Hydration

Want to lose weight? Try Water!

As well as all the other health benefits of water, forget all the expensive fancy fad diets and try water first. Many scientific studies now concur that water is beneficial to weight loss and maintenance. And, of course, there are all the other great properties that keeping hydrated can bring to you and your body. Last, but not least, water is totally calorie free!

Burn those calories

REE, or Resting Energy Expenditure becomes significantly elevated after drinking water, even after only 0.5 litres. REE encourages calories to burn off almost immediately after water consumption, and will continue for at least a period of one hour. This is not to say that you still don’t need to exercise and eat sensibly! Studies conducted in overweight women showed that just an increase in water intake of over 1 litre per day, would result in a rise in weight loss by around 2kg over the duration of a year. It may not sound a lot, but consistency in this process can result in higher weight loss. It is a win/win situation when coupled with a healthy diet and moderate exercise. Results also showed that increasing your water intake within the acceptable levels (never saturate yourself with water if you think it makes you lose weight – that can be dangerous), produced an even higher weight loss, reduction in BMI (body mass index), as well as excess body fat.

Reduce your appetite

Drinking water before a meal is believed to reduce appetite. Many people on studies reported that they were less inclined to eat too much after drinking water pre-meals, particularly before breakfast. One of our golden rules at HydrateM8 is starting the day with a glass of water, to rehydrate after a night’s sleep – seems now that we were right and you have the added bonus of losing weight!

Drinking water as opposed to sweet drinks or fizzy enemies, will also cut down on any sugar intake (leave that doughnut on the plate, please!) that you may have tucked into. Drinking water will alleviate the desire for something sweet, thereby cutting down on calorie intake.

Cut down on snacking

People who drink water throughout the day are less likely to snack on ‘junk’ foods. Water is extremely satiating and will fill you up quicker and last longer than consuming sugary foods or potato snacks, for instance. Drop some slices of fruit into your water if you want to satisfy your sweet tooth as well as gain the benefits of fruit in your diet. Remember also, that what you may feel is hunger, could well be dehydration – dehydration loves to fancy dress itself as hunger, when it really isn’t.

Rid your body of toxins

Whilst not being able to be specific about weight loss in terms of kilos, water is one of our great assets for flushing out the system and ridding the body of unwanted toxins. In doing so, our organs will work more efficiently, you will have more energy and consequently, be prepared to exercise more.

Don’t let cold weather be an excuse

So it’s minus 5 outside, and the thought of water is not exactly awe inspiring. As long as you don’t load your drinks with sugar, either manufactured drinks or spoonfuls in your coffee, you can make super warm drinks that are healthy. Green tea warm, is almost as beneficial for hydration as plain water and you can add herbs and spices to it to create a fuzzy warm feeling, in spite of the temperatures.

Another alternative is making soups – not tinned or packaged ones, make your own from vegetables, spices, herbs and good old plain and healthy water. Clear broths and soups are a good alternative to water if you want to feel the warmth on a cold day.