Does drinking a lot of water help to lose the weight?

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sejx
sejx Posts: 14 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Does drinking a lot of water help to lose the weight? Does anyone know if there is any proof that drinking lots of water i.e. 3 litres or more a day will help to shed the pounds?

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  • NemesisJRM
    NemesisJRM Posts: 248 Member
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    Short answer: Yes and here is why.....

    http://timeforfitness.com/?p=352
  • chefdan
    chefdan Posts: 53 Member
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    http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/expert.q.a/04/10/water.losing.weight.jampolis/
  • Somemass
    Somemass Posts: 7
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    I'm not a medical/health professional, but I doubt "over hydrating" will help you lose weight, and you run the risk of rinsing too many electrolytes out of your body, which can cause a condition known as hyper-hydration, also referred to as water-poisoning (this can be fatal. This condition can occur very easily if you are restricting your food intake to lose weight as well, which is why medical professionals generally recommend a minimum caloric intake of 1200 a day for women and 1500 a day for men while trying to lose weight. How much water you should drink is influenced by your body size, diet and how physically active you are. Urine color is usually a good indicator of level of hydration, with too dark best being avoided.
  • oneoddsock
    oneoddsock Posts: 321 Member
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    Short answer: Yes and here is why.....

    http://timeforfitness.com/?p=352

    That's a little misleading - I understand that it is possible to drink too much water. Two litres a day seems to be the standard target to aim for, unless you live in a hot climate in which case you should drink more (last time I checked, Shropshire wasn't particularly hot!)
  • asyouseefit
    asyouseefit Posts: 1,265 Member
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    No.
  • jayb0ne
    jayb0ne Posts: 644 Member
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    Controversial subject... In fact almost as controversial as the 'are carbs evil' debate... So I'll start with the disclaimer that this is my opinion only.

    2 litres a day or so should be enough for you if you're not in a hot climate, you're not doing much exercise and you're not eating too much sodium.

    I drink between 3 and 5 litres a day but then I work out hard every day. I also don't like to have to micromanage my sodium or caffein intake so I drink enough to know that I'm getting easily enough water daily to counteract whatever salt etc I take in.

    I see it as the more I'm putting in, the less likely my body will want to hang onto it all. Not a very scientific approach but there you go.

    Here's the supporting anecdote:

    I went abroad for a few days last week and gained 4 pounds. Did I eat enough to justify the weight gain? Nope. Did I eat a lot of salty foods, drink a lot of alcohol and not drink very much water? Yep. Lost 5 pounds within 4 days of getting back by resuming my regular hydration.

    Sooo... I'd say that drinking a lot of water helps you get a nice phat scale loss to start with but it's a bit of a false economy because you have to keep it going every day for the rest of your life to keep that water weight off. Stop drinking for a while and you'll start to retain it again and then you'll more'n likely be frustrated as to why you've gained 3 or 4 pounds in a week.

    Disclaimer - DON'T DO THE BELOW:

    You can also trick the scale through water. Try drinking 3 or 4 litres a day for a week, then weigh yourself. Then drink a whole bunch of liquor and weigh yourself again the next morning. See that massive drop in the scale number? That's your body dehydrating. As soon as you go back on water, you'll gain a bunch of water weight which will take you a few days of solid hydration to get rid of - I SERIOUSLY wouldn't recommend this as a weight loss strategy by the way! Apparently they do this kind of thing the day before weigh ins on The Biggest Loser to get the biggest loss they can...

    Finally, I read somewhere that the healthy human body can process around 15 litres of water per day so as long as you're spacing it out and taking regular toilet breaks to excrete it, the majority of people literally won't be able to drink too much water.

    Hope that helps a bit.

    Jay
  • kyle4jem
    kyle4jem Posts: 1,400 Member
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    Short answer: Yes and here is why.....

    http://timeforfitness.com/?p=352

    That's a little misleading - I understand that it is possible to drink too much water. Two litres a day seems to be the standard target to aim for, unless you live in a hot climate in which case you should drink more (last time I checked, Shropshire wasn't particularly hot!)
    The article, while a bit smoke and mirrors, actually only recommends the basic advise of 8 x 8oz glasses (250ml eq) which is your UK average of 2L a day.

    They also recommend a further 8oz (250ml) for every 25lbs (11kg) you are overweight. This is not excessive by any means.

    Of course if you drink 2L of water on the hour every hour, then you might be overdoing it and some marathon runners have overdone the water drinking and gone into shock, but it's extremely rare.

    The only caveat I would add (and it's a purely personal opinion) is that while some folks recommend 2L of pure water every day over the course of the day, I think that it's not unreasonable to count tea/coffee, diet drinks, etc as water too because they are about 70-90% water based and despite what you might read to the contrary, they do hydrate you even if they contain caffeine. But I do think you should try and get more than half your fluids as ordinary tap/bottled water and have a drink every hour or so, even if it's only half a glass.

    :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:
  • merryfaith
    merryfaith Posts: 81 Member
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    Don't some professionals recommend taking your weight, dividing it in half, and drinking that many ounces a day in water? I've heard that a few times, which made more sense to me than the 8 cups a day across the board.

    And I've also heard that keeping hydrated keeps you from having food cravings that you get when you're actually thirsty. I feel like I eat more slowly/less if I have a glass of water before every meal, but of course it could just be a mental thing.
  • queenfresh
    queenfresh Posts: 32 Member
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    Don't some professionals recommend taking your weight, dividing it in half, and drinking that many ounces a day in water? I've heard that a few times, which made more sense to me than the 8 cups a day across the board.

    And I've also heard that keeping hydrated keeps you from having food cravings that you get when you're actually thirsty. I feel like I eat more slowly/less if I have a glass of water before every meal, but of course it could just be a mental thing.

    I've heard the same thing too. And yes, we do mistake hunger for thirst sometimes. Try working up to the water intake. The more water you drink, the more water you will crave.

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