A simple change in your daily habit can give you excellent weight loss benefits and by the word “simple” we are not talking here about exercises or dieting, as we know they are not really simple. By “simple” we mean as simple as water, yes you get it just right; the “simple” way to lose weight is to drink more water. How? This article will explain that to you.
Losing extra weight and proper weight management are vital to maintain a healthy body and mind, but if you are too busy to take up a regular exercising regime to keep your weight in check, you can compensate even less exercise by drinking more water. We are not undermining the necessity of exercises for weight management, but we just want it to make clear that drinking more water can add to the results of exercises, thus giving you more weight loss benefits for exercising less. First let us take a look at the scientific literatures and researches that explain how drinking more water can help in losing weight.
Drinking more water helps in losing weight — is it a fact?
A number of scientific studies performed at different parts of the world during different times have shown that drinking more water can be helpful for losing weight and also for weight management. Drinking water adds to the amount of calorie burnt by the body. This is known as the resting energy expenditure, which means the energy spent by your body even when you are resting. It is easy to understand that increasing the rate of resting energy expenditure can be the key to lose weight without exercises, and water simple increases this expenditure of your body.
Studies have showed, in healthy adults, the resting energy expenditure is spiked to 24 to 30% within 10 minutes of having water and this high expense continues for at least one hour. So, drinking water every hour can increase the total resting energy expenditure of your body by 24 to 30% all round the clock, giving you great weight loss benefits.
Studies have also shown that overweight people experienced significant reduction in their BMI, waist circumference as well as in weight after having around 1-1.5 liters water daily for a few continuous weeks.
Apart from increasing the metabolic rate and resting energy expenditure of the body, there is another way through which drinking more water helps in losing weight. Drinking water 10-20 minutes before meal can help in suppressing appetite effectively making you eat within limits. Drinking water every hour can effectively reduce the tendency of in-between snacking, which can highly benefit in the weight loss process. Drinking more water is directly related to less calorie intake, as it fills you without adding any calorie to your body and this lowers the risk of weight gain.
How much water should you drink for losing weight?
So, now as all the doubts in your mind about drinking more water and losing weight has been cleared, let us get into the details of how much water you should drink to lose weight. Normally, it is said that drinking one to two liters of water at frequent intervals throughout the day can give you weight loss benefits, but we think specifying the amount of water intake is quite arbitrary because everybody is unique and the need of fluid in ones’ body is highly affected by a number of factors like the climate where the person lives, how much physical activities the person performs as well as how much the person sweats. So, instead of going by any number, the thumb rule here should be to drink water whenever you feel even slightly thirsty and drink sufficiently to quench your thirst fully.
Having informed you about how drinking water can help you shed extra calories and how much water you should drink for weight loss, now let us get into some details of how you should plan your daily water drinking habits that is most effective to give weight loss benefits. Increasing the total amount of your daily water intake is surely the key and apart from drinking water directly, you can also consume a lot of water along with a range of other foods. We will get there afterwards. For now here is a daily water drinking plan that can be most helpful to revamp the natural calorie burning process in your body,
Daily water drinking plan for better calorie burning
- Drink 1 full glass of water as soon as you wake up in the morning. This will kick start the metabolism of your body and will also abolish any dehydration caused in the body due to not drinking water in the long stretch of the night.
- 30 minutes before having your breakfast take another glass of water this will ensure that the metabolism rate in your body is at its peak. Drinking the water 30 minutes before breakfast will not affect your appetite much and will also help in reducing the problem of bloating and indigestion.
- You should have 1 full glass of water 20 minutes before every big meal during the day. This can be very helpful to reduce your appetite helping you to eat more wisely.
- Apart from the above, continue drinking half glass or more of water according to your thirst, at a gap ofevery one hour throughout the day. This will help in keeping your body metabolism high continuously, giving you weight loss benefits.
- 1 hour before going to the bed at night drink 1-2 glass of water to quench your thirst completely. This will help in keeping your resting energy expenditure high even when you are sleeping.
This daily water drinking plan gives you a clear idea about how you should arrange your daily water drinking to get the best weight loss benefits. Apart from the above, you should also drink sufficient water to quench your thirst every time you have performed a physical task that has caused you to sweat. If the humidity in your area is too high, drinking small amount of water at an interval of 30 minutes can also be a good idea.
You can increase your daily water intake by banking more on these foods, which can actually help you to lose weight while nourishing your body. So, check out the list,
Leafy green vegetables
Leafy vegetables come with high water content and including more leafy vegetable in your daily diet is sure to increase your total water intake in a day, which can boost the natural calorie burning process of the body.
Fruits
Fruits like watermelon, cucumber, pineapple, berries, and grapes come with high water content and munching on these fruits in-between meals can be a great way to increase your regular water intake. Having fruit juices daily can also add heavily to your total water consumption, but stay away from adding any artificial sweetener to the juice.
Soups
Soups are healthy and tasty; be it chicken soup or a vegetable one, by including more soups in your daily diet you can easily increase your water intake for losing weight quickly.
Apart from drinking water directly and including more of the above mentioned foods in your daily diet you can also bank on any of the below mentioned weight busting water based drinks to lose weight with water,
Water, lemon and honey drink
Add half of a lemon into 1 glass of warm water and then mix 1 spoon of honey to it. Drink this water in empty stomach, preferably the first thing in the morning. Substituting a glass of plain water with this metabolism boosting drink can be a good choice.
Ginger and water drink
Ginger has the ability to boost metabolism and it can be an effective water based drink to give you weight loss benefits. Steep some pieces of fresh ginger in 1 cup of water and then drink it. You might or might not add honey to it according to your choice. This drink can be a great way to burn more fat.
Black pepper, water and honey drink
The piperine present in black pepper limits the formation of new fat cells. Honey is another natural fat buster. So a drink with warm water, pepper and honey can be very helpful to reduce fat and also to boost your daily metabolism rate.
Cinnamon and water drink
Cinnamon is another spice that can give you weight loss effects, when taken alone or with water. Simply mix 1/2 spoon of cinnamon powder with 1 cup of water and drink it.
Green tea
If you are not going to make the extra effort to add, honey, lemon, ginger, cinnamon or pepper in your drink, you can simply increase your daily intake of water by drinking more green tea. Green tea has effective antioxidant properties and drinking more of it will naturally lead to drinking more water, which can help in losing fat.
