What do you count as "water"?
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TimothyFish wrote: »I find it interesting that people would log coffee and tea differently than they do plain water. If you swallow some dry instant coffee crystals and then drink a cup of hot water, your body can't tell a difference from putting the crystals in a cup of hot water and drinking that.
I found this on webmd. "Although tea contains only about one-third the caffeine found in coffee, preliminary studies show that the caffeine may actually help to increase tea's cancer-protection effects. Caffeine is a diuretic and stimulates urination, and you can actually get dehydrated by drinking too much tea or coffee -- so take it easy." So it appears it isn't the same as plain water after all, which hydrates you.
How about some actual science instead of a WebMD blog?:
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/12187618The literature indicates that caffeine consumption stimulates a mild diuresis similar to water, but there is no evidence of a fluid-electrolyte imbalance that is detrimental to exercise performance or health. Investigations comparing caffeine (100-680 mg) to water or placebo seldom found a statistical difference in urine volume. In the 10 studies reviewed, consumption of a CB resulted in 0-84% retention of the initial volume ingested, whereas consumption of water resulted in 0-81% retention. Further, tolerance to caffeine reduces the likelihood that a detrimental fluid-electrolyte imbalance will occur. The scientific literature suggests that athletes and recreational enthusiasts will not incur detrimental fluid-electrolyte imbalances if they consume CB in moderation and eat a typical U.S. diet. Sedentary members of the general public should be a less risk than athletes because their fluid losses via sweating are smaller.
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/12834577...It is relatively safe and has no known negative performance effects, nor does it cause significant dehydration or electrolyte imbalance...7 -
The Food and Nutrition Board released the sixth in a series of reports presenting dietary reference values for the intake of nutrients by Americans and Canadians. This new report establishes nutrient recommendations on water, salt and potassium to maintain health and reduce chronic disease risk. Highlights of the report include:
◾The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide. The report did not specify exact requirements for water, but set general recommendations for women at approximately 2.7 liters (91 ounces) of total water -- from all beverages and foods -- each day, and men an average of approximately 3.7 liters (125 ounces daily) of total water. The panel did not set an upper level for water.
◾About 80 percent of people's total water intake comes from drinking water and beverages -- including caffeinated beverages -- and the other 20 percent is derived from food.
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10925
http://iom.edu/Reports/2004/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-Water-Potassium-Sodium-Chloride-and-Sulfate.aspx
http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/283/5/R993When we speak of water we are essentially focusing first and foremost on all types of water, be they soft or hard, spring or well, carbonated or distilled water. Furthermore we get water not only directly as a beverage but from food and to a very small extent also from oxidation of macronutrients (metabolic water). The proportion of water that comes from beverages and food varies with the proportion of fruits and vegetables in the diet. We present the ranges of water in various foods (Table 1). In the United States it is estimated that about 22% of water comes from our food intake while it would be much higher in European countries, particularly a country like Greece with its higher intake of fruits and vegetables or South Korea
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908954/Fluids come from the beverages you drink and the foods that you eat
Coffees and teas are not dehydrating. Limit caffeine intake to about 400 mg per day. That is equal to 750 mL (3 cups) of black coffee or 1 L (4 cups) of black tea per day.
Drink herbal teas or decaf coffee if you want to have more than the recommended amount of caffeinated beverages.
http://www.dietitians.ca/Your-Health/Nutrition-A-Z/Water/Why-is-water-so-important-for-my-body-Know-when.aspxFact or fiction: Beverages that contain caffeine will contribute to your daily fluid
needs? FACT! Research has shown that beverages containing caffeine, such as
soft drinks, tea, and coffee can contribute to meeting your daily fluid needs as
much as non-caffeinated beverages, such as water, milk, and juice do. Some of
these beverages may contain calories, which should be accounted for in your diet.
