Drinking Water, Any Tips ?

If you like it but aren't remembering to drink it, try getting a decent sized water bottle and making a rule that you have to finish it before doing certain things (getting lunch, etc). That's worked pretty well for me. Some days I'll set a high goal for water and keep a note that shows my starting goal and then subtracting out each glass. For some reason, I find myself going to get water and downing a glass just because I want to update my progress so it's partially a mind game.

Hello,
I was just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to drink more water. At the moment I struggle to drink a cup a day, not because I don't like it (although I will admit Dr Pepper does taste nice) it's more that I never feel like I need a drink of something.
I hope that made sense :S

I've "been away" for a while (haven't been on the forums much in a few months) and have seen one great change here on MFP - folks who "admit" that they've lost weight eating < 1200 calories aren't being shouted down now. I'm very pleased to see that.

What hasn't changed, however, is that folks here are holding on to the myth of "8x8". "8x8" is the myth that you need to drink 8 cups of water a day.

Here's a posting of mine from some time ago that explores the "gotta get your 8 a day" myth:

"A lot of places urge dieters to drink water and for good reason - it can help you lose weight. If you have a stomach with lots of water, you feel full, and will tend to eat less. Many sites don't explain why they recommend 8 cups/day but the only reasons I've seen given are that it fills you up. And that's a good thing.

As my fiancée, who runs a very successful weight loss clinic here in Southern California, clued me in on, there's a second benefit to drinking water when you're dieting. When some folks start losing weight, they get constipated. By drinking lots of water, the unneeded water can help loosen your bowels.

That's about it. If doesn't make you skinnier faster, it does bloat you and add to the work that your kidneys have to do, and you end up spending money for it (bottled water is a multi-billion dollar industry), and you get to spend quality time peeing out all of the extra water.

My take on it — if you need to drink water to control your urge to eat, do it because being overweight is much worse than drinking water all day. If you don't need help controlling you appetite, why bother? Most of us have the urination thing down pretty well, right?

That comes across as a bias but it's one I've had for a while and part of it comes 'cause I grew up in a place where the drinking water wasn't that great (in Bermuda we used to catch the rainwater on our roof and store it in a tank under the house. Water tanks had mold and bacteria so we put guppies in the water tank to get rid of things like mosquitoes. Mold, stale water, and guppy…remnants — yummy!).

Fast forward to now and it appears that there's no medical evidence to drink the infamous 8 cups a day.

Yes, that flies in the face of "what everyone knows" but, heh, that's how life is some times. Everyone knows that stomach ulcers come from too much acid in the stomach, right? Wrong. It's a virus - a fellow won a Nobel prize when he proved it even though he had been denounced for his beliefs!. Another example - even the best scientific minds accept the fact that the human body will survive going faster than 10 MPH in a steam engine but it wasn't always that way. In the early 1800's, scientists were convinced that people would be killed if they were in a train going that speed. So, times change and we learn, right?

References anyone?

This paper, written by a Dartmouth MD, professor, and author of a book on kidneys has 100 footnotes.

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

And here's another link to a different version:

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


Even Snopes gets in on this:

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

In short:

Is there value in drinking 8 cups of water? Yes!

Do you have to drink 8 cups a day to lose weight? Nope.

Do you lose weight faster by drinking 8 cups a day? Perhaps recent research has been posted that proves this but, as of a few years ago, there was no medical evidence to support this claim.


The most recent issue of Running Times has an article on this subject. It's an excerpt from an upcoming book about running. I do realize that MFP isn't a web site for runners but that doesn't mean that knowledge isn't applicable.

Here's the link:

http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=26481

And, yes, Dr. Noakes, makes it very clear that there is no need to chug down lotsa water.


How much water do I drink? As it turns out, not a whole lot. I drink water when I'm thirsty (it's humid today so my run will be more demanding than normal) and I'm thirsty after a run. Other than that, I drink coffee (I know how "everyone knows that caffeine is a diuretic - it's measurable and immaterial for someone who regularly uses caffeine), diet soda, and iced tea. But what about when I get thirsty, what do I drink? Heh, I'm no fool. I turn on the tap and pour myself a glass of water!

Try setting a timmer to ring once every hour until you've had your 8 glasses.