I have a drinking problem: from Robin Scherbatsky’s Book of Secrets

In January I was having a hard time with weight gain. I couldn’t figure out what was causing it and I was looking for anything as a culprit. Ignore the fact that I was heavily into strength training and I hadn’t been running in ages.

What was making me fat? Water. Obviously. Crazy girl’s gotta hang on to something. Read on.

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January 25, 2012: I have a drinking problem.

I drink when I’m bored. I drink when I’m not thirsty. I drink because it’s in front of me.

[source]

So I freaked out a little last week because since I started WW I’ve gained a bit of weight. A LITTLE BIT. Not a lot. But with all the hard work I’m doing, why am I gaining? It didn’t make sense. So I started thinking about what could cause this rather than trying to exercise more and eat less, because clearly that tactic isn’t working.

However, keep in mind, I have NO clue what my start weight number was. I made a guess. I’m still 3 pounds less than that. And I’m not trying to lose per say, but I also don’t think the goal here is to GAIN weight.

But then I realized, since I started the whole weightlifting endeavor I’ve gained weight (obviously I gained muscle mass, but I have lost inches around my waist, so I think it has been a fairly equal weight exchange). There’s more than just muscle I’ve gained. I couldn’t have put on 10 lbs in this short amount of time. What’s the culprit?

WATER.

Yes my friends, I drink a LOT of freaking water.

Sounds like a good thing? Right?

Wrong. You CAN drink too much water. And put too much fluid in your body. And then it doesn’t get rid of it because your kidneys can’t keep up.

And, when I started WW I introduced a bunch of high-water-content foods to my diet (fruits and veggies) — well not introduced, but upped the consumption of these. I had also started drinking MORE water when I started the weightlifting program. Add these things to my already extremely-high water intake, and the weight gain makes sense.

Think I’m crazy?

I should be drinking about 64-80 oz of water a day depending on the temperature and the amount of activity I do. I know this. But OTHER things count towards this number (like these watery foods or decaf tea).

Snapshot of my daily water intake as of recently:
6:30 AM: 16 oz water + 20 oz tea (which by Wed. is more like water because I’m so cheap that I use the same tea bag all week)
8-noonish: 40 oz water + 16 oz tea (tea is on ocassion)
1-5ish: 40 oz water (sometimes more) + 16 oz tea or coffee (coffee doesn’t count b/c it’s caffeinated and makes you release water)
6-10ish: 32 oz water + 12 oz tea or hot chocolate (tea and hot chocolate are occasional)

Total liquid intake for the day (excluding the coffee and fruits/veggies because adding and subtracting those things would require a lot of math): 192 oz. HOLYSCHNIKEES.

This number has been slowly creeping up over the years.

• Senior year of college I made a concerted effort to drink more water, so I drank 2 large Dasani bottles of water a day (refilled all week, then got a new bottle). Then I discovered that reusing plastic bottles was bad.
• I eventually got my Kleen Kanteen — 40 oz. So I need to refill once, but shouldn’t drink BOTH of the full bottles.
• That worked for a while, then I started drinking both bottles during the summer when it was hot (which I probably needed to).
• And I recently started drinking a full glass of water when I woke up in the AM to “get things moving” — on top of the tea I always have to do the same thing.
• Oh and I also drink 1-2 glasses of water for dinner.
• And last May I was trying to flush out extra water weight before Steph’s wedding so I drank extra water a few days before that. A LOT of extra water. And that worked. So I think I decided just to drink a lot of extra water all the time. Dumb. That doesn’t work.

Soo … yeah. I might be overhydrated. According to oh-so-trustyworthy-sources I found on a google search, there’s some scientific stuff that happens with this much water consumption. Your body holds on to all of it. And since I limited calorie intake the last few weeks (not by a lot, mind you, I did the math and it’s really only a 100-200 calorie difference), my body is wanting to hold onto extra water. I’m surprised I haven’t gotten water intoxication.

I’m not going to quit drinking water. Or do crazy diuretics. I just think it’s really freaking insane how much water I drink (192 oz!!!). So I’m going to make an effort to cut back a little bit and remember what it’s like when I’m actually thirsty and drink water. I might actually leave my Kleen Kanteen at home so I don’t have a giant bottle sitting around all day.

Also, I realize this is a MAJOR first-world problem. But whatever. I’m really glad that I may have figured this out. I was almost ready to make a dr. appointment about my thyroid. I did pick up some thyroid supplements last night, but they have iodine in them, which I am low on b/c I do not eat salt which is basically where people get iodine. And there were a few other nutrients in it that I’m low on as well. So I think I’ll try that AND cut the water, and see what happens.

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For the record, I lost a few pounds when I cut back on the water by a little bit (still drink about 80-100 a day — not including tea and other beverages).

Do you have a drinking problem? How much water do you drink — is it enough?