Drink water to lose water weight?

I've kinda fallen off the wagon and I'm trying to get back on.

A question that I wanted to ask when I first started my diet but kept for getting to is this...

How does drinking water help eliminate water weight? I was just hoping someone could help explain the science to me. Seems to me that my Diet Coke would dehydrate me. Wouldn't less hydration = less water = less water weight?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know the scientific answer but I will give my opinion on it.

I feel the human body is an amazingly complex but serious and stupidly backwards machine. If you don't put enough of something in it, it will try to hold onto what it has to the best of it's ability so it doesn't run out. No matter what good it does for itself. It's like a computer becoming selfaware and trying to save itself from being destroyed.

kd,

Not sure of the exact reason but here is and example. After heart surgery I came home for recovery with 15 pounds of excess water weight. Not unusual since they were pupmping me with antibiotics, saline etc...

The doctors said drink 8 glasses of water/day (just like weight watchers says). My sister is a nurse and she agreed strongly.

I think of it as water helps the fat melt away - because it does work. I lost the weight but then gained some back because I started eating junk and not exercising. so here I am 3 months later! Striving to use cc and the rooms to guide me

Sorry i cannot be more scientific but since it did work for me once and am on the 8 glasses of water not soda/day. Also soda has ALOT of sodium that makes you retain water.

Best!

Cat

I'm sure it's totally wrong, but I think of those little salt crystals as damming up the cells in the body and causing them to swell up with water.  When you drink more water, it helps to wash over the top of the salt dam and wash the salt away. 

Basically though I drink lots of Diet Coke all day long, and even though they say it does dehydrate I have never had too many problems.  I think my system is used to it.

I don't have high blood pressure, and my urine is always light colored, or clear, so I don't think I have any hydration problems. 

What does make me retain a lot of water is a highly salty meal like mexican or chinese food. 

Karozel is correct.

When you eat salt (which most of us eat too much of) it stays in your body and absorbs water, making you gain water weight.

If you drink MORE water, it makes you pee more, which helps to flush out the excess salt in your body.  So you end up with less salt in your body which retains less water, therefore decreasing the amount of water weight you have.

that is how I understood it also, that more water the more we flush out the salt, the salt that causes us that horrible water retention, ughhh... So yeah Karozel and amymarieky is correct.

im trying to drink my 8 glasses of water a day but its so hard. 

how do you guys get your 8 glasses of water in when its so bland and boring?

thanks

I think because its so bland and boring its easy to drink. if it had a flavor i would get tired of it in a hurry..

if you want some flavor in your water to liven it up add a bit of lemon or something, I used to add just a bit of lemonade to my water to give it some taste.

You lose the water weight because your body trusts it will get what it needs after you start increasing your intake. However, you have to be careful not to over do it either, you can end up hyponatremic (Too little sodium in the body) if you are too dilute, you can also run into problems cardiac wise if you really push it.  8-10 a day is all you need

I think it also helps lose real weight because it fills you up and you eat less.

I thought it would be impossible to drink that much a day, but I started to force myself to drink more and more water, I used to drink cherry coke allll the time, I've had one now in 3 weeks! Well, a couple of cherry coke zeros too. And now, drinking water has just turned into habit. Plus, I find that drinking it with a straw helps A LOT!

i've started just putting bottles of water around the house

like in my nightstand, in my car, in the fridge

just so i always have it around