Water and Weight Loss: How are they Related?

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f you have been trying to lose weight for any time now you have probably heard about drinking water and weight loss being related. It is easy to see why most people would dismiss such a silly idea. How could drinking water possibly help you lose weight when there are entire industries and thousands of commercials telling you that you need pills, shakes, ab machines, workout tapes, etc…? Well the honest answer is selling water is pretty hard and doesn’t have much of a profit margin. That hasn’t stopped them from trying though. There are hundreds of brands of bottled water, vitamin water, protein water, flavored waters, and sparkling waters. You name it they have it and have tried to sell it to you as better than water. It’s not!

Water and Weight Loss: They go hand in hand

• Water helps to regulate your appetite - When you drink water it fills you up temporarily. This helps you to eat less and understand the difference between thirst and hunger.
• Releases toxins from your body – Since majority of your body is water, guess what the body uses to flush out the junk? Yep, water.
• Improves skin elasticity – When you gained weight you stretched out your skin. Now that you are trying to lose the weight you want your skin to tighten back up so you are not left with ugly stretch marks and sagging skin. Water helps to tighten the skin and reduce the appearance of stretch marks.
• Increases your metabolism – Some studies have shown that by drinking the appropriate amount of water you can increase your metabolism by up to 3%. Might not sound like a lot but every bit helps and increasing your metabolism is the key to weight loss success.

How much Water to Drink?

So now that we understand why drinking water is important to lose weight the next question is probably “How much water should I Drink?”. I’m sure you have all heard the rule of thumb of 8 – 8 oz glasses a day. That is pretty accurate for normal day to day life for most people. The math is actually 1 ounce of water for every 2 pounds of body weight if your goal is to lose weight and receive the benefits listed above. So for a 250 lb man trying to lose some body fat that would be about a gallon of water a day or 125 ounce (128 in a gallon) which is almost double the rule of thumb. So be sure to calculate your water requirements.

A word of common caution here: Don’t try to calculate every drop of water you consume and think that there is some magic in consuming the exact right amount. There is water in your coffee, fruit, tea, juices, etc… Don’t worry about all these. Also don’t feel like you have to guzzle your required 2 glasses at night to meet your quota. The idea is that you consume water throughout the course of the day and keep your body hydrated. Downing 3 glasses in the morning, 2 at lunch, and 3 at dinner is not the goal here. Get you a water bottle, empty milk jug, favorite cup, or whatever and sip on water throughout the course of your day. You will visit the bathroom more but reap the benefits of a properly hydrated body.

Speaking of the bathroom, a good way to tell if you are getting enough water is your urine should be clear (like water). Yellow means that you are dehydrated.

You can use your urine like a scale.
Clear = Great
Bright Yellow = Terrible

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