Monday, August 27, 2012

Water And Weight Loss Myth - What Is The Truth

There is a simple trick which might help you lose a few pounds of weight without actually going on a diet. of course, the weight lost this way might not be too much, however, it is a good start. Specially for people who hate dieting, this can be an excellent trick.

What I am suggesting you to do is to drink a glass or even 2 of water before each meal. It might not be immediately before starting the meal, but it can be 20-30 minutes before you sit down to eat. Kindly note it seems it is not advisable to drink water at least half hour before and half hour after meals as it is said that this negatively affects digestion.

Drinking water before the meals might make you eat less. You might eat 70-100 calories less than you would normally have during the meal. Suppose you eat 3 times a day and eat around 100 calories less each time, that equals 300 calories less than you are accustomed to eating.

Notice, I am not asking you to force yourself to eat less. This can happen automatically and naturally because you drank water before the meals. Your appetite is going to be suppressed. My suggestion would be to do this in moderation as some people might get too much excited and try to drink huge amounts of water so that they may eat much less. But remember that it is not wise to reduce your calories drastically in a short amount of time as your body needs nutrients in order to function properly.

The body gets these nutrients from the food you eat so you have to eat properly otherwise your health is going to suffer. It is not worth losing weight by spoiling your health. This might cause you to face many ill consequences in the long run.

Another reason why drinking water 10-20 minutes before meals might be a good idea is that at times a person may be dehydrated and mistake his thirst for hunger. It means that we humans can sometimes be mistaken and think we are feeling hungry when actually we are feeling thirsty due to mild dehydration. If you feel slight hunger, then drink a glass of water and wait for around 15 minutes. If you are still feeling hungry then that might be real hunger and you can sit down to eat.

On the other hand, if your hunger diminishes greatly after having a glass or two of water, it might not have been hunger in the first place. Dehydration is very bad for health. It can make your thinking slow, cause headaches, affect mental performance as well as bring about a host of other problems.

In the dehydrated state, the blood of the human body becomes thick which makes it harder for the heart to pump it. Thus, drinking plenty of water can be good for the heart and also be helpful in preventing high blood sugar levels. So, this above trick can not only be useful for helping you to lose weight but also for providing other health benefits.

However, there is also another side to the picture. In recent years, there have been many claims that drinking huge volumes of water can aid in weight loss. Many health experts and nutritionists have been quick to tell people to drink at least 8 ounces or even more of water everyday for losing weight and enjoying better health.

Well, it appears that this advice is a little exaggerated. There may be many factors on which would depend how much water your body actually requires - like weather conditions, age, body weight, how much labor intensive work you do etc. So, there is no one rule fits all situation.

Our body can get the fluid requirements from vegetables, fruits and juices. This article here suggests that the drive to encourage people to drink lots of water can have vested interests as the propaganda seems to have driven up sales of bottled water.


However, this does not contradict what I have said above. Drinking water before meals might be helpful in losing weight by making you eat less and also making you more active. As I had mentioned above, you need to follow this advice in moderation and not go overboard in drinking water. After a certain limit, excess water intake can be harmful for your health!

Another thing I mentioned above was you should not expect huge loss of weight by drinking water before meals. Drinking plenty of water alone might not be sufficient for causing weight loss. You need to follow a well formulated diet plan as well.

When health experts said that 2 liters of fluids a day are good for enjoying optimal health, most people assumed it is 2 liters of water. However, that does not seem to be the case. Your body gets the fluids from food you eat as well as tea and coffee (despite their caffeine content).

So, the food you eat as well as any additional fruits, vegetables and juices all contribute to the overall fluid intake. You don't need to actually drink 2 liters of water as that is not what the health experts meant in the first place! Hope I have cleared off some water weight loss myths in this short article.


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