Can Drinking Water Help You Lose Weight?

Can drinking water help you lose weight? If yes how much should you be drinking? You hear so many stories about the amounts of water you should be drinking, some say it should be 2 litres a day, others 8 glasses a day, at one stage I heard on a webinar a health guru telling people as much as 3 litres. So whom do you listen too?

I came across this old article on the BBC regarding a study that was done in Virginia where participant who drank two glasses of water before a meal three times a day lost on average 5lbs more than those who didn’t. The test was carried out over a period of 12 weeks.

Taken from the BBC.co.uk

Study: Can Drinking Water Help You Lose Weight

While drinking water can make you feel full on zero calories, say researchers, too much water can also lead to serious health problems.

The researchers presented their findings at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

All adults who took part in the study were aged 55 to 75.

The first group followed a low-calorie diet but did not drink any extra water before meals.

The second group followed the low-calorie diet but also drank two glasses of water before each meal.

‘No calories’
Over the course of 12 weeks, those drinking water lost about 15.5lbs while the others lost about 11lbs.

A previous study found that middle-aged and older people who drank two glasses of water before eating a meal ate between 75 and 90 fewer calories during that meal.

Professor Brenda Davy, senior author of the study, from Virginia Tech, said it was the first randomised controlled trial looking at water consumption and dieting.

She said the reason water may be so effective is because it fills up the stomach with a liquid that has no calories. Original article posted here.

I have to admit that weeks when I aim to drink 2 litres of water a day I do have better weight losses. Drinking plain water can be bit of a bore at times and also remembering to drink it can be tricky depending on the type of lifestyle you lead.

What I have found to help, is filling and drinking from a 750ml bottle twice each day, this way I don’t forget because the bottle is in plain view and ready to be filled each morning I wake, and it doesn’t seem so daunting when it’s a 750ml bottle as supposed to a 2litre bottle, which always seems like hard work.

Do you aim to drink a measured amount of water each day? And have you found that drinking water help you lose weight? Please share by leaving your comments below and if you enjoyed this article click the Facebook button below.