One Small Change to Kick-Start Weight Loss: Drink More Water!

What’s the easiest thing you think you can change to help you with weight loss? Drink More Water. 

(Check out this post and more Diet Tips an Recipes at Diet Dish: http://www.dietdish.org/one-small-change-to-kick-start-weight-loss-drink-more-water/.)

How Much Should I be Drinking for Weight Loss?

Everyone has heard “drink 8 eight-ounce glasses daily” – but for optimized weight loss, but it turns out, that formula is way out of date — left over from the days when it was considered “unladylike” to sweat, and nobody had Internet access to medical studies.

Water Needed Daily for Optimal Health:

Your Current Weight / divided by 2 = # of ounces of water you should drink daily

Why so much? Did you know that your body loses water just by breathing? Or that our bodies are made of 60% water?

YOU are made of water. When you don’t have as much as your body needs to function optimally, your body responds by making you hungry and tired, among other bad reactions that hinder weight loss.

 If you aren’t keeping track, then you aren’t truly aware of HOW MUCH you are drinking, and PS: it’s probably not enough.

Small Change #1: Make a Commitment to Drink More Water!

Track How Much Water You Drink Daily, and Make a Plan for Reaching Your Everyday Water Drinking Goal.

1. Track how much you already drink daily.
2. Make a plan for reaching your new water-drinking goal.
3. If it isn’t water, it doesnt count in your daily total.
4. Report how many ounces you drank to someone daily — can be anyone supporting you on your diet. Can be on your own social media, on this blog, or through our Diet Challenge Group at: http://www.dietbetter.com/games/58451.

Need to know more to motivate you? Read on!

Why and How Drinking More Water Will Help You to Lose Weight: 

 

1. Water Cranks Up Your Metabolism

(This tip credit: Web MD) “Water’s involved in every type of cellular process in your body, and when you’re dehydrated, they all run less efficiently — and that includes your metabolism. Think of it like your car: if you have enough oil and gas, it will run more efficiently. It’s the same with your body.”

“Your metabolism is basically a series of chemical reactions that take place in your body,” says Trent Nessler, PT, DPT, MPT, managing director of Baptist Sports Medicine in Nashville. “Staying hydrated keeps those chemical reactions moving smoothly.” Being even 1% dehydrated can cause a significant drop in metabolism.

2. Muscles Can Work More Efficiently, and Longer

 Drinking water helps prevent muscle cramping and lubricates joints in the body.

When you’re well hydrated, you can exercise longer and stronger without “hitting the wall.”

3. You Have More Energy

Even a small amount of dehydration can make you feel tired. If you’re feeling drained and depleted, get a pick-me-up with water, instead of that cookie. Self-Check: Am I Hungry or Tired?

4. Your Body Stops Fighting You/Your Weight Loss

Getting enough water helps you digest food properly.

Properly-digested food prevents all kinds of weight-loss inhibitors from kicking in.. everything from hormones that cause cravings & false hunger signals to the brain, to metabolism slow-down and the body’s stubborn refusal to lose when you are being an angel on your diet!

Self-Check: Am I Hungry or Thirsty?

Your body can fight your weight loss in so many ways. For instance, it’s very difficult for the body to tell the difference between hunger and thirst. So if you’re walking around feeling a gnawing sense of hunger, you might just be dehydrated. Try drinking a glass of water instead of grabbing a snack, and see if your body stops fighting your diet.

5. Less Hunger

(this tip courtesy of Web MD) Research has shown that drinking a glass of water right before a meal helps you to feel more full and eat less. “Many people do find that if they have water before a meal, it’s easier to eat more carefully,” says Renee Melton, MS, RD, LD, director of nutrition for Sensei, a developer of online and mobile weight loss and nutrition programs.

One study, for example, found that people who drank water before meals ate an average of 75 fewer calories at each meal. That doesn’t sound like a lot — but it adds up to 225 calories saved daily. Multiply 75 calories by 365 days a year. Even if you only drink water before dinner every day, you’d consume 27,000 fewer calories over the course of the year. That’s almost an eight-pound weight loss.

And, after you have lost the weight, continue your new water-habit, and you can drink a glass of wine with dinner 4 days a week and not gain an ounce!

6. Less Stress!

About 70% to 80% of your brain tissue is water. If you’re dehydrated, your body and your mind are stressed. 

To keep stress levels down, keep a glass of water at your desk or carry a sports bottle and sip regularly.

7. Look Younger!

Drinking water hydrates skin cells and plumps them up, making your face look younger. It also flushes out impurities and improves circulation and blood flow, helping your skin glow.

How To Build More Water into Your Day:

How can you build more water consumption into your day? Try these tips:

• Measure it: This is probably my number 1 best tip: Get a water bottle that holds 32 ounces and keep it with you, taking sips everywhere. My goal is 3 bottles daily. 3 is a lot easier for me to keep track of than 12, which is how many glasses it would take for me to fulfill my daily optimal water needs for weight loss!

• Make it fun: I LOVE my Soda Stream machine (fizzy water is so much more fun to drink than regular water!). It makes it much easier for me to drink water instead of an energy drink or a diet pop, which DONT COUNT as water in my daily total. (So many reasons those “liquid options” aren’t good or even hydrating for me, I know).

• Get Started EARLY. I drink one entire 32 oz bottle BEFORE I leave for work in the a.m. With only 2 left and the whole day ahead of me, it’s much easier to make the goal.

• Exercise = One entire 32 oz bottle DONE! It’s so much easier to meet the water goal when I drink during and immediately after exercise.

• Share: If you start sharing your ounces daily and your goal with even one friend (or a whole LOT of them on our Diet Challenge) it’s amazing how much more likely you are to meet the goal.

• Keep your bottle next to your bed. Many of us wake up dehydrated first thing in the morning.

• Replace as many calorie-filled beverages as you can with water.

• Drink water icy cold to amp metabolism – Your body must work to warm the water up, burning a few extra calories in the process.

• If you’re feeling drained and depleted, get a pick-me-up with water. Dehydration makes you feel tired. 

Drink more water, and you’ll be less hungry and eat less. You’ll have more energy, exercise more and look younger. Hmmmm… sounds like drinking more water really is a small change that can make a BIG difference!

How much water did YOU drink today? Tell us in comments!