Water To Lose Weight?

Water, the elixir of life, is good for you in more ways than you can imagine. Health professionals are always droning on about how you should drink at least 8 glasses of the stuff each day. However, how does drinking water to lose weight work? Well it isn’t by the energy you expend by having to constantly answer calls of nature. The science behind it concerns how your liver and kidneys work together in your body.

One of the functions of the liver is to metabolise stored fat into energy. The liver is also responsible for helping the kidneys out when they are being overworked. The kidneys need a good supply of water to function properly and when the body is deprived of water, they become less efficient at flushing the toxins from your body. At this point, the liver steps in to help with this process and as a consequence, becomes less effective at metabolising stored fat into energy.

So that is the theory of drinking water to lose weight. What about the practice. There are a surprising number of people who are going about their daily lives unaware that they are dehydrated. According to researchers in the U.S. three quarters of the North American population are dehydrated. Some people make the erroneous assumption that drinking tea, coffee and fizzy drinks are a substitute for consuming water. Caffeinated drinks such as these act as a diuretic which causes you to dehydrate. Therefore try to avoid these as far as possible. Here are a few suggestions to incorporate into your life when drinking water to lose weight:

• Aim to drink at least 8 glasses a day and much more if you do strenuous physical exercise.
• Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning. This re-hydrates the body after the nights sleep and flushes toxins from the body
• Drink a glass of water with every meal
• If you find water bland, try putting a slice of lemon or lime in it. Be sure not to add cordial or drink so called ‘flavoured water’ as these contain sugar which will hinder your weight loss goals.
• Foods that help burn fat, such as berries and lean, organic red meat, will also help you to burn more body fat, so changing your diet to include these foods will complement the fat busting effect of drinking loads of water.

It is important to understand that drinking lots of water can help your body use up stored fat, but it will only really be effective if you are eating healthy to lose weight also. With a little self discipline and taking a holistic approach to your weight loss goals, your dieting program can be successful.

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