Does coffee/hot chocolate count as water quota?

Sue C

Active Member
Is coffee and/or hot chocolate considered part of the 8 glasses of water you should drink each day or not?

Thanks,
Sue
 

amy4129

New Member
Usually nothing with caffeine counts as it causes dehydration. When I'm doing pt teaching it doesn't count
amy
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Sue,

in my humble opinion - of course it does!!!!!LOLOLOL How can you drink any liquid with-o caffeine and/or chocolate in it.

Simply isn't good for the system. :surprise: :rofl: That's my story & I'm sticking to it. :wink:

I'm not an expert, so you should probably take this with a grain of salt. :smile:
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Good Grief! If I drank eight glasses of water a day PLUS my usual two pots of coffee PLUS my soft drinks in the afternoon, I'd never get anything done! I'd spend all day in the bathroom! I think anything that technically qualifies as "liquid" should count, including half-melted ice cream! And gravy!

:smile:
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
We should say here on this site all liquids count!!! Heck, I'm counting my glass of wine tonight!!! :smile: :coffee: :hypnosis:
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Linda, you said, "'m not an expert, so you should probably take this with a grain of salt."

But salt also dehydrates - we'd need to drink MORE water to compensate!

Coffee - depends on how much caffeine is in it, plus how much else. Hot chocolate - same story, especially if it's made on all milk.

As soon as you add milk, you're adding other things too which slow down transit time. So while there is SOME fluid benefit, you can't count it all.

Best thing you can do - listen to your body. If you drink 8 glasses of water and no other liquids, you know how often you're in the loo. If you swap some of the glasses of water for equivalent volumes of coffee, hot chocolate or other drinks, you will notice you're not in the loo so often. It will vary.

One last important point - adding salt, sugar or anything is going to make it harder to absorb the water. In some cases, drinking a highly sweetened drink can dehydrate you, like drinking seawater would do. This includes substances like Isomalt (an optical isomer of sucrose which the body simply can't recognise). It tastes like sugar because it IS - it's a mirror image molecule. But because your body can't use it, it keeps going through your GI tract. And because your body needs it to be dissolved, it pulls water through the gut with it. It's like the old science experiment with osmosis, using a hollowed out potato with salt in it, then the potato floating in a glass of water. The hollow in the potato will fill up with water which is trying to lower the salt concentration.
So if you eat or drink too much Isomalt, it is dehydrating and it comes out, with its accompanying water, you know where. NOT the bladder.

So just drink the water.

Marg
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I don't check this board enough, and I should because I love all you guys. Here's what I learned when I went to a Nutritionist. by the way, I was 175 lbs. (and five feet tall) and now I'm 125.

No, water is water with nothing in it. I cheated and used flavored water with Splenda because I hated plain water and also herbal tea, but caffeine retains salt and water and I was told to give it up. As soon as I did, the weight rolled off, BUT I also counted calories, gave up sugar, and worked out an hour a day. You can do it, Girl!!!! I did it and I'm on Paxil. Everyone told me "you can't lose weight on Paxil--it changes your matabolism." Lie!

Good luck!
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
:crying: I apologize, Sue. You came here asking a question & I got silly.

My understanding is that water is water & should be counted as such. I've been downing 3 or 4 bottles of water a day; not for weight loss, just because I've felt dehydrated.

Good luck in your weight loss journey. :flower:
 

Sue C

Active Member
Thanks for all your answers. I guess I wasn't even sure if 8 glasses of water was to help you lose weight...or just for better health 'cuz it flushes out your kidneys.

I wasn't aware that caffeine could cause you to gain weight (if I'm understanding what one of you said). My husband got me hooked about a year ago on having a cup of coffee every morning. He makes it too strong, so I put in about a half teaspoon of hot chocolate mix and a teaspoon of sugar. Now I feel addicted! I did get him to switch over to 1/2 decaf because caffeine makes me shakey.

Sue
 
Well, at least I know why I need a port-a-potty (never could spell!!!) every place I go!!! I drink at least 8 glasses of water a day and lots of :coffee:!!! The older I get, the more I think I need pampers for grown-ups :rofl:!!!

My easy child tells me I should write a book about the cleanest and dirtiest restrooms in our state since she figures I must have used every one of them a zillion times by now!!! WFEN
 
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