water water water

It cleared up my skin, that's for sure.

I was addicted to Diet Pepsi. You know those people that say "I gave up my {insert soda name here} and lost 20 pounds!"?? Yeah, I wasn't one of them. But I'm sure all the water I'm drinking now, instead of DP, is better for me so oh well.

DRINK ALL THE WATER!!!!
It's Good for you.
Just add some Water Enhancer ( My Fave is Crystal Light) and CHUG AWAY!!!!!

Unless you were dehydrated in the first place...excess water just makes you pee a lot.

This blog entry was mostly written about how to make drinking water (or other low-to-no calorie drinks) more palatable, but I also included links to research and medical sites: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin_Bin/view/water-265761

Some good responses, though I didn't read them all... but here's my 2 cents; water doesn't make you lose weight, but should be drank regardless because it's essential to life (hydration, removing toxins, aiding in organ function, etc). Frequent trips to the bathroom is the downside for me, too.. so I feel your pain. Most people tend to forget that they are also consuming water through fruits and vegetables, I'm quite looking forward to watermelon season

it helps me loose weight, it makes me feel fuller. something about drinking water just makes you feel healthier too like it puts you in that mindset. if i have a diet coke, i want food with it haha. but water does help. if you dont like the taste of water (my mom hates it) try crystal light with it! or make ice tea with orange slices and mint (sounds different but its really good) but things like that kind of make you drink more water becaues its still water but tastier also, i just finished some pre nursing classes and learned that sometimes people eat more because there really thirsty and when your body breaks down food it goes through hydrolysis and makes a little bit of water in your body, but if you just drink more water you wont be as hungry - in other words it really does help you to loose weight and not eat as much- i explained that weird but hope it helped a little

does it really help you lose weight or is it just to keep you peeing?

My standard response:

"Why do you feel that you need to drink more water than your body wants you to drink?

I've found two reasons to drink more water than my thirst mechanism tells me to drink:
1 - I run. And, per advice from running sources, I drink 8 oz of water about 15 minutes before I run. During my run, I drink about 7 OZ every 20 minutes.

2 - When people are trying to lose weight, drinking water gives a "full feeling" so people tend to eat less.

Other than that, I've never found a credible, scientifically-based study that shows that there is any value in drinking more water than our thirst mechanism signals us to drink.

Two sources:

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

The author is a medical doctor. There are lots of those floating around but this one has some cred. He's on staff at Dartmouth (or Princeton, I can't remember…) and that's a good sign that the fellow has some moxie. Second, he wrote a text book on how the kidneys work.

Take the 60 seconds that you'll need just to read the abstract and that will help kill the myth. Oh, yes, 100 citations to published medical documents.



Second source, is the Runners World book "Guide to Road Racing". I got my copy for $5 from Amazon. In the "Fuel" chapter there's a section entitled "Hydration". First sentence under the heading "How Much do I Need?" (page 221)

"The old formula—everyone needs eight glasses of water a day—is out."

It then goes on to give a formula for men and women:
Men = body weight (in pounds) * 0.35
Women = body weight (in pounds) * 0.31

That's the "drinking requirement in fluid ounces" for water.

The authors go further and cite the decision of the International Marathon Medical Directors Association (isn't that amazing - they have their own association!), who, in 2006 threw out their old guidelines which was to drink more water than you felt that you needed so that you could "drink ahead" of your thirst because "the message being that by the time you feel thirsty, you're already on the road to dehydration."

They tossed that out and support the "increasing scientific evidence to support the notion that thirst is actually the ideal way to gauge hydration needs."

They quote Timothy D. Noakes, MD, a professor of exercise and sports science at University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the author of "Lore of Running" "It is the only system used by all other creatures on earth. Why should it not also be ideal for humans?"

(page 224)
According to the medical director of the New York City marathon, who is also the chairman of the board of the International Marathon Medical Directors Association, "We're used to hearing that thirst follows too far behind what you really need, but that doesn't hold true scientifically.…Your body's thirst mechanism is giving you real-time feedback on your internal fluid balance."

My thinking about water and weight loss?

If you need water to curb your appetite, drink water until you learn to control your appetite. But drinking 8 cups of water a day 'to flush toxins" or "because your muscles need it to work smoothly"? Sorry, our bodies have evolved over millions of years to tell us when we need water. I'll stick with that, thanks."

Insofar as "flushing out toxins". That's all the rage…now. Again, we have an organ called a liver that's been doing that for some time (40 million years, or so). Not to say that we can't improve liver functions but, rather than take the assertion of a guru on the web, anyone have a scientifically based body of work that actually demonstrates cause and effect?

It can help clean your body of bad stuff and make you lighter and less bloated and you'll burn calories if you keep having to go to the toiled anyway

I read that you should drink 1/2 of your body weight in oz of water daily. so if you are 200lbs you should drink 100 oz of water a day. I have been doing this since I started my life style change on MFP. I really think it does help.

Considering all the other benefits or drinking water, you should be happy to drink it regardless of it's ability to promote/help weight loss. I love water! Nothing quite as refreshing as a tall glass of iced water. Yummy!