Myth...drink 8 glasses of water a day to lose weight.

I don't drink water, I drink low sugar squash/ high juice/ cordial. I don't care what anyone says, water does have a flavor, and it makes me gag.

I think you can lose weight drinking water because it does burn calories to heat the water to body temperature.

One calorie of food is the amount of energy to raise the temperature of 1 liter of water 1 degree celcius. We are supposed to drink 2 liters of water a day (which is a little less than 8 cups).

If you drink 2 liters of water at room temp (72F = 22.2 C) your body must warm the water up to body temp (98 F = 36.7 C), which is 14.5 degrees x 2 (liters) for 29 calories. However, if you drink cold water (40F = 4.4 C), the body must raise the temp by 32.3 degrees x 2 (liters) for 64.6 calories.

Over 1 year - 2 liters of water a day at room temp = 10,585 calories or 3 pounds of fat (3500 calories).

Over 1 year- 2 liters of ice water (40C) = 23,579 calories or 6.7 pounds of fat.

I guess the point the study is making is a technical one: 8 glasses of water is not the magic number, there are other sources of water such as hot beverages, fruit etc. That is great but water has zero calories, is good for you and if drinking more water means eating less food = one of your goals then isn't that the point that the 'myth makers' were getting at?

I can see the point the scientist is making. He is just saying you don't need to drink 8 glasses of water a day so long as you're getting the total amount of water intake required from some means.

Personally, I used to drink massive amounts of soda. I probably took in the required water with that. Was it healthy, no. I have slowly gotten to the point where I almost exclusively drink water. I do believe this will help me loose weight as I am no longer taking in unnecessary calories and not replacing them with calories elsewhere. I've also saved some money to boot.

In regards to how much water one needs, I feel it is a very personal item. We all have different bodies, as well as possibly medication intakes which could require us to need more water intake than others. Myself, I take Levothyroxin which has an affect on this. I normally need to drink at least 10-12 cups of water a day to not feel thirsty (Even with that, my urine is sometimes is darker in color.).

I drink it because I take a multivitamin and don't want my Kidneys to take a beating. Anyone that takes any kind of vitamin should be drinking tons of water....I know I'm close to flushing my Kidneys when the neon begins to "shall we say, not glow in the dark".

"Drink your water people!" -Tony Horton
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