Do you count coffee as water?

Interesting debate; I usually count my water as "water" and count other beverages within my meal categories.

I log all liquids as water. If they're anything other than tap water, I also log it with my meals (even if they're 0 calories).

My doctor put it simply to me: The 'water' part of logging, really just means 'liquid'. So coffee, tea, sodas, even soup count, as they are liquids. Even if they come with extra stuff in them, the liquid is still there and that's the whole point. However, because of my medical condition I have to stay well away from caffeine, sugar, etc. So it's really about what's important to you.

To all those saying "water is water".... The human body is something like 75% water. Do you really think that straight, pure, clear, 'tap' water?

I count coffee as water because you use water to make coffee.

my take....if you're asking this question, you're having trouble drinking 8 cups of water a day...and IMO, 12-16 cups of water is more ideal. Now, if you're drinking 11-12 cups of water and want to also count a cup of coffee as another cup of water, I don't think it really matters.

One measure of how much water you should drink that I've read is: (a) half your body weight in ounces + (b) 8 ounces for every 8 ounces of caffeine (which suggests, to me, that coffee wouldn't count as water) + (c) 8 ounces for every 30 minutes of exercise.

Another measure is....if you have clear pee then you are hydrated and are good on water at that time. If you don't have clear pee, then you have not had enough water (and, perhaps, part of the reason for that is: (a) you're aiming for only 8 cups of water/day; and/or (b) you're counting coffee as water). I guess a good test would be for someone to drink 2 cups of coffee and 6 cups of water throughout the day and let us know if you ever had clear pee that day. My guess: no, you wouldn't.

Good link, and that's pretty much how my doctor explained it to me. Thanks for posting this!

You're welcome. With so much "voodoo" nutritional information being repeated as fact, I've found most nutritional questions can be answered at the Mayo Clinic Nutrition and Healthy Eating section (if you want something backed by hard science). The search function on the website almost always comes up with something relevant.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/MY00431

How many times are we going to have the same question asked, Water is water pure and simple. Just because one uses water to make coffee, tea, add to juice, soup etc, does not make it water. I have never seen coffee, tea etc comes out of the water faucet.

If one wants to use tea, coffee etc as their water thats between them and the scale which does not lie. I log water as water and my scale does not lie.

super rude. i found this water question really helpful and was very disappointed to see such a snarky reply to it. its this kind of thing that makes me nervous to post my questions.

What's rude about it, water is water pure and simple. There are too many touchy people on here that is looking for an easy way out to lose weight. This water debate does not even warrant a discussion, but it comes up every few days, because some people cannot/and will not drink water and they want the sensible ones on MFP to tell them that tea, coffee, cocoa etc is water. Water is water, when something else is added, it changes everything.

what was rude about it was the "How many times are we going to have the same question asked" part. some people may have just joined MFP, some people have no idea what they are doing, some people are just looking for guidance. i agree that i only log water as water and maybe you could have just said that rather than "How many times are we going to have the same question asked". no where does it say people can't ask a reasonable question.