Caffeine

If you are drinking caffeine do the drinks with it count in your daily water or do you need more without caffeine?  Just curious if coffee and the crystal light energy should count in my water intake or if I should drink more plain water!

As far as I know they are counted as liquids.  Personally I only drink caffeine free.

Old school...the caffeinated fluids you drank did not count.

New school: They do count, just don't rely on them for all your fluids. I have two cups of coffee (reg NOT decaf) and count that as the rest of the day, my fluids are either decaf tea (it's the only version carried in Sam's/Costco that I will even use) or other liquids, like homemade lemonade or water.

There is this idea that caffeine is dehydrating so those fluids don't count. People will even tell you that, for every caffine drink you drink, you have to drink twice as much water to make up for it.

This is not true.

Studies have shown that caffeine is not dehydrating. It can have a mild diuretic effect but it won't make you pee more over a 24 hours period -- just more often and that effect is short lived if you consume caffeine regularly.

Therefore, when I do drink it, I count it.

My personal system is this: I drink at least 1 cup of sf watery drink before my coffee and then at least 1 cup afterwards. I've got that as a habit now and won't make the coffee until I get my sf drink prepared first.

Thank you everyone for your input.  I usually drink more then enough plain water through the week while at work but on weekends it's hard for me to get enough water in especially if it's not caffinated!