Sipping

They keep telling me 64 ounces of water! My goodness I'm barely getting 24 ounces! This sipping is crazy I have yet to drink that much fluid. Does anyone have any pointers to help me? I'm constantly walking around with a cup of ice water but sipping is not emptying that cup

Tracy - Please drink way more than 24 ounces or you will get dehydrated and end up back in the hospital. People have a number of different systems, which I'm sure they will share, but one way is to divide your day by ounces and drink say one ounce every twelve minutes for 12 hours.

Can chugging water cause dumping?

I tried so hard today! Maybe something is wrong with my sipping! My goodness I'm so frustrated today I couldn't hold water down or protein shakes not to mention my meals

What Jim said, dehydration will make everything harder and you don't want to need IVs or be hospitalied.

Your job is to meet your protein and fluid requirements.

Try iced tea, try hot tea, if you're allowed, try decaf or regular coffee, but get your fluids in!

Set an alarm, set a goal per hour/x drunk by x time, whatever it takes but a month out, you should be hitting hydration targets for sure.

One of the hardest things for me post WLS was developing good habits for getting enough fluid. Here are some things that are helping me meet my goal of 2 litres per day.

I alternate hot and cold liquids. Although I know that hot fluids count toward the goal, I tended to avoid them early on because you have to sip them instead of gulping them the way you can with cold liquids. However, I later realised that I actually consume hot liquids at a faster rate! That's because reaching for the cup and taking a sip at regular intervals happens automatically, without my consciously having to think about it. Also, hot liquids don't make me feel "waterlogged" and "sloshy". Compare that with cold liquids, which I have to remind myself to keep drinking. Also, I measured my favourite mugs and was surprised to discover that they hold 500 ml, so that's a quarter of my daily requirement. So now I tend to alternate between hot and cold liquids to avoid boredom.

I start before breakfast. Just thinking about drinking 2 liters per day is intimidating for me. So (and this is brain dead obvious in hindsight), I focus instead of getting in 500 ml before each meal. Drinking 500 ml before breakfast was a game changer; getting a quarter of the way to my goal that early really inspires me to keep at it.

I turn some of my liquids into indulgent "snacks". To decaf coffee I add protein powder, cocoa, cinnamon, and almond flavouring for a decadent "latte". (Actually, I often omit the coffee.) One of the highlights of my day, and I'm killing two birds with one stone: protein and liquids.

I prefer a little acidity in my water. Adding lemon juice is one way. Another thing I do is fill a bottle with water, put an herbal tea bag in it, and stick it in the fridge for a few hours. Effortless ice tea!

For cold liquids, I prefer to re-use commercial beverage bottles with screw-on lids. I drink them more quickly and automatically. I think this is due to years of unconsciously sipping on diet sodas. Liquids in glasses tend to warm up, evaporate, and collect dust more quickly. I have tried using reusable water bottles, but I have found it difficult to develop a habit of drinking automatically from them. Plus, they smell funky after a while. And I find thermoses a bit intimidating (always afraid I'll break them.) So I just reuse ordinary beverage bottles lots and lots of times.

In addition to the dangers of dehydration (and believe me, you don't want that to happen; it feels horrible), here are a few extra motivations for increasing your fluids.

Water is necessary for weight loss. If my weight loss slows, it's usually because I'm not drinking enough water.

Drinking plenty of water will improve the elasticity of your skin. You're about to lose a lot of weight, so I'm sure the possibility of having sagging skin is on your mind. There's not much you can do to prevent it; it mostly depends on your age, genetics, and how long you've had the excess weight. But there is one thing that you can do to help: drink plenty of fluid. On days I drink extra water, I can see the improvement in my face!

Water is the single most important thing you can do to prevent or correct constipation. It sounds like you've had surgery quite recently, so your surgeon probably prescribed a stool softener. But stool softeners and the like won't work properly if you're not taking enough fluid in. I used to have problems with constipation, but now that I understand the importance of fluid it happens a lot less often. And when I do get constipated, simply increasing my fluid intake usually resolves it without.

Thank you so kindly for sharing with me I appreciate the sound advice from someone who has experience

If cold ice water isn't doing it, try something else. Sugar-free Gatorade, Crystal Light, tea, hin****er, even regular water with some lemon or cucumber slices.

Try different temperatures too. Cold water made my stomach cramp, and I had much better luck with room-temperature.

I was getting in about 40oz for the first few weeks after surgery and still ended up so dehydrated that I ended up getting 4 bags of saline at the doctor's office last week. Dehydration is no joke.

What everyone said . I had to be hospitalized and put in an IV drip for five days like 2-3 weeks post RNY because I didn't drink enough and my insides shut down n twisted . I was very lucky not to have to get Re-cut open .

Tea for me goes down much easier than cold anything . I make a bunch of lukewarm tea w skim milk and sip on it all day ( it also speeds the metabolism ) . A low caffeine tea like Jasmine is good till say three pm ( then I switch to no caffeine so I can sleep ) . Drinking enough is super important !