensis tea have some caffeine in, even white tea. Oh, and black tea actually contains more antioxidants than green.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

I would also serious contest that drinking more water makes your skin, hair, mood or digestion noticeably better. You have to be pretty dehydrated for those things to be compromised.

Actually it doesn't take much for these basic body functions to be compromised. The body has a delicate balance and when it gets out of balance things go ary very easily.

madtownjeremy

I feel WAY better after getting my water level up. I used to have trouble keeping with it...pretty much because I didn't want to go refill a cup 6 times a day...but then I got my 750ml Camelbak bottle and I haven't had any problems staying hydrated since, alongside the amount of tea I drink.

Yeah, so anyone who tells you "I drank 12 Diet Cokes today...that counts!" is full of....well, Diet Coke.

Loseweight1980

OP, what do you drink during the day?

Patty0147

I don't remember where I read, or saw it, but no, you do not need 8 glasses, we don't all require the same amount. The article or show mentioned drinking half your body weight in ounces, meaning if you weigh 150 lbs, you drink 75 oz of water.

I don't have a magic number, other than my morning coffee I drink water, and it makes me fee better.

JessG11

I am constantly drinking something so it's not unheard of for me to drink 120 plus ounces of water a day. If I don't, I get thirsty. Plus, my skin looks healthier and so does my hair. And it keeps EVERYTHING flowing. I don't get the same results with anything other than water. So I drink it because of the benefits, not because I feel I have to. But I still drink my diet cokes and tea too!

KXanthos

I don't drink neary that much because 1) I'm just not but a fan of plain water, 2) I forget, and 3) the closest bathroom at my office is almost a football field away and I just have way too much work to do to get up every hour to pee. I do drink about 4 cups of herbal tea every day though and I *think* that counts as water...

Gt3ch

Depends. If you are in a hot desert you may need 1gal+ water a day to stay hydrated. At the same time if the minimum you need in the winter happens to be say 6 cups and you drink an extra 1 or 2 nothing bad will happen.

The important thing is to understand the signs and symptoms of dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. It's just a lot simpler to give the general population a safe number like 8 cups. Beyond that 8 cups is useful IMHO. Since that's generally "well-hydrated" and "normal" most of the time for most people you know something's wrong if you NEED 16-20 cups or you feel like crap and are only getting 2 cups, some coffee and eating dry cooked and processed foods.

fionarama

good post. listen to your body. drink when you are thirsty. all cups of liquid are fine, although coffee tea and diet sodas have diuretic properties (make you pee more and you don't absorb as much liquid).

fteale

I would also serious contest that drinking more water makes your skin, hair, mood or digestion noticeably better. You have to be pretty dehydrated for those things to be compromised.

Actually it doesn't take much for these basic body functions to be compromised. The body has a delicate balance and when it gets out of balance things go ary very easily.

What I mean is, I don't think most people are walking around dehydrated. I'm certainly not, and I don't drink much water at all. I get my 10 cups of liquid a day from tea and peppermint. You will notice no difference in skin, hair, energy etc from drinking 8 cups of water vs 8 cups of tea.

JessG11

I don't remember where I read, or saw it, but no, you do not need 8 glasses, we don't all require the same amount. The article or show mentioned drinking half your body weight in ounces, meaning if you weigh 150 lbs, you drink 75 oz of water.

I don't have a magic number, other than my morning coffee I drink water, and it makes me fee better.

I've read articles on this too. And it makes total sense. Why would someone who weighs 120 lbs drink the same amount as someone who weighs 220 lbs?

yesthistime

perhaps i should have made the last line of my post the first: the point of this is not to get you to stop drinking if you're happy. it's to let you know you don't need to, if you don't want to or don't like water (like me).

It's amazing how many people either didn't read that statement or chose to ignore it.

rebecca_chess

I agree with NatureMade

^^^^ THIS.

"Thanks to their caffeine content, both tea and coffee (and any other drink with caffeine) are diuretics - that is, they cause the body to lose water. And you do need the water - when you don't get enough, your cells start to draw water from the bloodstream. Blood gets sludgy, your heart must work harder, and your body starts to redirect blood away from less vital areas.

To get two cups of water from coffee or tea, you would have to drink three cups. Considering that you should be getting eight cups of water per day, you would have to drink 12 cups of coffee or tea to get that much. (That is a LOT of caffeine!)

If you really don't like drinking plain water, you can get the fluids you need from highly diluted fruit juice, herbal tea or a well-watered down sports drink. Avoid caffeine-containing colas - they have the same diuretic effect as coffee and tea."

The above is quoted from a question/answer article written by Dr. Andrew Weil (Harvard Medical School). I have had many other doctors tell me the same thing. I firmly agree with the above statements made by Dr. Weil.

