Just in case you’re wondering; Yes, water can help you lose weight!
“But we’ve been drinking water all our lives, why are we not skinny yet?” Well, maybe you’ve not been drinking water in the right quantity and with the intention of losing weight. If you take as much as 5 liters of water per day for a period of 2 weeks, you’ll lose nothing less than 5 pounds.
The role of water in managing weight gain
There are a lot of benefits of drinking water. It helps to boost your metabolism, helps with food digestion and absorption, acts as an appetite suppressant, and reduces stress level. All these promote healthy weight management and weight loss.
Losing as little as 2% of your body’s water content can cause dehydration, which can cause digestive problems like constipation and indigestion.
On its own, indigestion can cause weight gain. When the calories in a meal are not properly digested and excreted, they stay back in the body and increase its calorie level.
How exactly are you supposed to drink water in order to lose weight?
According to experts, women should drink at least 9 cups of water per day to stay healthy and productive. Men also should take at least 12 cups of water per day. If you want to lose weight, you have to take more than that by all means.
Note that how much water you need to take in order to lose weight depends on your body size, your weight, your activity level, sleep pattern, what you eat, fitness level, and where you live. On average, 4 to 5 liters of water per day will do the trick. You can start small with 2 liters, then you can increase it to 5 liters with time.
Here are some tips on how and when you can drink water to help you consume as much as 4 to 5 liters a day; eventually lose weight.
1. Drink water before meals
Water is a natural appetite suppressant, and taking it before a meal is a sneaky way to get you to feel fuller faster thereby reducing the amount of food you take. This in effect means lower calorie intake. According to health professionals, drinking water before meals can reduce how much food you take by 75 calories per meal. If this is the only weight loss strategy you choose, you’ll lose approximately 1 pound in 2 weeks.
To achieve this, take as much as 1 to 2 cups of water just before your meal; or at most, 30 minutes before your meal.
2. Drink ice cold water
Something about ice-cold water is, when ingested, your body will have to work extra hard to warm the water up. This process requires more energy, so more calories are used in the process. It may not be so much, but when you do this for a period of time, the number of calories used to warm up ice-cold water in your body will amount to a substantial value.
This is why it is always advised to be patient with your weight loss journey, and make it a lifestyle if you want to achieve and maintain your results. But then, drinking ice cold water is not all there is to your weight loss strategy, is it?
3. Avoid calorie-filled drinks; drink water instead
Calorie-filled drinks are what they are; calorie-filled. Taking them means increasing the number of calories you take every day and countering the effects of your weight loss journey. So, in order to see great results in the shortest time possible, it will do you well to ditch calorie-filled drinks and replace it with water. As a matter of fact, calorie-filled drinks are a key factor that can make a whole lot of difference for anyone that wants to either lose or gain weight.
Examples of calorie-filled drinks you should beware of
| Drinks | Amount (ounces) | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Bottled sweet tea | 12 | 129 – 143 |
| Soda | 12 | 124 – 189 |
| Cranberry cocktail juice | 12 | 205 |
| 1% low-fat milk | 12 | 154 |
| Diet soda | 12 | 1 – 7 |
| Unsweetened apple juice | 12 | 169-175 |
| Whole milk | 12 | 220 |
| Soy milk | 12 | 147-191 |
| Skimmed milk | 12 | 125 |
| Regular beer | 12 | 155 |
| Light beer | 12 | 104 |
| Red wine | 5 | 125 |
| White wine | 5 | 122 |
| Liquor | 1.5 | 96 |
This is just to give you an idea of how much calories you consume by taking calorie-filled drinks.
4. Sip on water when you’re hungry
You’ll agree that losing weight requires some good efforts and patience. It is usually not an easy task, especially when you’re starting out for the first time. You can get over this difficulty by staying disciplined, focused, and drinking water.
Earlier on, we mentioned how you can curb your appetite by drinking water just before your meal. In that same manner, drinking water when you’re hungry can help you reduce hunger. This is a very useful tip indeed seeing as most people on weight loss journies are bound to experience a lot of hunger pangs, especially while starting out.
But it’s hard to drink water just like that
Have you ever tried to drink water first thing after you wake up in the morning on an empty stomach? What does it feel like? Of course, it feels kind of uncomfortable, but within time, you’ll notice that all that discomfort goes away. But you have to hang in there for as long as it takes for it to go away. So, yes, drinking water is not easy at times; just see it as the sacrifice you have to make in order to lose weight and build that amazing body you’ve always wanted.
If you think water is too boring and you want something tasty to drink, then you can spice up your water with natural flavors like:
- Honey
- Lemon
- Cucumber
- Pineapples
- Fresh mint leaves, etc.
You can also get creative with ice. One cube or two in your glass of water will inspire you to drink up and ask for more.
There are some scientific researches to prove that drinking water can help you lose weight if you take it in the right proportion. Aside from losing weight, water-drinkers can maintain their weight and good health more than non-water-drinkers.
Let us know your findings if you ever decide to lose weight by drinking water.
