This Is How Much Weight I Lost After Drinking 2 Glasses of Water Before Every Meal for 2 Straight Weeks  

This article was written by Marygrace Taylor and provided by our partners at Eat Clean.

When it comes to weight-loss tips, "drink more water" isn't exactly earth-shattering. But even though most of us have probably heard the advice about a million times, almost zero research has been conducted to find out whether this crazy-simple trick actually works...until now.

Earlier this year, a team of British researchers asked overweight adults to start eating a reduced-calorie diet and "preload" each meal with 16 ounces of water 30 minutes before they ate to see if drinking extra water would bolster their weight loss efforts. And it did! After 12 weeks, the preloaders lost nearly three pounds more than the folks who followed the reduced-calorie diet alone. As you might have guessed, the researchers chalked up the participants' success to the fact that water made them feel full, which made them eat less.

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I don't know about you, but I kind of hate diets. I can't deal with counting calories. Actively trying to trim my portions or cut back on dessert usually just makes me want to eat more. That got me thinking: What would happen if I tried chugging water without making any other changes to my diet? Would I eat less without feeling deprived? Would I lose weight? Or would I just be running to the bathroom every 20 minutes? 

Before getting started, I convinced my generous editors to buy me a sweet digital scale since—after all, this was in the name of science. On the first morning of the experiment, I stepped on. My dog tried to step on too, which seriously threw off the numbers. After nudging her off with my foot, the screen read 125.7.

For two weeks, I diligently drank 16 ounces of water before almost every meal. (Whenever my husband saw me drinking my water, he'd say, "So, I guess we're eating in a half hour?" Funny guy.) There were a few occasions when it seemed totally impractical, like when I went out to dinner. Given the fact that you usually have to wait to be seated and again for your meal to arrive, it would've been tough to time my preload precisely 30 minutes before digging in. So instead, I just preloaded before I left the house. But either way, I didn't notice much of a difference in how full I felt while eating.

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Then, after a few days, I started forgetting that I was supposed to drink up a half hour before eating. But I didn't want to give up, so I just guzzled the water right before my meal. As it turns out, doing that made me feel stuffed. So I kept it up. And I started regularly leaving about a quarter of my food untouched. I'm normally the kind of person who eats every morsel on her plate, so it was pretty weird. It was also great because, even though I was eating less, I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. Plus, I noticed that I had a little more energy, especially in the afternoons after lunch. I don't know if it was because I was drinking more water or eating less food.

At the end of two weeks, I stepped back on the scale. Final weight? 124.2, 1.5 pounds less than when I'd started. It wasn't a ton, but I really didn't have much weight to lose in the first place. And considering the only change I'd made was drinking more water, I was pretty impressed.

So yup. Loading up on water really is an easy, painless way to cut your portions and support your efforts to lose weight. Just be sure to always have a bathroom nearby. You're going to be peeing a lot.

All gifs courtesy of giphy.com.

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