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Drink water to lose weight.

Are you drinking water for weight loss?

As with anyone, I like to help out local businesses.  So I like going to local coffee places to buy a coffee, while using their space to do some work on my computer.

 On one of these occasions, while enjoying my robust piping hot black coffee, I “accidentally” overheard a conversation in the next booth.  Anytime a health and /or fitness conversation comes up, my ears perk up like a dog listening for a squirrel in the bushes. 

The topic was weight loss, and I always love hearing what the average person is doing to lose weight.  I’ve heard more ways to lose weight than amusement parks sell ice-cream.  This one though, was pretty interesting.  It’s not new by any means, but still worth talking about.

 If you read the title of this BLOG, you already know what it is…Drink ice water for weight loss

Drinking water to lose weight!  Whaaaaaaaaat!!!  All I have to do is drink water and I’ll start losing weight?!?!

All these years I thought I was doing it for my joints, hangovers (not me personally), digestion, energy (re-energizing cells) and just plan hydration.  There are so many more reasons to drink water, but I’ll just focus on weight loss for now.

The conversation was focused on drinking ice cold water for burning extra calories.  Now, the theory behind this is good.  Your body needs to cool down the water before digesting it, which will burn some calories.  The problem is, it’s not that much work for your body to cool down the water.  The amount of energy (calories) your body needs to bring up the temperature of the water is about 8-9 calories per 8oz.  So, drinking 8 cups of x8 ounces, will give you a deficit of around 70 calories per day.  

There was a study done in the Journal of Natural Sciences in 2014, regarding weight loss and drinking water.  (I’ll put the link on my web site).  The study took 50 overweight women and for 8 weeks had them drink (over and above their normal amount) 500ml of water before their breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So, for 8 weeks they increased their water intake by 1.5L.  The average body weight went from 65.86kg to 64.42kg (144.89lb to 141.94lb)  Now, I look at this and say, can you keep up the extra drinking for 8 weeks, only to lose an extra 3 pounds?  The main reason for the loss was that they filled their stomachs up with 2 cups of water before eating, so they ate less. 

In conclusion, drink the water you need to, and stop eating those extra calories … or just take the stairs more often, to burn those extra calories! 

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Reference study