Drink More Water, Lose More Weight? YES!

I agree.

Drinking water is super important.

The first 3 or 4 days were hard for me but now (over a month in) I can drink water like crazy.

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Yup....seems legit.

Yes, water is important. Thanks for the newsflash.

I fill up a water pitcher and drink it through the day ( which is about a gallon ) And I feel 10 x better. Especially when im working out

You hear it from anyone with a nutrition background, health background, or anyone with some slight common sense, really.

"DRINK MORE WATER!"

But why? Why would anyone want to consume so much water every day?

Because it works. Drinking a gallon of water WILL help you lose weight. It's completely counter intuitive on a basic level. If I want to lose weight, I should consume less of everything. That way the scale will start to go down. Right?

WRONG.

I PROMISE YOU! Drink a gallon of water every single day. This has to be as much of a focus as eating healthy and exercising. There's a reason why everyone and their friggin mother tells you to drink as much water as possible.

But it's really, really, reeeeeally hard.

I did it for a month.

The first day of drinking a gallon of water was the absolute worst. I felt extremely bloated. And full. And I was constantly peeing. I had to chug water until I thought I was going to puke. I tried to work out that day and just felt like all of this liquid was sloshing around inside of me, so I stopped. I woke up in the middle of the night to pee two or three times. It sucked. But let me tell you how shocked I was when I saw I lost 2 pounds the next morning.

How can that be? I didn't change my diet. I didn't work out. I consumed, what felt like, an inhumane amount of liquid. HOW?!

I don't know. But I'm telling you, it will get easier.

As the days went on, the pukey feeling completely stopped when I chugged the water. I just constantly felt comfortably full. I wasn't snacking. I felt alert and very energized. The potty visits were obviously still really frequent, but knowing your body is processing everything quickly ends up feeling like you've accomplished something? I know that sounds weird, but it's true. And the weight will continue to keep dropping off. I started getting so good at killing a 40-something ounce bottle of water in a few minutes. I thought I could get into competitive water drinking! Silly, I know. But ****, I was proud of myself.

So how does one start drinking a gallon of water every day? I mean, we work. We have families. We have errands and what not. We can't just sit around chugging water hidden from society so our *kitten* gets smaller.

Well, here's what I did that worked for me.

When I first started this, I'd buy 4 32 oz bottles of water every day. There's 128 oz in a gallon, so when I chugged all 4 I knew I hit my goal for the day. Any other water I drank was just bonus. Now, obviously that's extremely wasteful (I recycled!) and not to mention expensive. So I started buying 1 water bottle every day and refilling it 3 more times. Well, between going to the water cooler to refill my bottle and my bathroom breaks, it was a pretty big distraction at work. Then I decided to buy this gallon jug that had an easy to hold handle on it, as well as a big straw too. I took that with me every where. It worked perfectly. Became quite a conversational piece as well as an inspiration to some others to try it out as well.

When it comes to actually drinking the water, the straw was key. Just makes it easier. And I don't sip on the water throughout the day. Any time I pick up my jug, I made sure to take at least 4 or 5 big gulps. Like I said earlier, it has to be a huge focus and it just ends up feeling like you're working out when you're gulping/chugging like that. I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but it's just my thought process.

It'll get harder before it gets easier, so stick with it. I've actually stopped because it was pretty difficult to focus on drinking that much water every day. However, I plan on picking it back up again because I miss how I felt and I'd like to start tipping the scales backward again.

I've heard this method has worked out for many people. It's not a diet pill or starvation plan. Just imbibe and watch how it changes you for the better! Good luck! :]

Water is critical for health; however, I would be careful about telling people to drink a gallon per day. Not everyone has healthy kidneys, which flush the water out - when kidney function is decreased, the blood becomes "diluted" and it throws your sodium balance off (called hyponatremia), also termed water intoxication (from too much "free water" that lack the solutes in our blood). The results of decreased kidney function and hyponatremia can result in death - yep, death. Often from cerebral swelling - first signs of this after drinking too much water are nausea, vomiting, headache, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, etc.

While I do agree with your recommendation to increase water intake, I would not encourage people to drink a gallon per day to lose weight, especially if they have underlying health issues. My recommendation would be to follow what most physicians & other healthcare practitioners recommend for people with healthy kidney function, which is the old standard 8-10 glasses (64-100 oz.) per day. I would also recommend that if people have any questions about how much water they should be consuming, they contact their physician or healthcare provider to discuss what is appropriate for them.