How is that for a curious question? I add 6 to 8 regular size tray ice cubes to my daily smoothie. Technically, its water. I add a 1/2 cup of milk and the equivalent of 1 fruit.

I don't see why you couldn't count it.

Keep in mind water expands as it freezes so if you were going for extreme accuracy, you'd have to measure the water before it was frozen.

Side note: Don't they count most liquids now? It's not just water.

Ice cubes are water, why wouldn't you count them ?

Do most liquids count? I know my boss buys a large iced tea in the morning and "sips it throughout the day". (Oh, how would you like going to weigh ins once a week with your male boss?)

I'm fairly sure that it changed and most liquids count nowadays.

It used to be (back on Momentum/TurnAround whichever) that half your daily liquid could be from diet sodas or crystal light type drinks. Calorie free. But the other half had to come from water.

Now I'm fairly certain that it doesn't matter as much as it used to.

Disclaimer - This is one of those areas where Your Mileage May Vary. I drink mostly water, usually have a filled glass with me all day long and just sip from it. After reading some very informative articles on how the body absorbs liquids and how a person can actually OVER hydrate and end up in the hospital (rarely, mind you, but still possible) I just drink when I'm thirsty and let my body be my guide.

Most days that ends up being between 6-8 glasses naturally. Some days a little less, some days a little more.

But, I always count anything I drink. That means coffee and tea and the rare occasions I have soda or anything of the like. It's all liquid that my body is sucking up.

I think the only drink when your body tells you to thing probably works better for some than others. If I only drink when my body tells me to, I'm doing well to get 2 cups a day of liquids. I'm just not thirsty. I have to be mindful of drinking.
Last week a friend of mine passed out from dehydration and hit her head. She's okay, just had to get stiches. But it definitely felt like a wake up call to pay attention to how much I'm drinking.

I thought alcohol is the only liquid that didn't count? Even coffee counts from what i've learned at the meetings. I remember when the only soda that counted was caffeine free soda! Glad things changed, it's tough for me to down so much water

I red an article on that subject the other day too in a journal. Personnaly, I think they were trying to get attention with their ''Water can be dangerous!''. I red a bit about it (I got a pharmacology and cell biology background) and the case where drinking too much water can be dangerous are really rare.

I think it's sad to scream stuff like that just to get their papers sold when probably 80% of the people actually DON'T drink enough water...

but the question is how much water? Water expands as it freezes so I guess you could melt the number of cubes you use and see how much it is. I get in enough liquid without having to count ice cubes in the mix.

Hence my "Disclaimer - Your mileage may vary."

I'm more likely to be under-hydrated than over-hydrated, personally. But, my body tends to be a very good guide for me. Am I thirsty? (A clear sign.) Am I way too hot? Am I getting a slight headache or a type of irritability? Those are all my body's ways of telling me that I need some water, and I'm pretty good at listening. (If only listening to hunger were so easy for me! )

I put that disclaimer for the entire purpose of saying that was what worked for me. Not that it is the be all end all of methods.

Yes, ice cubes count as water. If your soda you make is 1 cup and you add some ice and it brings the soda to 1 1/2 cups, then your water/ice cubes is 1/2 cup. Take note of the measurement before you add your ice, then measure again after you add your ice.

Water does not count on points, but you can your ice cubes to your water content. The soda you are making out of fruit can be added to your fruit/vegetable content. Your milk counts as points.

I know don't worry

My reaction to those articles was just so huuuuge, I had to say something!

And I do agree with you, personnaly I drink probably a bit less than I should I think. But if I drink over 40 oz, I go to the bathroom 3 times an hour, so...! lol!

And I definitely agree with you! It's very annoying just how often those types of articles (scare articles) get away with blowing things out of proportion.

My mother was hospitalized with water poisoning, and the kidney specialist called in on the case said that water poisoning while still rare is dramatically on the rise, due to several factors, including the potentially dangerous dieting water myths

such as:

only water counts (all liquids, even in foods, and even in beer and wine count toward your water needs - only high proof alcoholic drinks dehydrate)

only pure water with "no stuff in it" counts because your body has to work harder to process water from food and other beverages (your body has no problem using the water in foods and beverages - and the only water without stuff in it, is distilled water, and you shouldn't drink distilled water. A glass or two won't hurt you, but over time it's possible that drinking distilled water can actually leach minerals from your body. Even the purest drinking water has "stuff" in it).



you should drink half an ounce for every pound you weigh or divide your weight by two and that's how many ounces you should drink (this number only comes out ok for normal weight people. If you have a lot of weight to lose, it can overestimate your water needs, and can actually be dangerous. The kidney specialist said that larger people don't need much if any more than normal weight people, and can even need less if they have damaged kidneys, which my mother did not have before the water poisoning).

You must drink extra water to compensate for caffeineated beverages. This probably is the piece of advice that resulted in my mother's problems. Her WW leader told their group that they had to drink 2 cups of water for every cup of coffee to count as 1 cup (just to break even you supposedly had to drink a cup of water to compensate for the coffee - the kidney specialist pointed out that if this was true, people who drink only coffee as their only beverage would die of dehydration - and they don't, and apparently there's a lot of them.


Water poisoning is still rare, but much, much less so. The kidney specialist said that it used to be so rare that even kidney specialists might see one case in a career, and most doctors never saw even a single case, and when it did occur it was generally an extreme athlete, a mentally ill person with a water drinking compulsion, or young men drinking massive amounts of liquids trying to pass a drug screen.

Now he said, it's much more common to the point that it's common enough that most kidney specialists have treated several cases, and more and more of the patients he wouldn't expect - young men and women and dieters.

He told us that there's really no need for anyone but extreme athletes to drink more than 3 quarts of all liquids and that for my mother and I we should consider 3 quarts as our maximum (because we're both on a blood pressure medication that washes sodium out of the body, and we both eat a relativley low-salt diet just because our family has never been big salt eaters).

On one hand, it's uncommon enough that I don't think most people have to worry about it, and on the other I think it happens far more than it should because of all the ridiculous water-drinking advice that is out there.

I think if you're drinking more than a gallon a day, are taking blood pressure or other medications that can affect kidney function, have a family of kidney issues, or are eating an extremely low sodium diet, you should be aware of the symptoms of water intoxication.

Unfortunately by the time symptoms appear, you're already in serious trouble - often the first and only symptom is cardiac arrest. Or the symptoms can mimic heat stroke or flu (that's what my mom seemed to have - just the flu. Luckily my dad, a former EMT, became concerned when Mom became confused and disoriented).

If Mom hadn't gotten to the hospital that night, it's extremely likely that she would have had a fatal heart attack. Just on a gallon a day.

Of course, it wasn't probably wasn't a one day process, rather over time the extra water and low-sodium diet gradually washed sodium out of her blood (that's usually the main problem of water intoxication or water poisoning - too much sodium is washed from the blood).




My mom was only drinking about a gallon of liquids

Measuring your drink and then adding ice and counting the increase as water if totally wrong. Water expands as it freezes so 1/2 cup of ice is not 1/2 cup of water.

If you wait to drink until you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated.