How much does drinking 8 glasses of water help?

honestly its a very small effect but it does help the body as a whole flushing out and keeping systems running smoothly....watch your pee color it will tell you if you need to drink more water. you may not think so but your body may be dehydrated if you never drink water

found a article though:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20040105/drinking-water-may-speed-weight-loss

Not quite WaterBunnie - coffee/alcohol are actually counter-productive as they further dehydrate you.

Water is the best option for hydration as apart from helping to reduce appetite and flush toxins (sodium in particular) it also has zero calories.

I hardly ever reach the 8 glasses goal on MFP, so I was wondering if its really important and I am giving myself a disadvantage?

Hasn't been shown to be "really important" providing you're hydrated.

Orange juice is a source of fructose and calories that isn't diet neutral though.

I've been told that you should drink half your body weight in water. I've been drinking anywhere from 80 - 100 ounces of water a day and it has done wonderful things for me!

I don't feel as tired, I'm not as hungry, and I feel hydrated ... so I say drink up :drinker:

There is a lot of misinformation on this thread !
Water is water. According to some people, herbal non caffeinated tea can also count as water. Anything else has something added to it which changes the properties of water.
Juice and soda has added sugar, diet soda has controversial problematic chemicals (check out some of the other threads), gatorade can rehydrate you but you dont always need the extra electrolytes and calories, caffeine dehydrates you and if you have ever had a hangover I dont have to tell you that alcohol is problematic. Im not saying you cant drink these things, Im just saying they are not water.

Aim for a gallon of water a day to ensure you're hydrated. It doesn't necessarily HAVE to be that much depending on bodyweight, but it's a safe play.

I drink 1.5 to 2 gallons a day usually.

Water is critical to hydration. Hydration is critical to your metabolism.

I'll have a black coffee please...................... :drinker:

Not quite WaterBunnie - coffee/alcohol are actually counter-productive as they further dehydrate you.

Water is the best option for hydration as apart from helping to reduce appetite and flush toxins (sodium in particular) it also has zero calories.

Did you hear about that guy who drank nothing but coffee and alcohol and died of dehydration???













Me neither. Because it's never happened.

One thing I will say is that since I started drinking my 8 cups plus per day, people have really noticed my complexion.. they say my skin looks great! Honestly, it feels great too!

I can tell that it helps me in different ways. Not drinking soda has decreased my sodium intake as well as the caffeine. Caffeine keeps me awake and night and it acts as a diuretic. Also, by cutting back on the dark liquids, I have decrease my heart rate and decreased the chance of kidney stones. I used to only drink coca cola, but I have given them up. WHen I was loosing weight before my surgery, I had the most weight loss on the weeks where I drank more water. Maybe it is coincidence and then again maybe not.

Dying from dehydration and being dehydrated are two different things. Most Dr.'s would state that a majority of Americans walk around dehydrated. I try to get the 8 cups in a day and usually do. Does it help? I don't know. I don't count products like Diet Rite Pure Zero as water though. I do count water w/a squirt of Mio though.

As for tea/coffee being a diuretic, so many people just spout that word as a reason, without actually understanding what "diuretic" means.

di·u·ret·ic (d-rtk)
adj.
Tending to increase the discharge of urine.
n.
A substance or drug that tends to increase the discharge of urine.

Neat water is also a diuretic. The diuretic effect of caffeine is far, far outweighed by the actual water in the tea/coffee. Also, regular consumers of caffeinated beverages will build up a tolerance to said effect, eventually reaching the point where caffeinated drinks provide practically the same amount of hydration as a cup of neat water will.

This is me right here. I am a soda fanatic. To the point where I would say I probably have a caffeine addiction. I get really bad headaches if its been a couple of days without soda or tea or whatever.

So for all the diuretic spouting people I give you this.

Note its really hard for me to remember to drink most anything throughout the day if I am not eating a meal. I just don't think about it. Its not that I don't want to drink water, we don't have any soda or tea in the house right now but yet I still have not had a drink of anything since we came home from my Mother's day breakfast this morning (of course while typing this I am very thirsty and will probably go get some water now lol)

So here it goes. For breakfast this morning at IHOP I had 3 Iced coffees (yes I know very bad for my diet but it was my "special" mothers day breakfast yada yada and I rarely drink coffee let alone special coffee like that) I have only had to pee once and its been 5 or so hrs. That was the last thing I drank today so far. Hmmm no diuretic there, weird!

Most days when I drink soda it does not make me have to pee more, but when I drink a glass of water I have to pee like 3 or 4 times just from one glass.

I'm from the south so big sweet tea drinker here. But, we rarely make it anymore now that we live in Utah. So whenever I do happen to make tea it makes me have to pee a lot. (I imagine that is because it is mostly water as in 2in of the pitcher tea water and the rest of the pitcher cold water added in, I like my tea weak)

So hmmm caffeine drinks don't pee much, water and very watered down tea after I haven't drank tea in awhile lots of peeing.

I think there is a problem with the diuretic excuse here.

Basically the only reason soda is bad is because it is empty calories and has lots of sugar.

Whats next people will say not to eat chocolate because it has caffeine in it and will make you pee a lot and become dehydrated?

There is one thing I will add about dehydration since people are mentioning it.

In military training we were taught that an orangish tint to your urine is a sign of possible dehydration.

Living out here in Utah where the climate is dry and hot you can sweat and not even realize it because of the instant evaporation. If you feel thirsty out here then you are already in pre-stages of dehydration. This is bad. Especially if you are hiking. You don't drink enough when you are hiking then you pass out like the person on the guided hike before ours at mesa verde national park causing her to be carried out on a stretcher to be safe and causing our tour and the 2 after ours to be cancelled.

You should drink before you feel thirsty if you live in a dry climate or any climate really. Its not like when I grew up in Florida in the humid air and you get water in your body just by standing outside, lol.

I drink 8-10 glasses every day, you will find yourself feeling full and more energetic.