Water intake? Please read

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MrsSullivan08
MrsSullivan08 Posts: 274 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay, so I am just curious if it is really necessary to drink 8 cups of water a day? I would like to know pros and cons if anyone knows....will this effect amount of weight lost??
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  • mallory3411
    mallory3411 Posts: 839 Member
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    You need to drink water. Find the amount that works for you (gross I know but until your pee is light light yellow or clear). 8 cups isn't what everyone needs.

    I drink at least 3L a day. Your body needs water for cells, functions etc and weight loss. Water helps get rid of toxins and regenerate.
  • mallory3411
    mallory3411 Posts: 839 Member
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    Water will also counter act the sodium you eat everyday... too much sodium and not enough water will cause weight gain.
  • plaid405
    plaid405 Posts: 33 Member
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    I was told by a trainer that the liver is what burns fat. The kidneys clean the body. When the kidneys are overworked (soda, tea, coffee etc...) the liver must stop burning fat and help your kidneys clean your body. So when the liver is helping the kidneys it's not burning fat like it should. So water is a very very good tool to keep your liver burning fat.
  • Gshields42
    Gshields42 Posts: 69
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    http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

    The best quote to me is the bit at the end:

    "Although not trained in medicine or nutrition, I intuitively knew that the advice to drink eight glasses of water per day was nonsense. The advice fully meets three important criteria for being an American health urban legend: excess, public virtue, and the search for a cheap "magic bullet."

    But as Mallory said above, your urine should generally be light yellow. You don't want it completely clear, because that probably means that you are on the higher end of hydration spectrum, which can actually be detrimental (along with toxins, water removes nutrients from your body, particularly sodium). If your urine is dark or pungent smelling, then you aren't drinking enough and are probably a bit dehydrated. Generally, your body will tell you when to drink. If you are thirsty, drink. If you aren't thirsty, don't go out of your way to drink. In actuality, a large (possibly majority) percentage of your water intake during a day will be through water in food.

    Making sure that you are keeping yourself fairly well hydrated can indirectly help with weight loss, as your body translates hunger and thirsty signals very similarly, leading you to think you are more hungry than you are when you are thirsty. This can lead to increased caloric intake, and as a result slower weight loss (or gain). It doesn't directly effect weight loss in either direction, however.
  • bellavie23
    bellavie23 Posts: 83 Member
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    Honestly, I started drinking 8 cups a day just this last week (I am on day 4 of drinking it), mind you I do LIGHT working out right now because of getting a hip tattoo done, Im sore. With dieting, I have lost close to 3 lbs, and by dieting I mean watching my calories, I dont eat salads or anything like that, I eat what I want, I just count my calories and cut sodas completely out. Water is a natural destressor and helps in tons of other ways. It really depends on you and how much you work out to how much you should drink, but you should def be drinking quite a bit if you want results, it naturally helps rid fat, so try, even if you set a goal to drink 1 cup every 2 hours or something :)
  • QueenJayJay
    QueenJayJay Posts: 1,139
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    This is a hot topic on MFP. Ask a doctor. :flowerforyou:
  • wickedcricket
    wickedcricket Posts: 1,246 Member
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    yes. it is neccessary. next question
  • alexbelly
    alexbelly Posts: 277 Member
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    i always have a hard time reaching the 8cups/day goal. But I have to say, since I've been drinking more water my skin looks fantastic!
  • savlyon
    savlyon Posts: 474 Member
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    On the contrary I have been told by a nurse that you should drink 1 oz per pound of body weight. Apparently Tosca Reno (Eat clean diet, wife of Oxygen's editor) holds to this same theory.
  • agleckle
    agleckle Posts: 235 Member
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    I dont use specific ounces, I just use this as a general rule of thumb: drink enough water to have at least one clear urination a day. If your urine is always yellow or worse, orange-y, then you are dehydrated. Very pale yellow or clear urine is what you should aim for.
  • QueenJayJay
    QueenJayJay Posts: 1,139
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    I dont use specific ounces, I just use this as a general rule of thumb: drink enough water to have at least one clear urination a day. If your urine is always yellow or worse, orange-y, then you are dehydrated. Very pale yellow or clear urine is what you should aim for.

    If you take a B vitamin, this doesn't apply. It will turn your urine yellow.
  • xTenaciousJx
    xTenaciousJx Posts: 555
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    i drink 4-6 and dont' think that everyone needs the 8 cups...every body is different, i do drink 16oz after every meal and then if im thirsty through-out the day ill drink more....
    i have usually pale yellow (mostly clear) urine every day.
  • deluda
    deluda Posts: 146 Member
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    Water will also counter act the sodium you eat everyday... too much sodium and not enough water will cause weight gain.

    I totally agree with this. I have a sensitivity to salt and when I eat too much drinking enough water will help avoid the ER!
  • johnwhitent
    johnwhitent Posts: 648 Member
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    The body needs 8 to 10 cups of water daily but gets water from other sources (food) so drinking 10 cups is overkill. There are several peer reviewed scientific studies that can be found on the web to demonstrate this. Meerkats survive with no water during the dry season getting all of their water from food. Humans are not meerkats, but I find that this statistic makes the point (though no human needs to try to emulate a meerkat in this respect!) Additional water can help with helping one feel full and such so there are benefits, just don’t get all tied in knots trying to reach 8 glasses per day!
  • Gail3260
    Gail3260 Posts: 354 Member
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    yes. it is neccessary. next question

    Oh no it isn't......at least not for everyone.......you could spend your life reading the pros and cons on this site on that topic! I drink no more than one cup a day of actual water and I am fine and losing weight at a steady rate.
  • Gail3260
    Gail3260 Posts: 354 Member
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    The body needs 8 to 10 cups of water daily but gets water from other sources (food) so drinking 10 cups is overkill. There are several peer reviewed scientific studies that can be found on the web to demonstrate this. Meerkats survive with no water during the dry season getting all of their water from food. Humans are not meerkats, but I find that this statistic makes the point (though no human needs to try to emulate a meerkat in this respect!) Additional water can help with helping one feel full and such so there are benefits, just don’t get all tied in knots trying to reach 8 glasses per day!

    ^^^^^^THIS!!!!
  • gaz1023
    gaz1023 Posts: 4 Member
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    Hi! I'm new...I just wanted to put in my thoughts on water. Yes, it''s necessary to drink at least 8 cups of water. I drink 5 16oz bottles a day, two in the morning, two in the afternoon and one usually when I get home from work (so not be peeing all night). I found I drank less Diet Coke, which I love. Even though I pee all day and I can't stand water (really) I do it becuase I know it's good for me.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    Okay, so I am just curious if it is really necessary to drink 8 cups of water a day? I would like to know pros and cons if anyone knows....will this effect amount of weight lost??

    No. What doesn't get emphasized is that you can get about 20% - or more - of that through food (at least real, whole food, not processed foods). When you eat an orange you are getting mostly water. Even if you drink something that makes you pee you are still getting water (i.e. tea).

    If I don't get enough water on one day then I wake up thirsty the next day. My body balances itself out. (Of course my body doesn't retain water since I follow a low-carb eating plan - Primal, that is. Carbs make your body retain sodium and water. I don't even retain water during TOM). And I don't down water before eating a meal, either. Stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) has a specific pH for digesting food and diluting it with water can cause some issues. I prefer to fill up on food.
  • Gshields42
    Gshields42 Posts: 69
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    @Plaid405 - Please, for the love of everything good and holy, don't pay attention to everything your trainer says. Trainers aren't generally (in fact virtually never) medically trained in any way, shape, or form. There isn't even a standard certification or training standard for them. You could bill yourself as a trainer right now, and be as knowledgeable and well trained as the majority of trainers.

    In reality, most trainers are more akin to salesmen than they are to medical professionals. Most clients looking for training (particularly those more interested in weight loss as opposed to true exercise/weight lifting advice) tend to be unknowledgeable and frankly, gullible, and trainers feed on that. Their job is to sell their services to you, so they tend towards dire warnings, oversimplifications, and blatant misrepresentations to emphasize why you need their services.

    Yes, there are many good trainers. There are many more bad trainers. When I see statements like that, I lean more towards the latter. Please take everything that they say with a grain of salt. There are a great number of stories out there of people that have been injured by the negligence/incompetence of their trainer.

    Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional either, nor do I have any medical training. I've read a lot and researched a great deal for my weight loss journey, which is where my knowledge comes from. Most of knowledge coming from reputable sources, so I obviously trust it (else I wouldn't be repeating it), but at the end of the day I have no more training than the average trainer that I'm ranting against.
  • MrsSullivan08
    MrsSullivan08 Posts: 274 Member
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    Thank you everyone for your input.

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