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Why and how to lose weight by drinking more water
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Most overweight people do not drink enough water. This is a well-observed phenomenon by many doctors, chiropractors, and water professionals. Reaching for sodas, diet sodas, or food instead of drinking plain water can cause weight gain. Not drinking enough water prevents the body from flushing itself and also causes weight gain.
Do You Drink Enough Water?
How much water should you drink? Drink half of your weight in ounces of water throughout the day. If you weigh 160 pounds, then your daily water intake should be 80 ounces, or 10 glasses of water a day. This formula applies to the amount of water children should drink, as well.
If you don’t drink enough water, then you might observe the following signs of dehydration:
- frequent headaches
- midday fatigue
- dark, strong-smelling urine
- feces are small, hard pellets
- constipation
- dry skin, loss of elasticity in skin
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Weight Gain Linked to Not Drinking Enough Water
Weight gain can be directly related to not enough water intake. Fluids do not count as water, according to Dr. Batmanghelidj, author of Your Body’s Many Cries for Water: “In advanced societies, thinking that tea, coffee, alcohol, and manufactured beverages are desirable substitutes for the purely natural water needs of the daily “stressed” body is an elementary but catastrophic mistake. It is true that these beverages contain water, but what else they contain are dehydrating agents.” (Global Health Solutions, Inc., 1992)
In fact, Dr. Batmanghelidj discusses scientific research that proves diet sodas lead to weight gain. Dr. Batman explains that the physiological response to artificial sweeteners is increased appetite. Caffeine and sweeteners like aspartame change the brain chemistry, causing an imbalance to use more energy than is needed.
Don’t drink soda, drink water!
Weight Loss by Drinking More Water
As regards weight loss, drinking more water helps with the following:
- Curbs hunger. You may think you are hungry, but you may actually be thirsty.
- Increases energy. You may think you need caffeine, sugar, carbs or protein for a pick-me-up in the middle of the afternoon, but you are probably just thirsty.
- Increases metabolism.
- Flushes toxins. Drinking water eliminates water retention.
- Helps clean out the colon. Drinking water assists in the digestive process, including having more productive bowel movements.
- Improves elasticity to skin. Water hydrates the skin cells from the inside out. Skin should stay healthy during weight loss at a reasonable rate, so it doesn’t sag or show stretch marks.
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What to Do if You Don’t Like the Taste of Water
Here are some suggestions for what to do if you don’t like water:
- Make the commitment to yourself and your health.
- Get used to it. Like switching from whole milk to skim milk, or to soy milk, you do it for your health.
- Buy a good water filter. Carbon filters like Brita, Pur, and refrigerator filters do improve the taste of water. Reverse osmosis is the most advanced technology to remove all contaminants from water, ones you can taste and ones you can’t taste, but is more of an investment. You can’t put a price on your health, can you?
- Squeeze a lemon or lime into the water.
- Decorate your water bottle (buy a hard plastic one from the store to wash and reuse).
Resources
For more information on other health benefits of drinking water, both for preventing disease, weight loss, and curing disease, see Dr. Batmanghelidj’s You’re Not Sick, You’re Thirsty series. His newest book is called Obesity, Cancer, Depression: Their Common Cause and Natural Cure.
Water With Lemon: An Inspiring Story of Diet-free, Guilt-free Weight Loss. Rather than a self-help book, the format of this book is a novel populated with relatable characters that lose weight together, inspiring the reader to incorporate eight healthy habits slowly into his/her lifestyle.
Short article on weight loss benefits of drinking water.
Very good article about Water and Weight Loss by diet and nutrition consultant Kim Beardsmore
This blog mentions that researchers in Germany have found that drinking more water helps to burn more calories.
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