How much did drinking water impact your weight loss?
Options
Replies
-
Sadly, I think that the concept of water creating weight loss/fat reduction totally on it's own would be heavily in the "Woo-woo" category of myths surrounding diet. ( Props to NJD1979 for the woo.)
Where it can help is in mistaking the thirst signals for hunger.... if you think this is happening for you then before eating have a glass of water and wait 10 or so minutes before deciding if you are really hungry or not. It may also help with satiation or hunger pangs.
For me I had an unexpected benefit from drinking more water.....reduction in headaches, some severe to the point of migraine, I had no idea how chronically dehydrated I was......
I am not convinced about the hard and fast rules of drinking half your body weight in water. All fluids, including those gotten through, tea/coffee and water laden fruits and veg need to be taken into account, best to go by the colour of your urine output - Google has kindly provided charts to help you there.
Regarding tea/coffee if you regularly drink approx. 4 cups of coffee/tea and apparently the diuretic effect is offset {I will add that I cannot determine the veracity of this information, which comes from a dietitian citing a study conducted in the UK - this info. is taken from the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Health Website}.
Like anything, you can have too much of a good thing in doing so you run the risk of over hydrating yourself which can cause loss of vital electrolytes, disrupt cardiac rhythm and even death.
0 -
i always drunk a lot of water before my weight loss journey and now.
I dont think you lose weight by drinking 2 or 3 liter water a day
I do think its good to drink and stay hydrated.
But that has nothing to do with weight loss.
0 -
I think the whole concept of drinking a lot of water when dieting (above & beyond just staying hydrated) is to make yourself feel full so that you will eat less (consume less calories). If drinking more water helps you meet the caloric numbers that MFP suggests, then drink up as long as you are otherwise meeting your daily nutritional needs. =o)0
-
I hate to say this, because I am anti-water-drinking - I think the eight glasses a day is rubbish and any liquid, including tea and coffee, would have the same effect - but I did the eight glasses while I was on the weight-loss programme and what it may have done was stop me from feeling hungry when I might otherwise have done so. I didn't enjoy it. I forced it down sometimes and that, too, stopped me from eating. So in that way, yes, it did contribute to my weight loss.0
-
I think the whole concept of drinking a lot of water when dieting (above & beyond just staying hydrated) is to make yourself feel full so that you will eat less (consume less calories). If drinking more water helps you meet the caloric numbers that MFP suggests, then drink up as long as you are otherwise meeting your daily nutritional needs. =o)
this! I find if I drink a decent amount of water before/during meals (not consciously downing water to feel full but just consistently drinking water during the day and drinking while eating) I get full more easily and so do not tend to overeat.0 -
I had to give up soda because of health issues causing me to swell. Now I only drink water. It's been a week exactly since I had a drop of anything other than water and the occasional Gatorade.
I will tell you the biggest difference that I'm feeling is that my sweet tooth is basically gone. Yeah, I still want a cookie sometimes, but I used to have to eat chocolate every single day or I felt like I was going to scream and cry. Now it's just like, eh, I could take it or leave it. I lost 4 pounds this week. Not sure if that's connected or not!0 -
I'm not a fan of water. But I started drinking a glass before each meal just to get it out of the way! I drink a heck of a lot of tea. The water before meals worked at making me feel fuller sooner.0
-
I drink a lot more diet sprite and sprite zero
Seriously though, I just do the pee test. If the color isn't right I drink more. Other than that, it didn't consider it much of a factor in my weight loss other than to help me curb my "hunger" when I may have been thirsty. 0 -
No effect. Drinking green tea also has no effect as I've been pretty much exclusively been drinking both for years.0
-
Spreyton22K wrote: »Sadly, I think that the concept of water creating weight loss/fat reduction totally on it's own would be heavily in the "Woo-woo" category of myths surrounding diet. ( Props to NJD1979 for the woo.)
Where it can help is in mistaking the thirst signals for hunger.... if you think this is happening for you then before eating have a glass of water and wait 10 or so minutes before deciding if you are really hungry or not. It may also help with satiation or hunger pangs.
For me I had an unexpected benefit from drinking more water.....reduction in headaches, some severe to the point of migraine, I had no idea how chronically dehydrated I was......
I am not convinced about the hard and fast rules of drinking half your body weight in water. All fluids, including those gotten through, tea/coffee and water laden fruits and veg need to be taken into account, best to go by the colour of your urine output - Google has kindly provided charts to help you there.
Regarding tea/coffee if you regularly drink approx. 4 cups of coffee/tea and apparently the diuretic effect is offset {I will add that I cannot determine the veracity of this information, which comes from a dietitian citing a study conducted in the UK - this info. is taken from the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Health Website}.
Like anything, you can have too much of a good thing in doing so you run the risk of over hydrating yourself which can cause loss of vital electrolytes, disrupt cardiac rhythm and even death.
Nice to see you posting, love.
And yes, all of this. If drinking more water helps you eat/drink less calories it'll help. If you're dehydrated you may experience other benefits (my migraines are triggered by dehydration too). I could also see the possibility that drinking more water might make people feel like they're making healthier choices, which might encourage them to make other healthy choices. That's about it though. Personally I just drink enough to stay hydrated.
0 -
I drink water and tea (which I count as water). It seems to help insofar as it keeps me from getting hungry sometimes and therefore influences my calorie intake. it also prevents my body from retaining too much water. I don't drink insane quantities but all together I guess it is about 10 glasses per day minimum, depending on exercise, temperatures...0
-
I drink a little over 1/2 my body weight in ounces. If i drink, I lose. If I don't, I don't lose. I don't really watch my sodium too too closely though so that may have something to do with it. If I'm not peeing clear, I'm not happy 0
-
I think water helps a lot. It's hard for me to tell how much it has helped because I have changed my diet and exercise as well. But when I drink a lot of water (10 to 14 cups) I tend to feel more full, eat smaller amounts, and have less cravings. Also water is just great for skin and many other organs.
As far as that half your body weight thing is concerned. That doesn't work once you go over a certain weight. Generally speaking people over 250+ lbs can't do that. When I started, I would have had to drink almost 170 oz of water. Hyponatremia generally happens around there and can even happen closer to 136 oz.
8 to 13 cups of water is great for just about everyone.0 -
Water has no effect on weight loss. It helps flush out sodium and some people mistake thirst for hunger (apparently - personally that baffles me a little) so I guess it would help them but that's about it.
I really don't get how people think that drinking more water will magically make them lose more weight.0 -
I really don't get how people think that drinking more water will magically make them lose more weight.
I don't think drinking more water magically makes me lose weight. But after 106 days of logging and going through my diary entries, I drink less calorie drinks and eat smaller portions of food when I drink more water. If I hit 8 to 13 cups, I don't eat more than I should and I never crave coffee, gatorade, pop/soda, etc. I won't say this works for everyone, but it definitely is the case for me. So does drinking more water help ME lose weight. Absolutely.0 -
I drink at least a gal a day. I keep my 24oz Tervis with me at all times, I don't go anywhere it doesn't. My skin looks so much better and I have lost 5 lbs in 10 days. I say yes it does help. Try the water bomb (on pinterest), it really helps keep track of water intake.0
-
For me the water helps me feel more full between meals, and it helps to wash out any of the excess sodium in my system. I've also heard that cold water helps start your metabolism. But mostly I think it just helps control the water weight.0
-
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.9K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.8K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.7K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 400 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.8K Motivation and Support
- 7.9K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.4K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 988 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.4K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions