DAILY WATER INTAKE??

I know that some people do count tea etc as water. I do not because teas and coffees act as a diuretic and you tend to pee it back out. To be safe and make sure you are getting your cups (which are 8 ozs) i would drink the 8.

I only would count it if it has the same nutritional values as water (so 0 calories, 0 sugar, 0 sodium, 0 caffeine, etc.). The 8 is a guideline and as most of us know, guidelines are great help, but are for the average person. I'm very much not typical. The rule of thumb I follow is 1/2 my body weight (in pounds), in ounces.

So at ~240, I should be drinking 120 ounces of water. That equates to ~11 glasses a day. I typically get between 9 and 15 a day (because my water bottle is 24 ounces). I can tell you that the weeks that I drink more 9s than 15s, I stay fairly still. On the weeks that I drink more 15s, I lose more. I'm not correlating it, but I'm just saying that if you're trying to capture other things (and I do drink other things) as water, you might be cheating yourself on weigh in day.

One more tip is increase slowly. If you're only drinking 5 now, go to 7 next week and 9 the following etc. until you're meeting your water goals. If you don't you'll get headaches. Oh and as long as you're increasing, expect to pee constantly. Just saying

Daily water intake should not be measured by 8oz, 8x's a day. Rule of thumb is drink 1/2 your body weight in oz per day, so if you weigh 140lbs you would drink 70oz of water per day vs someone who weighs 200lb would need to drink 100oz per day. When basing whether or not it counts as water calories don't always count, its more about how acidic something is. Waters pH level is close to 7 and that's what you want to stay close to.

I never thought of the ph level, but that makes sense. The body needs to stay close to alkaline to be healthy and most foods we eat are acidic (coffee, tea, pop, etc.)

Im having a hard time just drinking 8oz. For some reason, water is just not easy to drink like it was in the beginning. Maybe because it's no longer HOT in Southern California.

The biggest help I've found is my water bottle. I hate drinking actual glasses of water because they just don't last long enough and if I don't have my water bottle with me for whatever reason, I don't drink enough water.

Try scheduling out your water based around meals - you'll find you up it almost like magic.

Drink 1 glass right when you wake up - cold water shocks the back of your throat and helps you get rid of the "groggy, crap, why did I wake up again feelings". Drink another with breakfast - now you're up to 2 and you haven't even really started your day yet. Drink a 3rd after a mid-morning snack. Drink one before lunch and grab another after your done. You're up to 5 so far. Grab one right before you leave work and then one before dinner. Drink either milk or water with dinner. Drink 1 about 8pm and so far you're up to 7 or 8 easily with no thought.

If water itself bothers you, get the crystal lite as a stepping stone.

My day goes like this - Morning tea (not counted) at 6am. Get to work and fill water bottle. Finish bottle 1 (3 glasses) before lunch. Fill bottle with lunch (6 glasses). On the way out of the office, fill bottle for drive home (9 glasses). Tea with dinner (not counted). Fill water bottle for evening activities (12 glasses). If evening activities included workout or sodium count was above 1500, fill once more and finish before bed (15 glasses). By spacing it out and not trying to get it all in all at once, my body is better able to absorb it but truthfully as someone who used to claim "Water just doesn't work for me, my body needs the additional electrolytes in order to absorb it" (which was total BS and something I told myself to make me feel better about pop), I drink it straight up. I drink it room temperature mostly (but am not averse to plain hot or cold water). I went to crystal lite for about 3 months and drank like this and then started subbing out my flavoured drink for just water.

hI - I;m really interested in this. I've been trying to religiously drink 8-12 glasses a day but so far haven't seen much impact on my weight loss. How long does it take for the effects to start happening, assuming that other things are not a problem?

I aim to keep going regardless but would love to know what you think.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me.
It's so good to get someone's personal experience though obviously we are all different.
I've been trying to break my daily weigh-in habit so I'll have to wait til Friday for my twice-weekly weigh in and see what, if anything, happens then. I'm doing less this week as the kids are home and the weather has been unkind, and that will clearly have an adverse affect too. I have been doing my workout videos but I'm missing my long dog walks and running around.