Does water contain calories?

Random

Maybe it's a retarded question but does water contain calories?

flywheel

no - zero calories

although if anyone is buying bottled water and going for the 'flavoured' option, you should check the nutritional info for any calorie content

Random

Water then is the only drink that's got zero calories?

And by bottled water I'm assuming this doesn't apply to normal still water and is just the flavoured ones etc ?

figs86

water - the colder the better - should actually burn calories as you have to use energy to heat it up to body temperature

colder it is the more heat energy it takes to heat it up

now it's not a huge number but every little helps!

Abi

When you think about it really, we come across loads of conflicting advice. I cannot remember where I heard it exactly but it was that freezing water stalls your metabolism

cowzerp

Very cold water shocks your body and is not the best thing to drink, ideally water should be in or around room temp, it does not feel as nice then but hydrates without any negatives!

flywheel

random wrote: »

by bottled water I'm assuming this doesn't apply to normal still water and is just the flavoured ones etc ?

regular water (no additives) has zero calories

most bottled water doesn't give the standard nutritional value table you see on other food labeling as the main values are zero, any info is usually the mineral content contained in the water

rubadub

random wrote: »

Water then is the only drink that's got zero calories?

And by bottled water I'm assuming this doesn't apply to normal still water and is just the flavoured ones etc ?

Calories are a measurement of energy of a substance. They do not calculate them using food and people. A popular way to figure out calories is to get 100g of a substance and burn it in a lab, the heat from this "fuel" is used to heat a 500ml jar of water. The temperature of the water is then measured before and after. If burning 100g of chicken raise the water by 10 degrees and if 100g of bread raised it 20 degrees, then bread has twice the calories of chicken (per 100g).

figs86 wrote: »

When you think about it really, we come across loads of conflicting advice.

Many just misinterpret advice, they hear one thing and come up with a different conclusion. Many have no idea of what calories really are, and some how see them as units of "fatness" or something.

An average man will need 2000kcal per day just sitting around, keeping blood pumping, keeping himself warm, thats your basal metabolism. So people talk of raising metabolism or burning calories by drinking cold water. This is true, if your body is cold you need more calories to keep it warm. So you could drink cold water, or opening the window will have a similar effect, turn down the heat in your house, swim in the cold sea.

Many just get mixed up with logic and calculations. A fat man has a much higher basal metabolism than an underweight man. So you could logically say that overeating will boost your basal metabolism. It is not what most are after, in a similar way that most people do not want to lose weight, they want to lose fat. People use calories as a guide to how fat a food will make you, like they use gravitational pull to estimate how they look.

Many food manufacturers also take advantage of peoples ignorance about calories. A very simple and cheap ingredient is water, just add it too food and watch your calories drop per 100g, while the price can actually go up since now they can brand it as low calorie.