2 questions
- Thread starter Rocky2
- Start date
the water question has been debated into the ground around here practically - the answer really is - as much as you feel you need... my real answer is - to know your body and to check the color of your urine if it's dark yellow, then you are dehydrated (unless there are other underlying health conditions) it should be a pale yellow.
For your salad - use a site like and enter each ingredient and it will give you a calculation
For your salad - use a site like and enter each ingredient and it will give you a calculation
Healthyhabit
New member
2 answers
Water: At least 8 glasses (64oz) a day! More if you exercise heavily.
Salads: If you buy packaged veggies, they frequently come with serving amounts on the back. Things like heads of lettuce, cabbage, etc can be looked up in various caloric databases online. I know Fitday.com has one attached to its daily food diary, but I'm not sure how much I trust theirs. I've had a couple discrepancies over broccoli and other things they list.
If you're trying to really keep track of the calories in veggies, it might be time to get a small kitchen scale (a wonderful tool) and weigh things out. Then just add up the calories!
Btw, some grocery stores offer a produce guide to look at that has the information you need. I see them on stands generally somewhere near the fruit section.
Water: At least 8 glasses (64oz) a day! More if you exercise heavily.
Salads: If you buy packaged veggies, they frequently come with serving amounts on the back. Things like heads of lettuce, cabbage, etc can be looked up in various caloric databases online. I know Fitday.com has one attached to its daily food diary, but I'm not sure how much I trust theirs. I've had a couple discrepancies over broccoli and other things they list.
If you're trying to really keep track of the calories in veggies, it might be time to get a small kitchen scale (a wonderful tool) and weigh things out. Then just add up the calories!
Btw, some grocery stores offer a produce guide to look at that has the information you need. I see them on stands generally somewhere near the fruit section.
calories come from portion size and the actual item...
go to - and look up an item like carrots - you'll see portion sizes and the different calories in each item
will keep track of everyyhing in one place for youo
go to - and look up an item like carrots - you'll see portion sizes and the different calories in each item
will keep track of everyyhing in one place for youo
Healthyhabit
New member
Nope, not entirely by weight. But some things are easier to measure that way. For example.. one oz of cheese in a 2lb block of cheese is generally about a 1"x1"x1" cube. But cutting a perfect cube out of a block of cheese and trying to shred that onto a salad is near impossible. So you can shred from the giant block onto your scale and stop at 1oz. There are other foods that can be measured that way.
maleficent posted a great link for nutritional data and fitday.com is really nice for keeping track over a period of time.
maleficent posted a great link for nutritional data and fitday.com is really nice for keeping track over a period of time.
8 glasses a day is a popular myth that has no basis in science. Find me a published peer reviewed study that establishes this as truth, there isn't one.
The simple answer is you drink when you are thirsty. I see all these people in my town toting water bottles while they shop, drive, etc. as if they were in imminent danger of dehydrating, lol.
The simple answer is you drink when you are thirsty. I see all these people in my town toting water bottles while they shop, drive, etc. as if they were in imminent danger of dehydrating, lol.
Healthyhabit
New member
Here's a link to CNN's article sourced from Mayo Clinic's studies. Its just one out of many. The truth is, there's no hard line for how much water you SHOULD drink. 8 glasses is just a good guideline to follow for Mr. or Mrs. Average.
Myth or not, its clearly important that we do rehydrate ourselves and if toting around a bottle of water is a good reminder to drink up, then do it. There are drawbacks to drinking too much water and over-hydrating your cells. So if 8 glasses feels like too much, then don't drink so much!
If you're at the point of feeling thirsty, you're already dehydrated. Cellular dehydration, detected by osmoreceptors, causes thirst and arginine vasopressin release (also called antidiruetic hormone, a human hormone affecting the kidney's water retention, changing the concentration of urine among other things). Also, vasopressin causes increased blood pressure through vasoconstriction. Overall, the effects of "thirst" aren't so healthy but they aren't going to kill you either unless you never rehydrate yourself.
Can't hurt to keep yourself hydrated and never trigger the thirst sensation!
-sunny
Myth or not, its clearly important that we do rehydrate ourselves and if toting around a bottle of water is a good reminder to drink up, then do it. There are drawbacks to drinking too much water and over-hydrating your cells. So if 8 glasses feels like too much, then don't drink so much!
If you're at the point of feeling thirsty, you're already dehydrated. Cellular dehydration, detected by osmoreceptors, causes thirst and arginine vasopressin release (also called antidiruetic hormone, a human hormone affecting the kidney's water retention, changing the concentration of urine among other things). Also, vasopressin causes increased blood pressure through vasoconstriction. Overall, the effects of "thirst" aren't so healthy but they aren't going to kill you either unless you never rehydrate yourself.
