Water: Your Secret Weight Loss Tool

You hear it time and time again: drink more water.

Staying sufficiently hydrated is a wonderful way to feel your best and helps your body work at the peak of personal performance. It alleviates headaches and muscle cramps, facilitates proper digestion, and can help essential organs, like your kidneys, function smoothly. But did you know drinking water can help you lose weight? In fact, water may just be your secret weight loss tool.

Water Helps You Consume Fewer Calories

Hunger pains are no laughing matter. Your belly can go from grumbly to tied into knots in a matter of minutes when you haven’t eaten in hours. Looking past that hunger can be an exercise in mind over matter, but if hunger pains can be avoided you’ll likely be more successful at losing weight in the long run.

That’s the first reason you should drink more water: water combats hunger. Many people mistake the early signs of dehydration for hunger and opt for food instead. But when you drink water you’re not only fulfilling your body’s need to stay hydrated, you’re filling your stomach.

Drinking water is a great way to keep your stomach full without adding unnecessary calories to your diet. Combine that with high-fiber foods (like The Hollywood Cookie Diet® meal replacement cookies) and the effect is magnified because the fiber actually swells when it absorbs the water in your digestive system.

The second vital reason you should drink more water – it’s calorie-free. Indeed, people who regularly drink water (rather than other drinks which contain sweeteners) actually consume 9% fewer calories per day (up to 200 calories) simply because they opt for water. Talk about an easy way to cut those excess calories and carbohydrates!

How much can that combined caloric decrease and resistance to the urge to snack really make? One study of middle-aged overweight individuals found that drinking water before a meal can actually result in shedding up to 4.4. pounds in just three months!

Drinking Water Can Help You Burn Excess Calories

But there’s more to this water/weight loss relationship than cutting calories. Scientific studies show drinking water can actually help you burn calories. How?

Drinking water increases your resting energy expenditure—the amount of calories you burn just by sitting still (maybe by as much as 25%). Cold water works best because it lowers your body’s internal temperature forcing your metabolism to ramp up in order to maintain your normal constant. But how much weight can this energy expenditure increase really help you lose?

One study found that women who drank at least 1 liter of water per day lost nearly 5 pounds more over the course of a 12-month period than women who drank less without any other lifestyle changes. They didn’t go on special diets or hit the gym every day—they just drank water and lost up to 5 pounds more!

So How Much Water Should You Drink?

Roughly 20% of our daily intake of water actually comes from the solid foods we eat—especially fruits and vegetables. The rest should be made up by drinking throughout the day. Experts usually recommend at least 8 glasses (about 2 liters) day for average adults. At first, that can seem like a lot but by keeping your water handy and sipping throughout the day rather than drinking a full glass at once, you can easily reach that goal.

Of course, your personal recommended amount water consumption will increase as your level of physical exertion increases or if you lose excess water (through sweating after exercise or in hot climates, for example). As a general rule of thumb you should drink whenever you’re thirsty and keep drinking until that thirst is quenched.

So if you’re trying to lose excess weight because you want to look and feel better, keep a cool bottle of water with you wherever you go! And for a weight loss boost of healthy hydration try The Hollywood 48-Hour Miracle Diet®. This two-day cleansing diet lets you purge your stagnant digestive system and lose up to 10 pounds in just two days.