Is drinking 8 glasses of water a day overrated?

I can't seem to get myself to do it and I'm thinking maybe I'm not supposed to. maybe it's for people who work out more than i do. I don't want to force myself to do something that my stomach seems to be rejecting. Has anyone else experienced this?

Mon. Oct 8, 10:34am

What exactly do you drink in a normal day? If you're drinking more than 2 cups of coffee or tea, plus milk, juice, sodas, sports drinks, etc, then I can see how it might be hard to add 8 glasses of water.

If you have your 1-2 cups of hot coffee or tea, maybe a small glass of juice, then drink only water for the rest of the day, it's easy to get in 8-10 glasses.

Monday, October 8, 2007, 12:28 PM

I read somewhere that your body needs the equivalent of 8 glasses of liquid, which you may get in fruit, juice, milk, or other fluids. If you're drinking caffeinated drinks they don't count! I don't get my 8 glasses ever, I probably get 2 or 3, and I'm fine. I've also lost 30 lbs. I don't think drinking 64 oz. of pure water is the be-all-and-end all of health indicators, although it certainly won't hurt you.

Monday, October 8, 2007, 1:11 PM

Is drinking 8 glasses of water a day overrated?

I had the same problem until I started drinking less of other things and having water instead. I find that it's a whole lot easier to drink just 4 bottles of water (16.9 oz) then to drink 8 - 8 oz glasses of water. Even though it is the same amount of water it doesn't seem like so much that way. I still have my coffee in the morning, fruit juice in the morning or later and hot tea or an occasional other drink throughout the day. I have been able to get my 64 oz of water in every day for the last week and a half.

Monday, October 8, 2007, 1:29 PM

First of all, 8 glasses is a rough estimate, and there's really a lot of factors that determine how much you should drink ... including your weight, whether you're pregnant or breastfeeding, how much you exercise, the climate of where you live, whether you have a fever or diarrhea, etc. It's not the same for every person.

Second, if you eat healthy, about 20 percent of your water intake will probably come from food. So adjust downwards from there.

Third, if you drink nothing but water, you can easily get enough. But if you drink juice, soda, etc ... you're still getting water ... it's just that you're probably also getting added calories.

Monday, October 8, 2007, 3:28 PM

Caffeinated drinks count, just not as much. Caffeine is a diuretic (which means it makes you pee,) but some of the water from the caffeinated drink still counts. Maybe you get 3/4 cup of water for every cup of caffeinated beverage. That could be a bit inaccurate, but it's not that it doesn't count at all.

Monday, October 8, 2007, 3:33 PM

I'm not sure of the medical/health necessity, but when I lost 30 lbs previously, I noticed a huge difference in the weeks that I did drink my water requirement and the ones that I didn't.

Decaf tea and juices count; sodas, caffeine tea and coffee don't, although I don't think there's that much caffeine in iced tea

Monday, October 8, 2007, 6:25 PM

I've noticed the same thing. The weeks when i drank plenty of water were the weeks when weight loss seemed easy. not sure if that's because it filled me up so I ate less or because of some other reason.

Monday, October 8, 2007, 6:39 PM

Water and Weight loss

Here's an interesting article I've read on weight loss, and water consumption http://www.inch-aweigh.com/water.html

This article says that water intake is important in weight loss. That website has some other interesting articles about weight loss as well.

Link

Tuesday, October 9, 2007, 9:34 AM

when your body doesn't get the proper amount of water through diet, it retains water that is there, hence the term, "water retention". if you consistently drink plenty of water, you won't have that extra water weight to throw you off of how much weight you are actually carrying around.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007, 9:39 AM

Isn't the point really that we all need to stay hydrated? And to flush all the "bad stuff" out of our systems? Just drink enough non-caffinated drinks as you can in a day and you will be fine.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007, 12:03 PM

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