How to Lose Weight by Drinking Water

When I was first looking into changing my diet to shed a few pounds and get back to a healthier weight for my height, I first went to my doctor for advice. I think too many people turn to the internet, diet pills, fad diet plans, weight-loss drugs or dangerous teas and colon cleansers and other weight-loss merchandise. I decided to cut through the scams and spam and frauds and go straight to my health care professional!

My doctor gave me a diet plan. I won't go into the details of the plan, but the generic weight-loss guide he gave me was: lower bad carbs, moderate good carbs, and cut out red meats and processed foods. Yup, I know, nothing spectacular or surprising there.

But what did surprise me was my doctor's advice that I should drink more water... a lot more than I had been! I've always known water was good for your hair and skin, but I never once considered how drinking water could help you lose weight.

So between the pamphlet the doctor gave me, the talk I had with my nutritionist, and a little bit of WebMD research, here's what I've discovered!

Drinking Water Helps You Lose Weight by Making You Feel Fuller

Drinking water before and during a meal can help you feel fuller, filling up space in your belly that would otherwise be filled by food. The theory is, if you drink a tall glass of water before a meal and drink water with a meal, you will eat less than you're used to eating. The water also helps to flush some of the bad stuff out of your system too!

Drinking Water Helps You Lose Weight by Increasing Your Metabolism

Drinking cold water, particularly ice water, will increase your metabolism, which will burn more food for fuel, and those store less food on your body. It's a metabolic process use to absorb the 'cold' of the water, which is an energy exchange to bring the water up to your body temperature, thus burning more energy on your body.

Drinking Water Helps You Lose Weight by Slowing Food Absorption

WebMD states in this article that drinking water or eating foods high in water content actually slows down food absorption, thus allowing you to eat less but retain the full feeling longer. Also, more nutritional value is absorbed from food when it is processed and digested more slowly.

Of course, it's not just waiter that can help you lose weight. Any non-caloric drink with a high water content can do the same, so a beverage like Crystal Light mixed with water, or tea brewed with water can help. Avoid caffeine though, because it is a diuretic and will flush water out of your system faster. Also, while drinking fruit juices and punches will do the same thing as water in one respect, these juices and punches have calories and sugar that won't help much in your weight loss endeavors.

While this article isn't telling you anything really radical or new, it is important to pay attention to how much water you're taking in. Drinking 6-8 glasses of water per day, or at least one glass of ice water before and during each meal, can show a measurable change in your waistline over time.

After all, drinking more water is a very simple thing to do, and when it comes to dieting and losing weight, we all like simple!