Diet Doldrums – Is Dehydration the Culprit?

If you’re stalled on a weight loss plateau despite sticking to
your diet, the first thing to check is your water intake.
Research suggests that most Americans unknowingly suffer from
mild, chronic dehydration, and you could be one of them!

So why should you care? Because water is an essential ingredient
for your weight loss. In fact, water is needed for a wide range
of the body’s biochemical processes, but lets just look at what
water does for dieters:

Water is essential for your body to metabolize stored fat into
energy – so much so, that your body’s metabolism can be slowed
by relatively mild levels of dehydration. And the slower your
metabolism, the slower your weight loss (and the greater your
fatigue), until eventually your weight loss just crawls to a
halt, and you hit the dreaded diet plateau.

Water is a natural appetite suppressant. In the hypothalamus, a
region in your brain that controls appetites and cravings, the
control centers for hunger and thirst are located next to each
other, and there tends to be some overlap. This has both
advantages and disadvantages for the dieter: on the down side,
it means that chronic mild dehydration can confuse these control
mechanisms, leading to feelings of hunger, rather than thirst.
But on a positive note, it means you can use water to reduce
your appetite. For example, in one University of Washington
study, drinking a glass of water reduced nighttime hunger
cravings for most of the dieters studied.

Water is an essential component of the processes that enable
muscle to contract. This means that water helps to maintain
muscle tone. Better muscle tone means a better looking body, and
isn’t that what dieting and weight loss is about?

Water also helps to prevent the sagging skin that often follows
weight loss – water plumps the skin cells, giving the skin a
younger and healthier look.

Water helps rid the body of waste. During weight loss, the body
has a lot more waste to get rid of, as a byproduct of all that
metabolized fat. So adequate water is essential to your health
while dieting.

Water can even help with constipation. When the body gets too
little water, it siphons what it needs from within, particularly
from the colon. This leads to constipation. But normal bowel
function usually returns with adequate water intake.

More generally, mild dehydration can cause a number of health
problems, in addition to your diet plateau. The symptoms of mild
dehydration can include: -

- Headaches & feeling light headed, as dehydration interferes
with normal body processes, including waste disposal. – Fatigue,
as the body’s metabolism is slowed – mild dehydration is
probably the most common cause of daytime fatigue. – Hunger &
cravings due to weakening of the thirst mechanism – Fluid
retention as your body tries to hold on to the water it already
has – Constipation, as the body works to conserve its internal
water sources

Not a pretty picture, is it? But once you get your water in
balance, you reach the “breakthrough point”, a concept pioneered
by Dr. Peter Lindner, a California obesity expert. Once you’ve
reached the breakthrough point, fluid retention eases, the liver
and endocrine system start to function more effectively, you
will start to regain your natural thirst and your hunger
cravings will be significantly reduced. And so the end result of
reaching and sustaining the breakthrough point in your water
balance is that your body is able to metabolize fat more
effectively.

So how much water should you drink daily, for a healthy and
‘adequate’ intake? First, a couple of basic principles:

1) The easiest way to tell if you are drinking enough water is
to monitor the color of your urine: It should be clear or a very
pale yellow in color. (but note that some supplements and
medications may also affect your urine color).

2) Get in to the habit of drinking regular and adequate amounts
of water. Never wait to drink until you’re thirsty, because if
you’re feeling thirsty, then dehydration has already started to
occur!

Having said that, an adequate water intake for a sedentary but
normal-weight adult during cool weather, is generally recognized
as 8 x 8 oz glasses.

Note that you need additional water in hot weather, when you
lose more water through sweat.

You also need additional water when you exercise. Athletes
attempt to enhance their performance by maintaining an optimal
fluid balance while exercising, estimated to require 6 to 12 oz
of fluid at 15 to 20 minute intervals. Even if you’re not
concerned about your athletic performance, you should consume a
similar amount of water when exercising, in order to maintain
adequate hydration.

And if you’re overweight, you’ll need an extra glass of water
for each 25 pounds overweight, because the extra weight creates
extra metabolic demand

But how do you manage to drink so much water? A typical
recommendation from the weight loss experts is 3 glasses of
water with every meal. That’s 3 glasses with breakfast, 3 with
lunch, and 3 with dinner. Plus, of course, additional regular
water between meals when you’re exercising or when its hot.

So if you’re dieting, stalled on a weight loss plateau, or
suffering some of the classic symptoms of dehydration, do, first
of all, ensure that you have an adequate water intake. It could
be the ‘missing ingredient’ in your diet regime.

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