I'm not sure I can answer either. I know that the general rule of thumb is to drink a minimum of 64 oz water, plus 8 oz for every 25 pounds you have to lose. That's just water. If you drink coffee, tea, soda or anything else, it's not to be included as part of the water allocation.

Actually a lot of other LC plans will tell you similar things. For example, on WW you have a certain amount of water to drink, and only one or 2 cups of clear coffee/tea can be counted toward the water. Whatever plan, the idea is water helps with weight loss. People who are not used to drinking water might have a tendancy to go for 64 oz of fluid in whatever form, even sugar free, aspartame loaded soda, or worse, juice which is loaded with sugar.