Hydrate to Lose Weight: Drinking Water & Its Relationship to Weight Loss
It all begins with water ….
Water makes up 75% of the human body, so to say it is vital to health could be nothing short of an understatement. Drinking water is a necessity for maintaining health, but it helps those of us who are trying to lose weight or decrease fat in ways you may not have considered.
First of all, by drinking water before and during a meal, it makes you feel full sooner. If you feel full sooner, it can help you to stop eating sooner. Secondly, water can be mixed with low calorie concentrates and sipped throughout the day.
By adding flavorings (such as juice concentrate or green tea extract) the water tastes more like food, which can also put off feelings of hunger and keep you feeling more satisfied between meals.
Finally, drinking lots of water helps you feel better while losing weight. When the body burns old fat deposits, it can encounter contaminants and chemicals stored within the fat. These contaminants can cause you to have flu-like symptoms. By drinking plenty of water throughout the day, you provide a vehicle to allow the body to assist in flushing out those contaminants.
So how do you drink more water? Like everything else related to losing weight or fat, discipline must be incorporated. Here are a few suggestions to help you drink more water each day:
1. Create an Accountability Partner at home or work and tell one another when you drink a glass of water, so that the other has to also. Compete to see who drinks more water.
2. Associate drinking water with daily ‘landmarks’. Brush your teeth, drink a glass of water. Have breakfast, drink a glass of water. Leaving for work, drink a glass of water. And so on.
3. Proximity. Keep the water close to you at all times. Buy bottles of water that can be frozen and taken with you if you are not going to be at home or at work. Keep extra glasses and water bottles at work and make sure you always have one full. If it is available, you will drink more water.
A couple of very important aspects of hydration that dramatically affect weight gain and loss are water retention and kidney function.
First of all, water retention. Water retention is an interesting issue because it is one of those issues that runs completely contrary to how we would imagine it would work. Water weighs about seven pounds per gallon, so its easy to imagine that we could shed a few quick pounds by losing some retained water… but how do we do that? Well, as it turns out, we lose retained water by drinking more water!
The body has such a need for water that it retains extra water if we don’t supply the right amount on a daily basis – and most of us do not. By getting into a habit, or regimen, of drinking more water than our body actually needs, our body becomes convinced that it doesn’t need to hoarde extra water. Once your body is “convinced” that you are going to provide more than enough water to simply survive, it will let loose of the extra water it has stored up in your cells.
Secondly, let’s look at your kidneys. Well not directly at them, but let’s talk about them. In order to do their job properly, your kidneys require an enormous amount of water. If the water is not supplied, your body goes to Plan B, which is to enlist the assistance of your liver. Because the liver is able to metabolize fat (turn it into energy), every second your liver spends bailing out the kidneys is a second it isn’t burning stored fat. Drinking more water allows the kidneys to run at their optimal level and keeps the liver available to burn fat.
For dieters, there is an additional aspect worth consideration. Because we are attempting to burn EXTRA fat (not simply the supply of fat in our daily diet), we actually create an extra water deficit. It takes water to do the normal work of processing waste from our bodies, and it takes EXTRA water to process the stored fat and waste that comes from that job.
Earlier in the article we shared a few tips on how to drink more water each day. Here are a few more tips to help you start your hydration habit:
1. Whenever you feel the urge to binge or have a hankerin’ for something that you KNOW you shouldn’t eat or drink, immediately drink a big glass of water. It’ll do two things… first it will fill your stomach, preventing you from putting the bad stuff in there, and secondly, it will put some time between you and your craving, giving it a chance to pass.
2. Water out, water in. Make it a habit to drink a glass of water after you use the restroom. Did you remember to shut the light off??
3. Drink with a straw. Some people say that you drink more and drink faster if you use a straw. It’s worth a try, right??
References: University of Minnesota, Extension Water Quality Program
Copyright ? 2005 Michael Callen
Michael Callen is the author of the Weekly Weightloss Tips Newsletter and the Chief Technology Officer for WellnessPartners.com, an online retailer of dozens of health and wellness products.
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Health Care Costs ? Can Your Diet Control Them?
One of the most talked about topics in any political and social circle is the rising costs of health care. Some say the health insurance companies are to blame, while others point the finger at medical malpractice lawsuits. We may or may not ever come up with the right answers to this query, and we might just be talking in circles.
Whether or not we can decide what the problem is with health care costs, there are some things that you can do to reduce the chance that you will have to rely on doctors and prescription drugs to get through your daily life. The costs of health care are not the only burden. Relying on prescription and non-prescription drugs is not a pleasant way to live.
Your diet and exercise routine will help to keep you healthy and add to the longevity of your body and mind. You don’t have to jump into a gym membership or become a vegetarian just yet. Your lifestyle change takes time. Any major change in diet needs time for your body to adjust.
Common sense offers the best rules when it comes to a healthy body. Most of us know what is good for us, and what we should eliminate from our lifestyles. There are healthy alternatives to many of the ailments that we have a hard time staying away from.
Some simple tips are all you need to get into a healthier lifestyle:
- Buy healthy foods. We are always in a hurried state, trying to get the most of our time. Unfortunately, out lack of time tends to send fast food and processed food onto our dinner plates.
- Learn to cook. The more comfortable you are in the kitchen allows for a wider variety of foods. You’ll eat better, and enjoy it much more. Community education offers great, inexpensive classes.
- Exercise regularly. You don’t have to hit the gym everyday, just go for a 30 minute walk in the mornings or evenings. It’s relaxing too.
- Sleep. Your body needs to recharge after a long day, and you can never catch up on lost sleep. Eight hours is just about right. Consistency is also a key ingredient to sleep.
- Don’t feel guilty. We all slip up once in a while. Just limit your impulses to small portions. One scoop of ice cream instead of two.
You’ll soon notice that the common sense approach to lifestyle change will definitely make a difference in how you feel from day to day. Your health is the most important possession you have. Take care of your body, and you reduce the need for reliance on the health care system. Your body has the amazing power of healing itself; just give it the chance to do its job.
Robb Ksiazek is a writer and web publisher for information at Body-Mass-Index-4U.com. He believes that mind, body, and soul allow for a most fulfilling life.
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