Water?

[DickCrack]

I have been low carbing for 3 weeks now and lost 11 lbs already. Despite knowing that is lots, as I have 150 lbs to lost, it feels like it's going to take forever.... I'm impatient, I want to speed it up.
I like it being unforgiving, I like the ketosticks to check, I like not feeling hungry and having peaks and troughs.
But I don't understand the water thing. I know I'm not drinking enough and I think partly that's because I don't understand why you need to drink a lot on this plan. Can anyone explain it please?
oh and a bit of motivation about the speed of loss would help too

[BIWI]

The more weight you have to lose, the more water you should drink. This is from Water is essential to weight loss for those who eat low-carb. The minimum consumed in a day should be:
Your Weight----Litres
140lbs-----2.5
160lbs-----3.0
180lbs-----3.0
200lbs-----3.5
220lbs-----3.5
240lbs-----4.0
260lbs-----4.5
280lbs-----4.5
300lbs-----5.0
320lbs-----5.5
340lbs-----5.5
360lbs-----6.0
380lbs-----6.5
400lbs-----6.5

High levels of ketones in the blood stream can lead to a reduction in ketone production, therefore being well hydrated could aid in keeping the levels low and ketone production ongoing. Consuming enough water can have many other positive side effects: aids your kidneys with the processing of protein, reduces the retention of water, helps with preventing constipation, and reduces the levels of ketones released by your breath, which in-turn will reduce breath odour. However, drinking a lot of water can mean that you also need to keep an eye on your electrolyte balance. You need to make sure that you are consuming sufficient sodium and potassium. On a low carb diet we can eat more salt, so make sure that you are cooking with salt and adding salt to food, if you like it. Good, low carb, sources of potassium are spinach (raw), avocado, mushrooms, courgettes and asparagus, as well as salmon and yoghurt.

[BIWI]

Sorry - that missed out a link that I tried to post, showing the source of that information! Which is //low-carbdiet.co.uk

[BIWI]

And also, read this for why you need to drink water

A couple of warnings:

• if you're drinking enough water, the ketostix won't show any change; this is a good thing!
  
• you're in week 3. It's very, very, very common for weight loss to slow/stop/reverse in weeks 3, 4 and/or 5 - totally normal
  
• and sorry to disappoint you, but the rate of loss from here on in will be the same as any other diet - around 1-2lbs per week. This is good. Slow and steady weight loss is much more sustainable. You may lose at a slightly higher rate if you have more to lose, but low carbing is not a fad diet and you won't shed half a stone every week

[DickCrack]

Thank you BIWI - really tried hard to up the water today. Obviously need to as (TMI) my bladder feels really irritated today.