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/fammed/customcf/resources/nutrition/hydration.pdfWater comes from more than just fluids, it is a major component of many foods. In fact, it is estimated that 20% of our water needs are met through food, not fluids. Meal consumption is critical to ensure full hydration on a day to day basis. Eating food promotes fluid intake and retention.
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/humansciences/fluidsWater comes from a variety of sources. All beverages or fluids are a source of water. Even solid foods contain water. Lettuce, celery, and other crisp vegetables are composed of 90 percent or more water. Protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, or chicken may contain as much as one-half to two-thirds their weight in water. Even grain products, which don’t seem watery at all, may be up to one-third water.
Fats, such as butter or margarine, and sugar are among the foods that contain the least water.
Some water, perhaps one to two cups per day, comes from inside our bodies as a byproduct of energy metabolism. This amount is small but significant.
It is important to be aware of fluid intake. Even though solid food is a source of water, additional water from drinking fluids is needed. Besides plain water, juices, milk, or other beverages boost fluid intake.
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=296
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frankpappalardo wrote: »Sorry, I'm sure this is posted somewhere but I can't find it...
If I have 8 oz of coffee, do I check off 1 water? What about tea, beer, wine, soup, etc?
I only log plain water as water. Other fluids such as tea, coffee, juice, I log with the relevant meals.
Same here.0 -
I am aware of what I drink - I don't stress about logging it though. I check my pee, and that gives me an indication of how hydrated I am.2
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If I'm thirsty I drink.
If my urine isn't the correct colour I drink.
I don't log it - seems a complete waste of time and 8 glasses a day (of liquid) is actually ludicrous to apply to everyone.
And yes my thirst response does work perfectly well, like the vast majority of people.
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I have a separate section on my MFP page for 'Drinks' in which I track tea, coffee, wine, cocktails etc. I keep tabs on how much water I've drunk in the 'Water' section, but don't worry if I haven't reached the recommended (1900ml or whatever the figure is) as long as my urine is clear.0
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I only count water as water. I really don't drink much else though anymore with the exception of my morning coffee.0
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TimothyFish wrote: »I find it interesting that people would log coffee and tea differently than they do plain water. If you swallow some dry instant coffee crystals and then drink a cup of hot water, your body can't tell a difference from putting the crystals in a cup of hot water and drinking that.
I found this on webmd. "Although tea contains only about one-third the caffeine found in coffee, preliminary studies show that the caffeine may actually help to increase tea's cancer-protection effects. Caffeine is a diuretic and stimulates urination, and you can actually get dehydrated by drinking too much tea or coffee -- so take it easy." So it appears it isn't the same as plain water after all, which hydrates you.
I drink a lot of coffee. I drink little else and have never experienced this dehydration they speak of. It would be interesting to see how thick the coffee would have to be for someone to experience dehydration from drinking coffee. I suspect it would have to have the consistency of mud.2 -
I log drinks as with meals but water is just water drink when your thristy
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PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »TimothyFish wrote: »I find it interesting that people would log coffee and tea differently than they do plain water. If you swallow some dry instant coffee crystals and then drink a cup of hot water, your body can't tell a difference from putting the crystals in a cup of hot water and drinking that.
I found this on webmd. "Although tea contains only about one-third the caffeine found in coffee, preliminary studies show that the caffeine may actually help to increase tea's cancer-protection effects. Caffeine is a diuretic and stimulates urination, and you can actually get dehydrated by drinking too much tea or coffee -- so take it easy." So it appears it isn't the same as plain water after all, which hydrates you.
That's pretty much earned the status of "old wives' tale." Whoever is quoted was just repeating the same conventional wisdom that was passed down to them.
Do you know what else stimulates urination?
Drinking water!!
HTH!!
HAND!!2 -
I only log water that has nothing else in it as water. Everything else I put under the category of drinks that I made in my food diary. Except for soup, that goes in a meal category. For me this works and reminds me to drink more water because I can clearly see with a number count of how many glasses I am at.0
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TimothyFish wrote: »I find it interesting that people would log coffee and tea differently than they do plain water. If you swallow some dry instant coffee crystals and then drink a cup of hot water, your body can't tell a difference from putting the crystals in a cup of hot water and drinking that.
