Thought on crystal light? Count as water?
 

I bought some green tea crystal light for metabalism today to add to my water. Not sure if I should count this toward my water goal or if I should still be drinking 8 glasses without anything in addition to the tea each day?

Does anyone have thoughts on this?

THanks!

I think you're fine counting this toward your water goal.

I use crystal light sparingly each day and count it towards my water... :)

My trainer told me that I couldn't count it as water and that your body needs plain old water with nothing in it in order to work properly.

I don't know how much I believe that though... Crystal light is barely any calories and so delicious.

I decided to drink the crystal light in the morning to boost my energy and then plan water the rest of the day, still a minimum of 8 glasses...will see if I float away from all the liquid-lol.

It's a pretty common myth, and a very trainery thing to say, that the 8, 8oz glasses of water a day have to be plain water.

It's simply not true. You could literally eat enough whole, juicy fruits in a day so that you didn't have to drink fluids at all. (It would be a lot of fruit, but the point still applies.) Your body doesn't have any more trouble separating H2O from Crystal Light than it does parsing out the vitamins, fats, proteins, etc... in the food you eat. It's not like you won't be hydrated by Crystal Light. In fact, you could drink enough Coca-Cola to hydrate yourself without ever touching plain water. You might need an extra cup or so to deal with the slight diuretic effect of the caffeine...but still.

Nibbles - busting diet myths.

Hoooooray!!!!! :carrot: I 2nd this!

I would count crystal light as water. In my worst diet coke addicted days, I rarely drank anything other than coffee with milk or diet coke. I was not dehydrated.

I don't drink crystal light, diet coke, or other drinks with artificial sweeteners very often anymore, more because of health and dental concerns than anything else. Liquid is liquid, unless it contains so much salt that it leaches water from your cells. Unless you're drinking only sea water (or only canned soups) this is unlikely to be a problem. Electrolyte solutions actually rehydrate better than plain water anyway. I still drink mostly plain water, sometimes with a slice of lemon to motivate me to drink more. And 3 mugs of coffee with milk in the morning; I'm not giving up coffee and yes, it's still liquid.

That's right. I only rarely drink plain water -- perhaps a half cup every two weeks. I get all my fluid needs met with coffee, tea, juice and soup. If the plain water myth were true I would have shrivelled up into a prune by now. My mother literally never drank plain water and lived a long and healthy life.

F.

Crystal Light has unnecessary chemicals that aren't good for us, but I still drink a ton of it anyway. You can totally include it as part of your water intake. I find that I drink a lot kore fluid when I drink crystal light - I never remember to drink plain tap water, but Crystal Light is tasty enough that I will happily drink a lot of it.

How does adding powder to water make it magically not water anymore? ;)

My mother was hospitalized for water intoxication (also called water poisoning, or water overdose), because she believed the water myths told to her by her Weight Watcher's leader (my understanding is that only some of the myths were supported by WW officially at the time) that half of her water intake had to be "plain water," that "caffeinated beverages don't count and in fact need to be compensated for with additional water," and that a person needs a half ounce of water (in addition to that found in food) for every pound of body weight (that is that larger people need far more water than smaller people.

If my father had not taken her to the emergency room, she probably would have had a fatal heart attack that night (or so we've been told). As it is, she spent more than a week (8 or 9 days) in the hospital as they tried to get her electrolyte levels in a safe range.

As a result of the water intoxication, her kidneys were permanently damaged. The kidney specialist called in told us that it was once rare for even kidney specialists to have even one case of water intoxication in a career, and now he sees many cases every year - and in fact, even general practitioners are becoming familiar with it - largely because of the water myths associated with dieting for health and weight loss. Large amounts of fluids (of any kind) combined with a very low-sodium diet, and regular exercise can be dangerous, even for healthy, young people - but for older people on even low doses of blood pressure medication (as my mother was) the risk is that much greater.

He told us that 1/2 ounce of water per lb of body weight works out ok for a normal weight person - but larger people don't necessarily need more water (at least not much more) than thinner folks, because a 300 lb person does not have twice the kidney capacity as a 150 lb person - so does not need twice the water.

He also said that caffeinated and even many alcoholic beverages (like beer and wine) contribute more water than they take away. It's why in the middle-ages, everyone drank beer and wine - because it wasn't safe to drink the water. Children (and adults for that matter) often drank "soft" beers and ales (boiled but not aged long enough to ferment/produce alcohol).

Every year the water myths seem to get more and more extreme. If they continue at this rate, it won't be long before there are people claiming that we all need four to five gallons of "pure" water.

If our water couldn't have "stuff" disolved in it, we'd have to drink distilled water (the only "pure" water), and drinking large amounts of distilled water can leach minerals from your bones.

Our bodies have no problem whatsoever, using the water in foods and beverages (even caffeinated beverages) so the "no stuff" rule is silly.

Also, while diet soft drinks get a bad rap for containing unhealthy chemicals, the image is much worse than the reality. There are far more dangerous, numerous, and concentrated sources of hazardous and toxic chemicals used in every day life. People are often unaware of their dangers because they assume that if they're not drinking the stuff, it's not dangerous (a false assumption). If you wear makeup, or use normal household cleaners, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, shampoos, air fresheners... you are exposing yourself to far more dangerous chemicals in much higher concentrations.

I've chosen to give up as many of the environmental toxins and carcinogens as I can, and don't worry about diet sodas. My mother-in-law thinks my house must be filthy (filled with all sorts of dangerous, but invisible germs) because I don't use chemical cleaners and germ-killers. I've found that mild soap and water is the only cleaner you need, if you clean regularly. I do use a little bit of bleach when absolutely necessary, but the bleach container I have is over three years old, showing how rarely I use it.

I wish I could convince hubby that we don't need an air freshener for the bathroom (at least I convinced him that we don't need one in every room of the apartment).

Kaplods!!

Do this - http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-...shener-Refill/

I refilled all my Bath and Body Works air freshners with essential oils! The kids have a lavender oil filled one by their bed. It smells like sleep in there ;).

Yay :carrot: I finally had an amazing tip to share with you (instead of the other way around)

Thanks! I'll pass it on to hubster to try (he's the "cleaning dude" in our house). We share the laundry and some of the kitchen chores, but he does the most actual cleaning, because of my COPD/asthma/lung-scarring autoimmune disease. My lungs are getting stronger, but hubby still wants to do all the chores that could aggravate my lungs "just in case."

The solid air freshener was his only hold-out, because the bathroom is where the kitty litter pan is.

We've tried some of the health-food store brands of air freshener, but we haven't tried essential oils. Sounds like a good option.

I would totally count Crystal Light added to water as part of your water intake. :)

I know you got enough answers but I have actually tried this method. I was trying to give up sugar so I still needed something "sweet". I literally would drink 8 glasses of Crystal Lite a day including pure water. It still flushed my system out. I guess I traded one addiction for another :dizzy:

I did eventually get off the Crystal Lite too. :)

I would count it as water.

I count it. Water is water. Whether you add to it or not, in my opinion.

I avoid the aspartame as there seems to be quite a bit of research saying it is bad for you, and at least some research saying it might make it harder to lose weight. There are other low-calorie drinks out there without the aspartame.

I have oftern wondered about this. It totally makes sense since fruits and veggies are comprised of a lot of water. Whether I am driking soda or water I use the restroom all the time because of the amount of fluids that I take in all together.

Thanks for posting this. It is very informative.

Great post and very educational. Have to admit I read the subject line and came in thinking the answer would be that it would NOT count as water.

Thanks to all who indicated otherwise!

Have to go with counting it as water.

And to those who drink Crystal Light, did you deduct (the 5 calories per 8 oz.?) from your total calorie intake for the day? I didn't want to do that, so I switched to zero calorie bottled water drinks i.e. "Skinny Water" or "Vitamin Water Zero"

Any thoughts on that?

Well, zero doesn't really mean zero. Any product that contains fewer than 5 calories per serving can be labeled as having zero calories. Some companies round down to zero, but others round up to 5. So a Crystal Light or bottled water product that contained 3 calories per serving might be labeled as having 5 calories, but another product that contained 4 calories might be labeled as having 0 calories.

I've seen Crystal Light and store brand drink mixes that because of the identical flavor, and nearly identical packaging, I would be willing to bet are being made in the same factories - the only difference being the label - and yet the labels sometimes listed different calorie counts (one rounding down to zero, one rounding up to 5). I don't think the drink mixes actually contained different calorie counts, I think the math was just done differently.

I don't count Crystal Light or other "zero" or "five" calorie beverages partially for that reason, and partially because the math isn't worth it for the results. At most I'll drink 2 pitchers of Crystal Light a week (usually only one). But let's assume 2 for worst case scenario math.

That's a gallon per week (16 servings) or 52 gallons per year (832 servings per year). That's 4160 calories per year or 1.18 pounds.

That means - worst case scenario - that if I don't count those 5 calories, I'm going to lose 1.18 pounds less PER YEAR than if I did count those calories.

So no, I do not subtract 5 calories for each glass from my total for the day, because at most it means I'll lose about 1 pound less per year than if I did count.

I can live with that.

I figure I probably burn 5 calories getting up to walk to the cupboard and grab a packet of Crystal Light to mix up. It's like counting calories in sugar free gum... kinda pointless considering any packaged food you buy can legally be off count by 20%, and restaraunt meals are notoriously innacurate with calorie counts.

it counts
 

I use it in my water once a day as well. I put one packet in a 33 oz bottle and it sure helps. Feels like I am having a treat and I am getting my water in.

Good Luck

JO

This. I'm a prime case in point. I almost never drink plain water -- perhaps a half-cup every two weeks. I get all my fluid needs met from coffee, tea, sparkling water/juice mix and wine, along with soups, fruits, etc. I'm still healthy, my pee isn't dark, and I have lots of energy for exercising.

Freelance

Edited to add: Just realized I posted earlier on in this thread. What can I say, Alzheimer moment.

I count it towards my water, but I DO count the calories. One packet has two servings, so it's 10 calories per bottle (except for the fiber added kind, I think?).
Still worth it for me, but it adds up over time.

I don't count the calories in crystal light, or anything else under 30 calories or so. I have my own method that already counts these things in.

I round up everything so these smaller calorie items are accounted for without me having to go nuts adding every little calorie in. For example, if something is 175 calories, I will count it as 200. It makes it easier for me to keep track in my head while simultaneously allowing for these smaller items without me having to start logging everything.

I then get annoyed when things are say 160 calories or so. It presents me with a dilemma: do I round up to 200 or down to 150? I usually round up unless I've done a lot of rounding up that day.

I have a lot of strange little "rules" when it comes to how I count calories, but it's worked for me thus far.

Thank you, all, for your feedback! I really appreciate it and enjoyed reading everyone's take on the subject!

I recently posted about my struggle with constipation in the "Introduction" section.

It really sucks to have to count calories for things that I "need" but do not "like". This morning I had 2T of flaxseed (70) in 1 container of Activia
(70) and 1T of psyllium (15) mixed in a blender with water and 3T of a superfood pre/probiotic powder (112.50). All in the name of constipation
(267.50)!

I consume an average of 1400 calories a day and 267.50 is quite a big chunk of that.

Hope something works soon!

Have a great day, all! :)

I have a coworker who does not drink water AT ALL. EVER. And I mean NEVER!!!! Only Coca Cola. And she is still alive. (Not supporting this- just sayin'). So I think if the water in her Coke counts, then your Crystal Light water counts toward your water consumption. If water is needed in the body, it will be utilized by the cells. If not, it will be added to urine as it flushes through the kidneys. So I'm not sure where your trainer got the idea that the body needs water all by itself to function properly... What if you drank water on top of the food you ate two hours prior and it ran together? Is it instantly invalidated? The digestive system handles literally thousands of molecules at a time, and manages to do just fine sorting and utilizing. I'm thinking his training in biochemistry is out of date? I agree with nibbles that this seems like a "trainery" thing to say.
On the other hand, I don't know how effective the packets of green tea would be for supporting the metabolism. Processing the tea might render the EGCG ineffective? You might have to drink tea you brewed yourself to get the benefits. But don't take that as gospel, as my training in biochemistry is only slightly more up to date than your trainer's! It is worth researching, though, if that is the primary reason you drink it.

YES. Please avoid the aspartame! Also, not sure I would go over one or two caffeinated beverages each day...like I don't think that 8 diet cokes would count for 8 glasses of water - yes you are getting the "liquid" but lots of other junk as well.

They do make a Crystal Light with stevia, now...whatever floats your boat. Bottom line - if you need a little "encouragement" to get the water drank, do it. And count it as water.