I live in the high desert and weigh 313 pounds. According to water calculators that means I should be drinking 5.2 liters of water a day! I'm trying, I really am, but I hate it. I am in the bathroom all day and wake up 2 - 3 times a night to go.
I'm not a big fan of water anyway. I put stevita in it to make it a little more palatable, but it still is not fun drinking all that water.
Before this I drank nothing but Diet Coke. I would maybe have one - two glasses of water a month. Otherwise it was all Diet Coke all the time. I am now down to 2 glasses of Diet Coke a day and up to 4 liters of water.
Good for you drinking all that water. My chiropractor says half your body weight in ounces. That works so well for me. I went to the bathroom alot at first too. It felt like all the time. It is much better now. Give yourself some time. You are so smart to change to water. I read that the body perceives the diet drink as sugar and treats it like that and puts on more body weight because of it. What have you read to make you stop drinking diet drinks?
Joyencourages
I like water, however I do grow tired of it at times. I like to add mint leaves and sliced cucumbers to a huge glass and let it sit for a few hours before I drink it. Sounds odd, but it gives it a reall good taste! IMO.
5.2 liters? Call me crazy, but that seems like a bit much, even if the calculators say that's what you're 'supposed' to be drinking.
I just did some calculations... 5.2 liters is 175 fluid oz. 175 fluid oz / 8 fluid oz... That's 21 cups of water a day... That is too much. Especially since all liquids add up. Diet Cokes, coffee, etc. You might want to consider slowing down the water just a little bit.
That being said, I think the steps you're taking are great. Cutting down on the diet coke and adding the water.
I have heard, you should drink 1/2 your weight in water (i.e. if she is 350 #, she should drink 175 ounces of water, which is roughly 5.3 liters).
Personally, I weigh 257 and I drink at least 100 ounces a day...and I think that is a lot. I don't hink I could drink anymore than that, so how you are choking down 5.3 liters without floating away is beyond me. I think that is too much also.
I have heard, you should drink 1/2 your weight in water (i.e. if she is 350 #, she should drink 175 ounces of water, which is roughly 5.3 liters).
I've heard such things, too, but I'm unsure if they're based on people of average weights.
A lot of times these aren't just "water" per day, either, but "liquids" per day, which is an important difference. We get a lot of fluids and liquids from the foods we eat (veggies/fruits/soups, etc.), not just what we drink.
And I don't want to freak people out into not drinking water. But medically you can drink too much water... it can cause kidney failure. Again, I don't want people to avoid drinking water, but a person can drink too much just as they can drink too little.
I weigh the same as you, and let me tell you that drinking water is the best possible thing you can do to lose weight. It helps flush out fat and aids your body in disposing of metabolic waste. It fills you up, so you are not as hungry. Plus, it's free.
It takes some getting used to, but before you know it you won't want other beverages as much as you used to. Diet coke contains a ton of sodium which makes you retain water. Not good if you want to lose weight.
The bathroom trips are annoying, but remember that the water is helping your body get rid of toxins. Try drinking the water throughout the day, say ever 2 hours or so, and then drinking only water with meals.
When I stay on course and drink my water, I find a noticeable difference on the scale at the end of the day. When I fall off the wagon, I also notice that I'm not drinking as much water as I should.
My rule of thumb is what my doctor recommended...drink enough that your urine is very pale yellow. If it's dark, you're not drinking enough and need to drink more. If it's completely clear, it's too much and you're just flushing it through you.
The other question is, what's your body saying? If your body says it's too much, maybe scale it back a bit. Also, I agree with the point being made that we're getting liquid in our food and if we're drinking other things besides water. There's a lot of things you can do for flavour without adding artificial sweetners. Sometimes I cut juice down quite a bit, if you're drinking juice. Or lemon slices, lime slices, other fruit, green tea.
Actually stevita isn't an artificial sweetener. It's a herb that is sweeter than sugar and has no carbs or calories.
I was never a big fan of drinking huge amounts of water. I drink a glass with lunch, a glass with dinner, a glass after I work out and a couple cups of tea in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. Didn't stop me from losing 70 lbs or keeping it off for almost 4 years.
There are a lot of factors for weight loss. It's hard to master every facet. Pick your battles. If you hate drinking so much water, well, don't.
Yes I think those counters are made for generally average weight people. Once you get up to higher weights the amounts are out of control. Just go by off of what your urine color is.
While I was researching about drinking water, I came across this. Your body needs to get used to drinking that much water. Eventually you will stop going to the bathroom as much!
Science is still fairly unsure of how much water we actually need. In fact, there have been a few recent studies saying we're drinking too much water, and that it might have adverse side effects.
Any good diet or exercise plan is aiming to keep you hydrated. It is very easy for humans to live below the healthy level of body hydration, and to get to that level, we sometimes have to remind ourselves to drink more often than we are thirsty.
However, you don't need to flood your body to get hydrated. Drink a glass or so with meals, then get in a couple of more glasses through out the day. There's really no need to drink this much.
While keeping your body hydrated will help keep you healthy (make it easy for your organs to get the water they need to run well, and remove some of the toxins from your body), there's no evidence that a ton of extra water will make you lose weight.
If anyone has any studies saying otherwise, I'd be more than happy to take a look at them.
I'm thinking about changing it up some and drinking more mineral water. I saw some guy on TV put a little bit of candied ginger and mint leaves into mineral water and let it sit over night. I thought that sounded really good. I doubt the candied ginger would add enough calories to worry about.
I manage to get enough water by drinking hot tea. I started by using a sweetner but now I drink it plain. It's all what you get use to I think. I LOVE Coke and hated the taste of Coke Zero. After making the change to Coke Zero I am now used to it. A regular Coke tastes very , very sweet to me now.
Marge
I can't stand all this water