I found this on webmd. "Although tea contains only about one-third the caffeine found in coffee, preliminary studies show that the caffeine may actually help to increase tea's cancer-protection effects. Caffeine is a diuretic and stimulates urination, and you can actually get dehydrated by drinking too much tea or coffee -- so take it easy." So it appears it isn't the same as plain water after all, which hydrates you.
Yes they do have a diuretic effect but not so much that it would dehydrate a person. When I still lived at home we drank (I kid you not) 6-7 pots of coffee a day. This was me, my mother and brother. If anyone was going to keel over from the diuretic effect of coffee it would have been us. However I hear that eating a lot of negative calorie foods will help with this problem.
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There is no need to log or track water unless you are regularly dehydrated and use it as a tool.0
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stanmann571 wrote: »PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »TimothyFish wrote: »I find it interesting that people would log coffee and tea differently than they do plain water. If you swallow some dry instant coffee crystals and then drink a cup of hot water, your body can't tell a difference from putting the crystals in a cup of hot water and drinking that.
I found this on webmd. "Although tea contains only about one-third the caffeine found in coffee, preliminary studies show that the caffeine may actually help to increase tea's cancer-protection effects. Caffeine is a diuretic and stimulates urination, and you can actually get dehydrated by drinking too much tea or coffee -- so take it easy." So it appears it isn't the same as plain water after all, which hydrates you.
That's pretty much earned the status of "old wives' tale." Whoever is quoted was just repeating the same conventional wisdom that was passed down to them.
Do you know what else stimulates urination?
Drinking water!!
HTH!!
HAND!!
Beat me to it. It's like people (webmd, I'm looking at you) don't know what the term "diuretic" actually means.1 -
frankpappalardo wrote: »Thanks all! This is helpful. I hope to get to a point where I don't have to count, but for now I want to shoot for that magic 8 cups and see what happens. From my experience, if I only drink when I feel thirsty I fall way short of that, even if I do count coffee.
This is a good idea when first starting if you are pretty sure you don't get enough fluids in you. I did the same thing, then drinking liquids became a habit and I stopped counting.
To answer your question, all liquids and food containing water, like fruits, add up to a well hydrated body. In my log, I counted anything I drank, as opposed to ate, except alcoholic beverages. Water, soda, tea, coffee, juice, milk, etc. all got counted.
One thing I did was get a SodaStream. I like fizzy things like soda and seltzer so I would fizz up 2 (one liter each) bottles in the morning. I have a lidded insulated glass with a straw that holds 24 oz and would fill that and keep with me. As long as I drank one full liter plus, I knew I was good. Having that glass near me also helped with the mindless snacking I had been doing too.1 -
stanmann571 wrote: »PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »TimothyFish wrote: »I find it interesting that people would log coffee and tea differently than they do plain water. If you swallow some dry instant coffee crystals and then drink a cup of hot water, your body can't tell a difference from putting the crystals in a cup of hot water and drinking that.
I found this on webmd. "Although tea contains only about one-third the caffeine found in coffee, preliminary studies show that the caffeine may actually help to increase tea's cancer-protection effects. Caffeine is a diuretic and stimulates urination, and you can actually get dehydrated by drinking too much tea or coffee -- so take it easy." So it appears it isn't the same as plain water after all, which hydrates you.
That's pretty much earned the status of "old wives' tale." Whoever is quoted was just repeating the same conventional wisdom that was passed down to them.
Do you know what else stimulates urination?
Drinking water!!
HTH!!
HAND!!
Or eating food containing water. Hell, even using up fat make you pee. ~20% of your fat loss leaves your body in urine.1 -
I do not count water anymore because I am quite good at keeping hydrated, but when I did, I would count water and tea/herbal tea (which i take without sugar/milk etc). In the cold months I drink a lot of tea to keep warm so it makes at least half of my water intake on some days!