Can't hurt to keep yourself hydrated and never trigger the thirst sensation!
-sunny
"If you're at the point of feeling thirsty, you're already dehydrated."
Myth No. 3: By the time you feel thirsty, you're already becoming dehydrated
Maybe if you're an elite athlete running a marathon or a hotshot tennis player sweating in the noonday sun -- but not if you're going about your everyday activities.
Thirst is, in fact, a very sensitive mechanism for regulating fluid intake, according to Barbara Rolls, PhD, a nutrition researcher at Pennsylvania State University. In a 1984 study in Physiology and Behavior, she and a group of colleagues at Oxford University followed a group of men as they went through their normal day. Left to their own devices, the volunteers became thirsty and drank long before their hydration levels showed any signs of dipping.
Says Rolls, "If people have access to water or other fluid beverages, they seem to do a very good job of maintaining hydration levels."
When I exercise I am thirsty within 10 minutes but I still have 30-50 minutes of hard aerobic activity to go. If I was "dehydrated" I would be weak, dizzy and my strength and endurance would drop significantly. Instead I am strong throughout and finish with a sprint, how do you explain that? My urine isn't darker either.
I average 4-5 glasses per day of water, the rest of the water comes from food.
In the past decade a number of inexperienced runners have died due to over consumption of fluids. This has lead officials to change their language to "Rely more on your thirst level rather than forcing yourself to drink.".
The next thing companies pushing product will have us believe is that you must eat before you get hungry because hunger is a sign of starvation, lol. In the sixties you didn't see people toting water bottles and there was no mass incidence of dehydration with semi-delerious people wandering around.
Myth No. 3: By the time you feel thirsty, you're already becoming dehydrated
Maybe if you're an elite athlete running a marathon or a hotshot tennis player sweating in the noonday sun -- but not if you're going about your everyday activities.
Thirst is, in fact, a very sensitive mechanism for regulating fluid intake, according to Barbara Rolls, PhD, a nutrition researcher at Pennsylvania State University. In a 1984 study in Physiology and Behavior, she and a group of colleagues at Oxford University followed a group of men as they went through their normal day. Left to their own devices, the volunteers became thirsty and drank long before their hydration levels showed any signs of dipping.
Says Rolls, "If people have access to water or other fluid beverages, they seem to do a very good job of maintaining hydration levels."
When I exercise I am thirsty within 10 minutes but I still have 30-50 minutes of hard aerobic activity to go. If I was "dehydrated" I would be weak, dizzy and my strength and endurance would drop significantly. Instead I am strong throughout and finish with a sprint, how do you explain that? My urine isn't darker either.
I average 4-5 glasses per day of water, the rest of the water comes from food.
In the past decade a number of inexperienced runners have died due to over consumption of fluids. This has lead officials to change their language to "Rely more on your thirst level rather than forcing yourself to drink.".
The next thing companies pushing product will have us believe is that you must eat before you get hungry because hunger is a sign of starvation, lol. In the sixties you didn't see people toting water bottles and there was no mass incidence of dehydration with semi-delerious people wandering around.
Last edited:
Healthyhabit
New member
Rofl... there were lots of delirious people in the 60's.
I wonder if there's ever been a study done on lsd usage vs dehydration
or dehydration could explain a lot of the fashion and hair choices... probably explains the 80s too - mass dehydration... maybe the bad music of the 90s could be attributed to dehydration.
Drinking water has benefits, and I notice it in my body when I don't drink enough... there's no set formula, though the consistant one i've seen ishalf your body weight in ounces, drink as much water as your body needs...
Healthyhabit
New member
that would be a fun study to read about.... dehydration vs LSD. hahaha 
Actually the bottled water toting didn't begin until the 80's. I saw the Mayo Clinic site and disagree with them, thirst is not a sign of dehydration. A respected university did a study on this and found no scientific evidence for that or the 8 glasses per day myth.
Well I'm on my way to the supermarket I better pack 2 bottles of water for my 15 minute air conditioned drive and 100 yard walk in case I collapse from water deficiency! Better make sure I am near bathrooms as I'm going to need them every hour on the hour, lol.
Well I'm on my way to the supermarket I better pack 2 bottles of water for my 15 minute air conditioned drive and 100 yard walk in case I collapse from water deficiency! Better make sure I am near bathrooms as I'm going to need them every hour on the hour, lol.
Last edited: