I have been thinking about this since I read it last week. Someone mentioned that they didn't think drinking water was something that caused weight loss...hopefully I got that right. Anyway, I thought it was sort of a misperception of why water is recommended when you are trying to lose weight.

When I was looking at all the conflicting information out there on weight loss, one thing I knew had been consistent for years and years was to drink enough water. I remember my mom counting glasses of water as a kid. I tend to believe that something that has been that consistent for that long probably has a lot of truth to it.

I thought maybe those of us that are water advocates could share one or 2 reasons we believe water is important in our healthy eating journeys.

For me, the top 2 are:
1. Aids in my digestion. When I am dehydrated, one of my first symptoms appears in my digestion. Also, when you increase your fiber intake with increased consumption of things like fruits/veggies and whole grains, water consumption helps your body deal with that.
2. I don't confuse thirst with hunger. I can't quote the actual studies but I know I've read that the mind cannot distinguish between the two.

How about you?

Peg

Wow! Lots of posts here.

I drink lots of water for these two reasons:

hx of kidney stones

When I am drinking at least 8 glasses per day I stay more on plan and in tune with a good eating habits. It is a reminder for me. It keeps me present.


I don't care much about the controvery around it because it is so helpful for me.

This is an interesting article on the Dartmouth Medical School site... they try to figure out where the 8 glasses a day thing came from...

http://dms.dartmouth.edu/news/2002_h2/08aug2002_water.shtml

quote:

Originally posted by jillybean:
I also was thinking about the bottled water thing. I don't know if before bottled water it was such a big deal to drink 8-10 glasses per day. It would be interesting to research that and see when these "water guidelines" started to surface.

I think that, for those of you in your 20s and 30s, you may lived more of your life where bottled water not only existed but was heavily consumed. Being almost 54, I have lived more of my life pre-bottled water, and my feeling is that the "water guidelines" have been around way before the bottled water craze. I can remember hearing those "drink 8-10 glasses of water per day" recommendations DECADES ago.

I think that it is important to ahead and never get too hungry or thirsty in our culture. It can keep us out of tempting situation.

It is too easy to intend to run into 7-11 for a bottle of water... and "accidently" get a Coke Slurpie and something off the Hostess Display.

And McDonalds sells bottled water and diet soda... but many people don't like diet and being in the Drive Thru lane leads to a 2,000 calorie McMeal... when all you really need is a water.

But I know in my case, being really thristy is often a case where I am often hungry and end up making less than good decisions.

(Had lots of time to think about this as a went for a walk and dh left and locked me out of house for three hours. The d in dh does NOT stand for dear right at this moment...)

I've worked hard at drinking more water and I feel it has helped me lose weight. First of all, I didn't drink enough before - a normal day's amount of liquids could be three small cups. That was very little - max. 0.75 liters instead of 2.0. It was only when I started paying attention to this that I realized how bloated and shriveled up I'd been feeling, and how much better I felt when I was drinking more.

The way water is directly related to my weight loss is that I now drink water instead of munching on something. Feeling sort of off, and not even lunchtime yet? Have some water. Bored... feel the need to stretch? Go get some water.

I can't always tell if I'm thirsty, but if I manage to drink enough then I can tell the difference. I still have to make a conscious (or semi-conscious) effort though.

Speaking of bottled water:

When I go on my walks, I take along a Nalgene water bottle with belt holder.

Our city has high quality well water, so in this area, bottled water is a waste of both money and environmental resources. Even so, people locally buy a ton of it. The power of marketing...

I'm not at all offended. You generated a discussion and that is what we're here to do. I don't think we are all ever going to agree on all things, and that is what makes this so interesting.

I don't think seeing many sides of any issue is ever a bad thing.

Dawn

I'm definitely in the camp that water has helped with my weight loss efforts. Not to mention that I'm so active most days that I do have to replenish what I lost at the gym.

Water for me replaced sugary iced tea, lemonade and diet pop so I saved lots of calories by switching to water on a daily basis not to mention that I stopped putting all those chemicals in my body.

I definitely drink more water and tea (black, nothing added) than most and for me it does help me not munch as much (keeps my hands and mouth busy) - especially at parties!

quote:

Originally posted by p7eggyc:
Please don't take offense...I was trying to put a positive spin on it but obviously failed.

Nobody is saying drinking water is bad...

And I think we all agree that people need to be hydrated. And being dehydrated is obviously a bad thing…

Personally, it doesn’t matter to me at all if I drink 3 cups of straight water or 3 cups of water with a couple of tea bags hanging in it. Not one single bit of difference to me… at this time… that might change some day. But much of my water has a tea bag sitting in it these days.