I wouldn't count milk and juice because I consider them food, and I also wouldn't count coffee0 -
federicafezza4271 wrote: »I do not count water anymore because I am quite good at keeping hydrated, but when I did, I would count water and tea/herbal tea (which i take without sugar/milk etc). In the cold months I drink a lot of tea to keep warm so it makes at least half of my water intake on some days!
I wouldn't count milk and juice because I consider them food, and I also wouldn't count coffee
Why wouldn't you count milk, juice or coffee?
Have you read this thread?1 -
federicafezza4271 wrote: »I do not count water anymore because I am quite good at keeping hydrated, but when I did, I would count water and tea/herbal tea (which i take without sugar/milk etc). In the cold months I drink a lot of tea to keep warm so it makes at least half of my water intake on some days!
I wouldn't count milk and juice because I consider them food, and I also wouldn't count coffee
Why wouldn't you count milk, juice or coffee?
Have you read this thread?
I think you misunderstand. I take it to mean they wouldn't count milk/juice/coffee as water but would log it as drinks. I count milk with breakfast, juice as a drink and when I was logging coffee, I'd log it as a drink. As I take mine black and it is under 4 cal, I gave up on logging coffee as well as water.0 -
federicafezza4271 wrote: »I do not count water anymore because I am quite good at keeping hydrated, but when I did, I would count water and tea/herbal tea (which i take without sugar/milk etc). In the cold months I drink a lot of tea to keep warm so it makes at least half of my water intake on some days!
I wouldn't count milk and juice because I consider them food, and I also wouldn't count coffee
Why wouldn't you count milk, juice or coffee?
Have you read this thread?
They are not telling anyone else not to count them, just that they don't. If they choose to not count them and are not annoyed by how much time they spend in the bathroom, who cares?
OP: everything counts but what YOU choose to count is up to you. Don't sweat the small stuff. Caffeine might make you pee a little more but not enough to be a problem. Sports drinks might make you retain water a little more, but not enough to be a problem. Just make sure your urine is pale yellow and you are on the right track.1 -
Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Just keep hydrated - there's no need to make this unnecessarily overly complicated with ridiculous rules. I don't track water because I keep plenty hydrated through a variety of liquids and foods. Just be sure to log the calories of anything that has them. I might not count the beer/wine or other alcohol because they can dehydrate you but the others are fine.
This. I don't track water.0 -
I tracked for a few days - pretty much always drank more than 12 cups fluids per day. (Yes, I count tea, herbal tea, iced tea, Crystal Light, diet soda, pretty much everything except milk because I view milk as food. Milk gets logged as a snack or as part of a meal.) So, now, I just hit the 10 cups water button at some point during the day so that FitBit doesn't get on my case about not being hydrated. (The choice of 10 cups was pretty arbitrary on my part, but there's a button to re-use the last volume logged so I've just kept reusing that same number. It's an underestimate but I also don't particularly care.)0
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Personally, I track only plain water as water - simply because if I tracked diet soda as water, that's all I'd drink. Tracking only water is a reminder to me to put down the caffeine, and pick up some good old H20. At the same time, however, I don't stress if I miss my water goal for the day, because I know I've certainly had quite a bit of Diet Coke, haha.
Also, plain water helps soothe hunger for me in a way that other liquids don't - anyone have any scientific insight on that? I may also just have some sort of placebo affect sitch going on.1 -
I don't track water, as I don't drink plain water. Coffee and diet soda is all I drink. Not dead yet.3
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I started counting just water, then my app I use updated to include all kinds of fluids and counted them which was neat. I recently went back to just counting water though, the 72oz I drink outside of anything else seems to do good things for me so I'll stick with it.0
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water, coffee, tea.
If i put cream in my coffee I log that by itself under my breakfast.0 -
Don't track my water intake and never have. Don't see the point since I usually have a cup of something liquid with me at all times. I only track it if it has calories in it.1
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