Drinking water helps you lose weight

A new study has found that drinking water before meals can enhance weight loss. Over a 12-week period, dieters drinking two glasses before each of their three daily main meals lost around five pounds more than those who didn’t increase their water intake.

This is the first randomized-controlled trial to look at water intake and weight loss, and follows an earlier study by the same team which found that participants drinking two glasses of water before eating generally consumed between 75 and 90 less calories. Of course, it’s pretty obvious that water helps to make you feel full faster – but the study’s lead author, Dr Brenda Davy, also makes the point that if you’re drinking water, you’re less likely to be drinking sweetened drinks. “People should drink more water and less sugary, high-calorie drinks,” she says. “It’s a simple way to facilitate weight management.” Also, the more ‘watery’ foods you eat the more it fills you up provided the food and the water mix well. One way to help this is to take small sips of water and chew your food well. For example, if you eat a vegetable steam fry, and have a glass of water, this makes you feel les full than having the same vegetables and water made into a soup. Mixing the vegetables with the water keeps the stomach feeling fuller for longer leading to less hunger. If you drink two glasses of water do it before the meal rather than with it. Too much water with you meal may over-dilute digestive juices full of digestive enzymes. If you suffer with poor digestion, you may find the extra fluid dilutes your already limited supply of digestive enzymes and you feel more bloated and uncomfortable after eating. If this is the case, I suggest you act to tune up your digestion – either by reading my Special Report Improve Your Digestion (which is only available in full to 100% Health members) or my book of the same name. And if you really want to lose weight successfully, the most effective approach is following a low-GL diet – again, you can find out more in my Special Report The Secret of Successful Weight Loss , or by reading The Low GL Diet Bible.