Drinks that Can Either Help or Hinder Your Weight Loss

Whenever one thinks of losing weight, one usually thinks of what to eat or not to eat. Rarely do people consider how what they are drinking can affect their weight. The truth is that what people drink can make a huge difference in their weight. By either eliminating some drinks or adding some drinks, your weight can be affected.

A 20 oz. bottle of soda contains 15 teaspoons of sugar. Because of the flavor of soda, it can be very easy to drink too much. A 20 ounce bottle of soda contains 250 calories. Add these empty calories to the amount of food you consume, and you can easily put on weight.

Fruit juice, although filled with vitamins and minerals, is also loaded with calories. 100% fruit juice is loaded with sugar. One glass of orange juice contains 110 calories and 27 grams of carbs. It is much better to eat an orange than to drink the juice. So be careful about trading in your soda for juice.

Vitaminwater is another drink that is often thought of as healthy. As a result, many people are replacing their soda fix with a Vitaminwater fix thinking they are drinking something healthy and low calorie. The truth is that Vitaminwater is anything but healthy. It is loaded with sugar, and the sugar is crystalline fructose which has been linked to health problems. One bottle of Vitaminwater has 2.5 servings. Most people consume one entire bottle. Doing this results in drinking 32 grams of sugar.

The good new is that there are drinks that are good for you and beneficial to you on your weight loss journey:

Water is the best drink for your overall health. The benefits of drinking water are many. First and foremost, water has zero calories and works as an appetite suppressant. Water makes your body work more efficiently, raising your metabolism.

Green tea is another drink that has been shown to aid in weight loss. Research by Japanese researchers show us that if an average person drinks 5 cups of green tea a day, he can expect to burn an extra 70 to 80 calories. Over the course of a year, he will lose 8 pounds if he changes nothing else within his diet.

Milk, long thought to be a diet culprit, has now been shown to aid in weight loss. A recent study in Israel shows that dieters who consumed milk lost more weight than dieters who consumed little or no milk.

If you are trying to lose weight, take a few moments to consider how many calories you are consuming through what you are drinking during the course of a day. By just changing your drinking habits, you may be able to eliminate many empty calories from your diet.