Drinking Your Way to Weight Loss

James_1954
James_1954 Posts: 187 Member
edited October 2 in Health and Weight Loss
Just had a thought today, while filling up my icewater jug. It's my souvenir from Lutheran Hospital's orthopedic unit: one of those with a snap-on lid, holds about a liter -- you know the ones. Anyway, I notice that after I add the amount of ice that looks about right to me, there's room for three cups of liquid water, along with enough ice that there'll still be some ice left at the end even if I take my time drinking it. Now: 3 cups is 3/16 of a US gallon, which is also makes it 7.10 E-04 m^3, which means it has a mass of 0.71 kg. This water is in thermal equilibrium with ice, so its temperature is 0° C, and will be until the ice has all melted. After I drink it, my body will have the supply the heat needed to increase its temperature to my internal core temperature of about 37° C. The heat needed to do that is (0.71 kg)(37 C°)(4186 J/kg/C°) = 1.1 E+05 J. Now, a calorie is equal to 4.186 J, so I'll need 2.63 E+04 calories to do the job. Remember, though, that a "nutritional" calorie is equal to 1000 just-plain calories, so I'll only use 26.3 nutritional calories to warm my icewater.

So, all right, you're going to have to drink a whole lot of icewater to offset that strawberry cheesecake you just had. Probably not a very efficient way to lose weight, all by itself. The water's good for you, though. And bending the elbow with one of those big jugs of water in your hand is a certain amount of exercise, too. Enjoy your day!

Replies

  • jennyocox
    jennyocox Posts: 143
    That's brilliant! Thanks! :D
  • TNAJackson
    TNAJackson Posts: 686 Member
    Very confusing, but like the summary at the end! :happy:
  • ajfranzen77
    ajfranzen77 Posts: 118
    ummmmm, ok! If you say so! lol
  • PhilipByrne
    PhilipByrne Posts: 276 Member
    Would drinking a jug of very, very cold beer have the same effect ? I grasping at straws here aren't I.
  • lovinglife71
    lovinglife71 Posts: 65 Member
    I have heard that drinking ice water makes you burn cal's!! Yayyyy!! I like ice water!! :)
  • CrimsonHellkite
    CrimsonHellkite Posts: 114
    now my head hurts and im thirsty...
  • missyyclaire
    missyyclaire Posts: 572 Member
    When you put it like that....
  • joybell32
    joybell32 Posts: 252 Member
    Would drinking a jug of very, very cold beer have the same effect ? I grasping at straws here aren't I.

    Not the same thing, but i can see where you are coming from..I was wondering the same about Diet Pepsi!
  • BrewerGeorge
    BrewerGeorge Posts: 397 Member
    I wondered if somebody had mentioned this here before, but I didn't want to get into the math. It's very true. If you drink 4 liters of very-cold water, your body will burn about 130 Calories. That's a decent-sized snack!
  • bcl003
    bcl003 Posts: 331 Member
    Love, love, love this post!!! :)
  • James_1954
    James_1954 Posts: 187 Member
    Would drinking a jug of very, very cold beer have the same effect ? I grasping at straws here aren't I.

    Oh my dear lord, what a WONDERFUL idea! And yes, beer's pretty much water, so it's the same deal. CAUTION: since you don't drink your beer over ice, and it's also starting out a little warmer than 0° C, you'll have to drink more of it. And don't dilly-dally with it, either ... the room air's warming it up the whole time you're waiting. Get to it!
  • shireengool
    shireengool Posts: 73 Member
    I love the idea :-)
  • James_1954
    James_1954 Posts: 187 Member
    Would drinking a jug of very, very cold beer have the same effect ? I grasping at straws here aren't I.

    Not the same thing, but i can see where you are coming from..I was wondering the same about Diet Pepsi!

    Yep! You're right, though ... not quite the same thing.
  • 8rules
    8rules Posts: 169
    Cool.

    What's the math for why we burn more calories in a hot room and our body is fighting to get cooler? I think there is more at work then a simple equation of delta increase in body temp required = certain number of calories expended

    Also, a cooler body burns less calories overall, so not sure actively cooling all day is the mathematical certainty it may seem to be on first glance.
  • James_1954
    James_1954 Posts: 187 Member
    Cool.

    What's the math for why we burn more calories in a hot room and our body is fighting to get cooler? I think there is more at work then a simple equation of delta increase in body temp required = certain number of calories expended

    Also, a cooler body burns less calories overall, so not sure actively cooling all day is the mathematical certainty it may seem to be on first glance.

    OK, you're getting all serious here. The body really has only one "active" way to lose heat: by evaporating sweat (water, more or less, although in my case it tends to be pretty stinky water). We push water out onto the skin surface, and for each gram of it that evaporates, we had to provide the "latent heat of vaporization:" 2.26 E+03 joules. The fat consumption that we're all interested in came both from the work we did that also heated our muscles and caused us to need to cool in the first place, and from the latent heat of vaporization of the sweat. Now, you say we burn more calories in a hot room than a cool one, and that may well be true, but it's not something I've heard before. I'd have guessed it would be the other way around: the cooler the surroundings, the more heat we have to produce to maintain a constant core temperature, because the rate of heat loss to the surroundings is proportional to the temperature difference between the body and the surrounding air.

    But I also know that when I guess, I often guess wrong ...
  • DropsOJupiter
    DropsOJupiter Posts: 131
    Okay James...I really tried to get through the math but that is not my forte, so I'll leave that to you math/engineering/medical types. (Seriously...I got out of college math by the skin of my teeth!) But I love the thought of multitasking by hydrating AND burning calories! Thanks for the :laugh:
  • 8rules
    8rules Posts: 169
    Cool.

    What's the math for why we burn more calories in a hot room and our body is fighting to get cooler? I think there is more at work then a simple equation of delta increase in body temp required = certain number of calories expended

    Also, a cooler body burns less calories overall, so not sure actively cooling all day is the mathematical certainty it may seem to be on first glance.

    OK, you're getting all serious here. The body really has only one "active" way to lose heat: by evaporating sweat (water, more or less, although in my case it tends to be pretty stinky water). We push water out onto the skin surface, and for each gram of it that evaporates, we had to provide the "latent heat of vaporization:" 2.26 E+03 joules. The fat consumption that we're all interested in came both from the work we did that also heated our muscles and caused us to need to cool in the first place, and from the latent heat of vaporization of the sweat. Now, you say we burn more calories in a hot room than a cool one, and that may well be true, but it's not something I've heard before. I'd have guessed it would be the other way around: the cooler the surroundings, the more heat we have to produce to maintain a constant core temperature, because the rate of heat loss to the surroundings is proportional to the temperature difference between the body and the surrounding air.

    But I also know that when I guess, I often guess wrong ...

    Hi James,

    It was more of a fun debate from my point of view :)
  • danstvguy
    danstvguy Posts: 46
    Gee ... i saw the part about "drinking your way to weight loss" and got excited .... thinking you'd found the secret to enjoying brews while shedding unwanted flab .. silly me :[
This discussion has been closed.

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