Nutrition > Water for Weight Loss & Why You Need it
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Water for Weight Loss & Why You Need it

5th Feb 20

When you’re trying to lose weight to improve your health, or for any other reason really, water might not be the first thing you think of that will help you do it. There’s nothing special about water, and losing weight is all about food and exercise, right? Well, it can play its part if you know your stuff. Using water for weight loss isn’t a guaranteed success but using it with other methods gives you a much better chance!

Now, we’re the first to say that it’s not some kind of miracle fat-burning tonic. It’s not. What it does do, however, is a little more ingenious than that. So ingenious, in fact, that it’s as much about what it stops you doing as well as what it actually does.

To help clear all of this up, though, we need to look at the specifics.


Want to move fast? Jump to the right section below.


Water Helps Metabolism

Person drinking a bottle of water

First, the biggest point we need to look at here is how water helps metabolism. Metabolism is how you convert food to energy and how you use that energy, simply put. That’s incredibly basic, but for what need here, it’ll do.

Our bodies use calories as energy to help us keep going throughout the day. When there are too many calories in a day, we store the leftovers as fat deposits. That’s fuel to use later when we do need it. It’s pretty clever.

Putting the two together… to burn fat for energy, there’s something special that you need to do it. That’s where water comes in. Water is a crucial element in the fat-burning equation; without it, you will have a really hard time doing it. If fat loss is the goal, not having the fuel to burn it is going to be a real problem! Drink more!

Water Helps Avoid Sugary Drinks

person grabbing a soft drink

The second point to think about when you’re looking at how awesome water can be for weight loss, it’s important to look at another side of things too. Water is one of the best ways to keep you on the straight and narrow, for several reasons.

The first reason, and one of the biggest, is that if you drink water, you’re probably not drinking as much of anything else. That’s really good news. Just about any other drink, you can buy is full of sugar, which means it’s full of calories and other junk too. So when you add that into your daily diet, you’re adding calories where you really don’t need to, which just makes weight loss harder.

Whether it’s soft drinks, diluted drinks, or even just a lot of tea and coffee, sugar is way too easy to find in them. Even adding milk leaves you with more calories than you need (and that’s why black coffee is the way forward!).

Water Makes You Eat Less

person drinking water while eating

One last curveball of how water can help your weight loss comes from something totally unrelated to water too. So get ready for this one. Water can actually help you manage the calories in your food too. Who’d have thought?

Essentially, the logic behind this one is again coming from preventative measures. If you drink a load of water in your day or even just before or after you eat, chances are, you’re not going to be as hungry. Of course, eating until you feel full (and even a little more in most cases) is normal, but water helps stop that by taking up some room in there.

Whether that stops you snacking throughout the day, fights off the urge for dessert or even just help you eat the right amount of food, it all helps in the long run. So the next time you have a junk food craving, try a glass of water first and give it a few minutes. You’ll be amazed at how often you’re actually thirsty instead of hungry and don’t even realise it.

Remember

All of these points have something different to offer your weight loss, and water is at the heart of it all. Even if it isn’t something you think about very much, always try and give it some thought. Everything you eat, drink and do impacts your body, so try to make the best choices you can. Even when water isn’t readily available and you’re spoiled for choice, try to remember all of the good it does.

Good luck!

More info: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/drinking-water-helps-with-weight-loss


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