Hi,

I recently purchased a 64 oz cup from Walmart to help me with my water intake. I'm so bad about drinking water, but what I have been doing is making up 64 oz of herbal tea (you know, decaf orange spice, cranberry, etc.) every morning with 2 packets of Splenda. Using this approach, I have not had any trouble getting the water down.

Can anyone tell me if there is any reason that herbal tea would not count for water intake?

Thanks!

Atkins book says dont include your water intake with tea of any form!! Water Hydrates your body it helps avoid constipation, and flushes out the by products of burning fats!!

Hope this helps

Sorry, I have to disagree with the venerable Dr. A on this one. Most herbal teas have nothing in them that affect weight loss. The exceptions may be those herbs used for specific medicinal effect, such as ginseng, licorice, or abortifacents (cohosh, pennyroyal (which is toxic, BTW)). I've not seen anyone make the case that teas made from combinations of things like hibiscus flowers, rosehips and lemon grass (C.S.'s Red Zinger) aren't going to hamper weight loss a bit.

I do not think that lburnikell was saying that herbal tea would inhibit
weight lose but only that it is counter productive in hydrating your
body.

The dehydrating culprit in coffee and tea is usually caffeine.
So if you are drinking a decaffeinated herbal tea then you should
be okay, I think! If you are drinking caffeinated beverages I read
that you should drink an equal amount of water to offset the effect
of the caffeine in addition to your normal daily water intake.

T

Thanks for your replies. It sounds like this may work for me... Even if it may be not quite as good as drinking plain water, it's more liquid than I was drinking before.

Have a great day!

Can you drink some plain water? Like 1 glass of water between every cup of tea? You might be surprised and learn to like it.

sorry I dont think I was clear in my post I didnt mean drinking herbal tea would stall your weight loss, but water is is the best thing to drink. Dont
get me wrong though, I also find it very very hard too!! and Im probably not drinking enough myself, although it dosent seem to have stalled my weight loss.

good luck

There's no reason not to drink water with some flavoring in it. In fact, it's PREFERABLE to drink flavored water IF

- the flavoring contains vitamin C

- the flavoring does NOT contain caffeine or any other known diuretic (you local health food store can tell you whether your herbal tea has any diuretic component; many herbs do tend to act as a diuretic so you should check)

- the flavoring does not contain aspartame

- the flavoring helps you to drink your water.

There is NOTHING wrong with decaf herbal tea, I've been drinking it for years. It has NO caffeine, only natural fruits, herbs, etc. You might want to stay away form the very sweet flavors for a while--otherwise, I say, go to it! Drinking a glas of water in between your tea is a good idea, tho...