Can I count herbal tea as part of my water intake. When its cold I have a hard time drinking all the water. I do put one pack of splenda in it. Thanks

I'm pretty sure you are not supposed to count tea/coffee/SF drinks towards your water intake. Also, if you are putting splenda it, are you counting the carbs for that?

you supposedly cant count tea as water but you should be drinking green tea anyway since its been shown to prevent cancer and increase metabolism
but really, you should only have 1-2 cups of tea and lots and lots of water

I drink 3 cups a day of green tea (at least). I put one package of Splenda in each, and I count the carbs. Also, I do something that drives my friends crazy (especially when we're dining out). I won't leave the restaurant until I've had a glass of water for every glass of non-water drink. It also fills me up!

gr8smile

Im confused, Doesnt tea contain caffeine? isnt caffeine not allowed on this woe?

Some info on caffeine from the Stash tea web site:

Argh! I tried to format that but it didn't work. You can see a nicer graph here.

I'm very, very sensitive to caffeine - I could have maybe one cup of coffee in the morning, and if I have any more, I'll lay awake that night for sure. And green tea doesn't do that to me, even though I drink several mugs per day (and several quarts of water too). So I don't worry about it. You can buy decaf green tea, if you are concerned. That will have so little that it doesn't matter.

Herbal tea is really not tea, I think? It doesn't have any actual tea leaves, usually other stuff (like rose hips or chamomile). Hence, no caffeine to speak of.

As far as I understand it, Atkins recommend against it, since it can effect blood sugar levels in some people and cause cravings.

On the other hand, Atkins sells highly expensive "fat-burn-booster"-pills with caffeine in them! Since caffeine is also renowned to speed up metabolism.

I drink my regular strong coffee and have never had any problems with it whatsoever. YMMV.

Note: herbal tea and green tea are not the same thing. Green tea is real tea - it's just not cured in the same way black tea is. Herbal 'tea' isn't tea. It may be from a variety of plants with differing properties.

Green tea does contain caffeine but I think the health benefits (and maybe fay burning benefits) for outweigh the dangers of the caffeine in it.

Most people say water should be counted separatly from other things you drink. There is also a much less vocal body of opinion who believe 'fluids is fluids' and you can count everything...but they tend to keep their heads down! You make up your own mind - but keep drinking lots whatever.

P.S. That was a very useful graph ysabella - thanks.