Yeah, yeah! Drink more water…..blahdy, blah!!
“It’s boring”
“It doesn’t taste of anything”
“It makes me feel sick”
So what exactly is all the fuss about water anyway and can it actually help you lose weight?
Let me explain (without going to scientific as I hate long words I don’t really understand!!)
First of all think of a car engine. It needs to stay lubricated in order to work properly – that may prove to be a bad example! But the point I’m trying to make is to think of your body as being a bit like a car engine and it needs regular lubrication in order to work properly.
Given that 60% of our body is made up of water, if we go for a while without drinking any then we will start to feel dehydrated. This isn’t good as your body will see this as a threat to its survival and will hold on to any fluids that it can as a consequence. This can cause weight gain and bloating.
Drinking excessive coffee, tea, or coke does not count. In fact this has the opposite effect as they contain caffeine and so act as diuretics and drive water out of the body. The same goes for alcohol. Anyone that has woken up in the morning with a headache and a dry mouth will know what this extreme dehydrated feeling is like.
So there is a certain amount of water that we need to be drinking naturally just to keep the body in homeostasis (regulated and working at its optimum level). It can also aid weight loss though.
The kidneys filter toxins. When you are dehydrated your kidneys are not working properly and so your liver takes some of the load. As the liver normally metabolises fat, it can’t then do this properly and so this can lead to weight gain! If you drink plenty of water then both organs will function properly and this can then lead to weight loss. Get in!
Dehydration also causes fatigue, reduced energy levels, headaches and hunger like feelings. A lot of the time our brains mistake thirst for hunger and we eat instead of having a drink. So water is a natural appetite suppressant.
So, how much water then?
2 litres.
Sounds a lot, but spread it throughout the day it’s really not excessive at all. If you’re exercising then aim to drink throughout your workout and then have 2 litres on top of this throughout the rest of the day.
So drinking this amount of water each day can help to suppress hunger, give you more energy, make you feel more alert, give your skin a healthy glow, get your organs working efficiently, get your digestive system and bowels working properly and help you to lose weight. Not bad is it!
Get over the taste. Put in a twist of lemon for a bit of flavour if you want, but there are too many healthy benefits to just ignore.
Ricky
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