Lost 8lbs in 5 days without drinking ANY water!!

Hi there, I am a bit confused as since starting the Atkins diet I have been told by many people that you must drink around 8 glasses of water to lose weight on Atkins. I started Atkins about a month ago and lost 6lbs in my first week and 2lbs in my second week and then nothing at all for 2 weeks. I upped my water intake etc and was not cheating at all. However, I thought to myself on Monday "right im not going to drink any water and see if it makes a difference" Since Monday I have only drunk sugarfree sucralose sweetened Asda lemonade or sf squash and have lost 8lbs since Monday!! I am confused! That sort of shows me that if anything all that water was actually causing me to stall, im better off with no water(except water in the squash which is about 2 glasses a day)/ Any thoughts on this? V confused!
Thanks xxx

Hi Tess

I think regardless of how it might appear to be a factor in your weight loss, I can't stress enough how much you need to be drinking plenty of pure water.
This diet is meant to encourage 'clean' nutrition and water is just that. Also ketogenic diets, which this is, can cause a rise in blood acidity - not a problem if you have your water but if you neglect it then it can ultimately cause damage to your kidneys and liver.
So get your water down you!

Hiya

I would also recommend morr water. Dh is along for this ride and not really trying on the water. Recently had problems with dizziness which we decided were due to low blood pressure caused by dehydration. Also some people get nausea if not enough water.

I very much doubt its the water stalling you but plenty will keep you fit

Yeah I agree with everything these guys have said.

What's that stat? Humans are 60% water?

That said, I mostly drink lemon cordial with my water (but I don't drink coffee etc) so perhaps I'm being a bit of a hypocrite.

Yes to what the others say, you need the water to flush out the nasties - I never used to drink much water but am now up to 3 litres a day, and feel much better for it. Also, it's good for your skin

Why would you not drink water? Such a wrong idea. Get drinking!
You've probably lost weight through dehydration, not a good choice

Oh nonsense, honestly. I don't drink unflavoured water because it makes me gag. But you are drinking water. Sugar free squash + water = WATER. Sugarfree lemonade = WATER. Tea, coffee = WATER.

You are drinking water. And if you've managed to up your liquid intake by drinking sugarfree drinks then that's fine. As long as sucralose/aspartame/citric acid don't stall you then there's absolutely no problem with having them on this diet. But you are drinking water. If you'd had 'none at all' you'd be dead. Just make sure your fluids are high and your drinks are trace/zero carb. I recently switched from sugarfree squash to perfectly clear flavoured water and am doing well on that.

You could have drunk water this week & still had that fab loss especially after a 2 week stall... there is no rhyme or reason to weekly weight losses, especially when on Atkins & not drinking is dangerous!

keep drinking your squash/tea/coffee but please drink more thank 2 glasses a day!

Also, they don't tell you to drink lots of water on atkins in order to lose weight. What water will do is make sure you're not hanging onto glycogen stores, which helps if you've gone over on carbs, and also helps flush it out in your first week.

They tell you to drink because otherwise the diet will damage your kidneys. Your kidneys process protein and if you're not drinking to flush the protein through they'll have a much harder time. So you're told to have a high fluid intake for the good of your health. It doesn't matter if that's tea, diet coke, sf squash or tap water, it's all exactly the same thing. The qualifier is it needs to be negligible in carbs, and you need to drink plenty of it.

It also helps to flush out all the ketones that you are burning by being in ketosis... if yr bosy doesn't rid itself of these you could go into ketoacidosis which can be fatal!