And actually a lot of people get frustrated with WW over the water as Jill pointed out... And it may hurt their weight loss efforts if they quit some program (any program) that works over frustration with 6 glasses of water.

Just some people disagree with you, and not all of us are advocates that drinking X number of glasses of water a day is a necessary component in weight loss/maint is all… We just disagree with that part of it... the connection between drinking water and weight loss...

Just a disagreement is all...

quote:

Originally posted by Tayhudson:
The other reason I don't think that you have to force water down, if you're eating correctly, is that if you are eating a good amount of fruit and vegetables, you are replacing a lot of your lost water that way.

I also think it isn't a coincidence that the whole "we're a nation of chronically dehydrated people" didn't come about until bottled water became so in vogue.

Dawn

I agree, I think if you are eating a lot of fruits/vegetables you are getting a good amt of water.

I also was thinking about the bottled water thing. I don't know if before bottled water it was such a big deal to drink 8-10 glasses per day. It would be interesting to research that and see when these "water guidelines" started to surface. Someone did mention that they could look back on 26 years of WW history and they were recommending water all along so maybe...

JIll

I'm not getting my point across well today. I just thought we could talk about why it was good, not about why it wasn't or anything about that particular comment. No worries...knew better...that's why I thought about it for so many days before I posted. Please don't take offense...I was trying to put a positive spin on it but obviously failed.

Peg

Click on:

Mayo Clinic - Water: How much should you drink every day?

And another perspective from a different source:

Is Drinking Lots Of Water All Wet?

WASHINGTON, August 10, 2002

(CBS) Trying to do the “right” thing by drinking eight full glasses of water a day may do little more than make a person run to the bathroom, a researcher said on Friday.

Newspapers and health and beauty magazines all advise drinking at least 8 full glasses of water a day totaling 64 ounces for optimal health — an approach called “8x8” by proponents.

But Dr. Heinz Valtin of Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire said there is no scientific evidence to back up this advice, which has helped create a huge market for bottled water.

“After 10 months of careful searching I have found no scientific evidence that supports '8x8',” Valtin, who has written textbooks on the subject of human water balance, said in a telephone interview.

Writing in the American Journal of Physiology, Valtin, a kidney specialist, said people forget that the food they eat also contains some water.

The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council has recommended that people take in about one milliliter of water for each calorie of food eaten.

This adds up to two liters, or 74 fluid ounces on an average 2,000-calorie diet. But the National Research Council also noted that much of this is already contained in food.

“I did 43 years of research on that system — the osmoregulatory system. That system is so precise and so fast that I find it impossible to beleve that evolution left us with a chronic water deficit,” Valtin said.

If a person gets low on fluid, the body compensates by bringing fluid back out of the kidneys and by slowing the loss of water through the skin, Valtin said. Thirst kicks in long before dehydration starts, he added.

“It does it very quickly and very accurately and it does so in minutes,” Valtin said.

He said he and colleagues became concerned after seeing dozens of newspaper and magazine articles urging people to sip water all day. “I started talking to my colleagues and asking them 'Do you know of any evidence for this?'. Invariably, they said, 'No I think it's a myth',” Valtin said.

The journal asked him to review all the scientific studies he could find and he concluded that someone misinformed has been telling people to drink large amounts of water when most do not need to.

“I am referring to healthy adults in a temperate climate leading a largely sedentary existence,” Valtin said. “Persons with certain diseases must have large volumes of water — kidney stones are probably the most common example.”

The rest can just drink enough to slake thirst — and this includes coffee, tea, and even beer — despite their diuretic effects, Valtin said.

He hopes people will be relieved of the guilt of not getting enough water, and of the expense of buying bottled water to drink throughout the day.

“There is also the possibility that if you drink a lot of water that happens to be polluted then of course you get more pollutants,” Valtin said.

“Then there is the inconvenience of constant urination, the embarrassment of having to go to the bathroom all the time,” he added.

And overdoses of water can cause water intoxication that can lead to confusion and even death. Water intoxication is one deadly effect of taking the drug Ecstasy, for instance, because it makes people thirsty beyond their physical needs.

© MMII Reuters Limited. All Rights Reserved.

I have struggled with the 8-10 glasses of water a day thing for many, many years. I don't enjoy drinking water, unless I am working out or really hot. I used to force myself to drink it and quite honestly I've never seen my weight loss increase even when I was very faithful to consuming the correct amt of water a day. I remember being at a WW meeting a few years ago and we were discussing the water thing. There were a lot of us who struggled with getting in 8 glasses a day and I remember the leader saying that we could count a glass of unsweetend tea and other beverages as long as they did not have caffeine or sugar. I don't think she meant diet decaf soda counted as water but things like iced or hot tea, club soda, etc. I drink water when I'm thirsty for it, just as I do with other beverages. I'm not disputing that we need water, just saying that for me, I know I don't get in 8-10 glasses a day and I really don't believe(because I've tried it) that it will add to my weight loss efforts. Since I'm not a big fan of drinking water I buy club soda or tonic water and add a bit of lite cranberry juice and a wedge of lime or just club soda with lime, green tea(which is primarily water) so I know I am still drinking low/no calorie beverages throughout the day and don't need to worry about hydration.

Jill

quote:

Originally posted by p7eggyc:
I agree...that was my point. I wanted to highlight the fact that 'no, drinking water won't 'make' you lose weight' but that you SHOULD be drinking water for a long list of reasons and many of them are even more important when you change to a healthier eating lifestyle. I was hoping we could illustrate some of those reasons.

I think this health issue is like so many others. There is some good science on it, (which at some point maybe I'll go dig out), there is lots of anectdotal (sp?) evidence that it is good and yet some people have taken it radically far out.

I guess my concern was some sort of message that 'water's not going to help you' that a newbie might hear and I don't think that is entirely true. It is part of a healthy lifestyle.

Peg

Yes, but you took my comment out of context. I can't find the post where I said it, but it was a direct response to a specific question. As an answer to that specific question, I don't think what I said was misleading.

My next sentence after that comment was also, unless you are replacing water for high calorie drinks. If you are doing that, yes, you are saving yourself a lot of calories per day, and you probably will lose weight, particularly at first.

Dawn

quote:

Just because many people believe something... doesn't make it true.

I think if you go back 20-30 years in WW materials, you will find that they have been talking about hydration.

Peg

I agree...that was my point. I wanted to highlight the fact that 'no, drinking water won't 'make' you lose weight' but that you SHOULD be drinking water for a long list of reasons and many of them are even more important when you change to a healthier eating lifestyle. I was hoping we could illustrate some of those reasons.

I think this health issue is like so many others. There is some good science on it, (which at some point maybe I'll go dig out), there is lots of anectdotal (sp?) evidence that it is good and yet some people have taken it radically far out.

I guess my concern was some sort of message that 'water's not going to help you' that a newbie might hear and I don't think that is entirely true. It is part of a healthy lifestyle.

Peg

The other reason I don't think that you have to force water down, if you're eating correctly, is that if you are eating a good amount of fruit and vegetables, you are replacing a lot of your lost water that way.

People think you HAVE to drink water to replace water, but there is water in a lot of other food and drinks.

I drink water, but I don't make myself drink water. I pee clearly unless I'm taking antihistamines or decongestants. I do drink more water when I'm taking those, because they do dry you out.

Again, I'm not saying drinking water isn't healthy. I'm just saying I sometime think its benefits are blown out of proportion.

I also think it isn't a coincidence that the whole "we're a nation of chronically dehydrated people" didn't come about until bottled water became so in vogue.

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by p7eggyc:
I tend to believe that something that has been that consistent for that long probably has a lot of truth to it.

Maybe there is some kernel of truth in it... but people believe things all the time that have no scientific basis.

I think that there are a lot of people drinking 12 glasses of water thinking that it will "flush fat" or something...

For hundreds and hundreds of years some cultures believed that bathing was unhealthy. And maybe the kernel of truth is... that sharing your water with live stock and bathing with open sores may not be too healthy... but other cultures had whole rituals for bathing.

Just because many people believe something... doesn't make it true.

It was me that said that. I said I don't think it helps you to lose weight, unless you are replacing a high calorie drink with water.

I didn't say I don't think you shouldn't drink water, or don't have to drink water, or that drinking water isn't healthy though.

I actually drink mostly water. I drink coffee in the morning, sometimes drink tea at lunch, and hot tea in winter. Other than that, it is mostly water.

I used to drink a lot of soda, I don't drink soda too often anymore. I can honestly say switching from soda to water has not caused me to lose any weight. (In fact, in my high soda drinking days, I typically weighed between 98 and 110 lbs. It had more to do with age and a super active lifestyle though.) IF I drank the amount of soda now that I did then, I'm sure I would gain weight.

While I am all for drinking water over most anything else, I think there is a misconception for a lot of women that "If I force myself to drink 8 glasses of water a day, I'm going to lose weight." I don't think they will, unless they are drinking 8 glasses of water, in lieu of 8 glasses of soda, juice, sweet tea...etc.

Again, not saying drinking water isn't healthy, I simply just don't think that in and of itself is really that much of a contributing factor to weight loss.

Dawn