Are you getting enough?
Water, that is.
Discover how your consumption of God’s own pure drink……WATER…….can help you regulate exactly what and how much you eat.
I come across it almost daily…..people telling me how weight loss is such a hard task to master. There are so many different elements and mind games that go into losing weight. It is like going back to school again and starting back in first grade.
Everyone is looking for a simpler solution.
There is so much new information to come to grips with, that soon it becomes all too much and you just want to give up.
But…..there is one simple solution you can do to help regulate how much and what you eat. Read on.
Now, you are most probably going to think drinking water is not a magical cure-all, but it may seem like it after you learn what it can do to help you regulate your eating habits.
Here are the 4 simple ways drinking more water can help with weight loss.
1. Water Helps Digestion through Saliva
Digestion starts with saliva. Saliva is made mostly of water. According to Everyday Health, the enzymes in saliva are the beginning of the digestive tract. These enzymes help break down food so they can be properly digested in the stomach.
Water also helps break down the soluble fibre in your food making it easier to pass through your system. Water-soluble fibre is one of the biggest factors of feeling full after you eat. If you have not had enough water, or are dehydrated, digesting water soluble fiber becomes almost impossible.
So, make sure that you are able to digest (and pass) this food element properly by drinking plenty of water.
2. Water Soluble Vitamins
One of the reasons we eat food is to get access to vitamins. Vitamins and minerals are vital to various bodily functions. Deficits in these essential vitamins and minerals can cause cravings in the body. San Francisco Gate tells how the body cannot digest certain water-soluble vitamins without enough water present in the body.
Water-soluble vitamins are vitamins that can only be absorbed with the aid of water.
These vitamins break down with the water in the digestive tract and then are absorbed into the body.
Absorption of these essential vitamins stops when dehydration occurs or when there is not enough water in the body.
Even when slight deficiencies occur you may begin craving additional foods even though you’re not hungry. These cravings are mainly due to vitamin deficiencies and not hunger so make sure you have enough water so your body can digest the required amount of water-soluble vitamins.
3. How to Eat Fewer Calories – Just add Water
Water can help you eat fewer calories than you would normally if you didn’t drink water before meals.
I found where Livestrong notes in a study that participants consumed 75-90 fewer calories per meal by drinking two 235ml (8oz) glasses of water before each meal. Now consuming 90 fewer calories per meal may not seem like a big deal.
But look at it this way, if you did this every meal you could lose up to 12.7 kilos (28 pounds) over the period of a year without even really trying. That’s worth trying, don’t you think?
So how does the math work here?
If you save 90 calories a meal three times a day, that’s 270 calories every day that you’re not eating…….but would have been eating previously. If you do this every day for a week then you have saved 1,890 calories to your weight loss account.
So if you are consistent and motivated enough and can continue saving that 90 calories a meal every week for a year then you’ve saved 98,280 calories. Sounds worthwhile to me.
In my research for easy weight loss ideas I noticed where MayoClinic says 3,500 calories make up 0.45 kilos or about one pound. So by saving a whopping 98,280 calories you’ve created a huge deposit in your weight loss account.
And how much does that mean in real terms of the amount of weight lost – 12.7 kilos (28 pounds)! That is an excellent outcome.
But there is a flipside to all this; if you were to continue eating as normal that 90 calories could well be in excess and you would continue to keep putting weight on.
Just think……..all of this weight loss or weight gain can be changed by drinking just two 235 ml (8 ounce) glasses of water before each meal.
That’s the challenge. Are you prepared to give it a go – drink water to lose weight?
4. Trick Question. Are You Hungry or Just Plain Thirsty?
This tricks a huge amount of people and is one of the biggest causes of weight gain I come across. Many people confuse thirst with hunger. As an aside and a handy tip too…….dehydration or lack of water also causes headaches, so next time you have a splitter in the head try drinking a large glass of water before reaching for the Panadol. I find it usually works within about 20 minutes.
You could well be reaching out for a snack when what you really should be reaching out for is a big glass of water. SparkPeople did an article recently describing how the body sends out the exact same signal for hunger as it does for thirst.
As I said above, many people don’t know how to tell the difference between hunger and thirst, and because we so rarely think about dehydration we assume we are hungry. Because the adult body averages from 55% to 65% water (infants higher – 75% to 78%) it is very easy to become dehydrated without really even noticing.
Next time you get a growl in the belly created by what you might think is a hungry signal from your brain, try reaching for a big glass of water instead. It could well be you are just thirsty.
Some Closing Thoughts on Drinking Water for Weight Loss:
Now you know four surprising ways how water can help control how much and what you eat. Helping you stop cravings and eat less, water is an economical and fantastic one stop shop method for all your weight loss solutions.
Don’t forget to let us know what are some more ways you have noticed water help you with diet and weight loss problems?
I am sure you will also be interested to know what I read on Harvard Health about drinking water for controlling weight loss.
It drew attention to a recent study posted in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics which provides even more evidence that we should choose water over other drinks if we want to control our weight.
For the study, researchers from the University of Illinois looked at data on the eating (and drinking) habits of 18,311 adults as recorded in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2005 and 2012.
If you would like some more weight loss tips then have a look at this article I wrote recently: Easy Weight Loss: 15 Solutions for Dysfunctional and Unhealthy Eating Habits……..
Don’t forget to like and share……..you never know who else it may help.
Cheers – John – your Active Ageing Advocate and Coach.
P.S. Help a friend…..don’t forget to like and share.
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