Lolli1986

I'm a biologist and I can verify that yes, 2L of water includes water from food. However there are dehydrating components within teas and sodas (diuretics, caffeine), so you cannot count 1cup of soda as 1 cup of water.

There are also other benefits to drinking 2L of water a day, for example, your saliva glands require for your body to have ingested 2L of water per day in order to maintain a healthy pH level. If the pH is too low (acidic) then your saliva itself no longer assists to protect teeth but in fact contributes to decay by softening the enamel. Cavities are caused by bacteria digesting food on your teeth and excreting acidic compounds as a by-product... saliva of a neutral or high pH can help to neutralise this acid, but if the saliva is acidic itself then.... well, expect to spend a LOT of money fixing your teeth.

It is certainly cannot hurt to reach the 8 cups on the ticker.... it will also deter you from overeating, and from drinking sodas.

soonernick

All I know is when I had blood drawn the nurse said "you drink a lot of water", and I asked why and she said good veins. So I think it helps to drink water.

10acity

I lean toward the OP's side (who stipulated, by the way, that this was not an attack on you hyper water-guzzlers). I hardly ever drink water. I drink water during and after workouts-- almost exclusively. It gives me heartburn quicker-- and worse-- than pizza. I drink a lot of coffee and tea, and a few Diet Cokes a week. I am never dehydrated (yes, my pee is always a very light yellow).

Water is just another thing some people cling to as their weight loss miracle. There's nothing wrong with that. When it comes to weight loss and being healthy, at the end of the day what's right is what works for you. Let's all just chill out, maybe?

becoming_a_new_me

No one will ever get me to believe that drinking plenty of plain water is not good for you. And in order to drink too much, you have to drink a LOT or drink quite a bit in a short amount of time.

If we drank more than the kidneys can handle over a day's time then we wouldn't eat. There is nothing wrong with drinking 10 or 12 cups of water.

I disagree with coffee, tea, soda, etc being counted as water also as it is not plain water.

Most people that increase their water intake find they have more energy, better moods, clearer skin and better digestion and elimination.

Water is important to the human body.

this.

I drink 10-20 cups of water a day and it does help with weight loss, helps keep my skin hydrated, makes me feel better, etc. why would anyone not want these benefits, from simply drinking water? You also will not convince me that drinking whatever you want, or relying on food for hydration is sufficient. Also, how can anything with caffeine count as 'water' when caffeine is a diuretic and can dehydrate you??

^^^this...Every day, I drink about 12-16 cups of water, a pot of coffee, a pot of tea, eat a ton of fruits and veggies, and I'm not dead or dehydrated. Of course it has been shown that those of us who are hard-core coffee and tea drinkers do not experience the diuretic effects of caffiene. I maintain consistient weight loss, glowing skin, nails, and hair, and feel great. I pee a lot, but it's a healthy color so I don't care.

BrianSharpe

Do you need to drink 8 glasses of water a day? No, not really.

Will 8 glasses of water a day hurt you? No, not in the least. The amount of water you need to drink to enter hyponatremia is absurdly high if you're not in a situation which would have you sweating nonstop (hence it happening to people using MDMA, or marathoners). If you're not in one of those situations, you'd most likely end up vomiting a few times before you got there which would clue in the average Joe that it was time to stop.

^^^^^ What he said!

Much of the research into athletics and hydration has been sponsored by the makers of sports drinks, most notably the one starting with G. Personally I find it shocking that well-meaning parents will give junior a honking great bottle of sports drink thinking they're providing a healthy alternative to soda, by the time he has consumed the 691ml bottle he's taken in just about the same number of calories and several times the sodium. One soccer club my son belonged to had a policy specifically prohibiting the consumption of sports drinks except during tournaments when the kids may be play 2 or 3 matches in a day.

kantone999

Tea and coffee do NOT dehydrate you as so many posts claim. CAFFEINE dehydrates you. There's enough water in tea and coffee to more than offset the dehydrating effects of the caffeine. That's why some people count tea and coffee as part of their water intake and it's perfectly legit. I don't but I log all my drinks and try to make sure I'm getting at least 80-100 oz. of liquids every day.

As to black tea containing more antioxidants that green--depends on the brand. For Lipton decaf, black tea has 105 and green tea has 130.

10acity

Also, for all of you in the Caffeine Dehydrates you and the Coffee/tea/etc. "Doesn't Count" camps, please read: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeinated-drinks/AN01661

McMommyx3

I dont think the point of drinking water is to lose weight, but for your body's health. Our kidney's dont need the extra stress!
If you drink 64oz of water vs anything else you will not need to add calories.
If I dont drink 8+ cups of water a day I am super thirsty and I'd rather eat my calories, than drink em!
No, you will not die if you dont drink water, there are plenty of people that have survived not drinking any water and have survived on just soda, juice, etc.. I just wouldnt recommend it.