Water has been heralded recently as the essential diet and weight loss tool. But there are many people who still don't get enough of it, and who don't know why it is so important. There are in fact many duties that water provides for the body that can mean drinking more water can have a profound impact on just how much weight you will gain or lose. Water is essential in all aspects of dieting, from suppressing appetite, to proper hydration when exercising, and also to reduce water retention by the body.
Being properly hydrated is the most important thing someone can do if they are trying to lose weight. Many people might be dehydrated and now even realize it because they don't feel thirsty, although this isn't actually a good indicator. There are many other signs of dehydration such as headaches and fatigue that will come about long before profound thirst. When the body is dehydrated is increases the levels of the chemicals in the brain that tell us we are hungry or thirsty. Sometimes thirst is also misinterpreted by the body as hunger, and so we feel hungry rather than thirsty, even though water is what we need.
If you can learn to control these urges to snack on food in between meals, when you aren't really hungry, then this is a good start on the road to increased weight loss. If instead of reaching for food if you feel hungry between meals you instead drink a glass of water you will usually find that your hunger fades away, and that you feel more alert and energized.
Many processes of the body require actually water to make them happen, such as the conversion of fats into energy that the body can then burn up. If we don't have enough water in our systems, then no matter what else we do, we wont be able to release as much of our stored fats and lose weight. Instead the body will crave sugary foods, and will burn the energy that we get from this, meaning that we don't lose any weight.
The average person sweats about a pint of water out of their body every day, as well as what we use for respiration (breathing) and excretion (urination). Meaning that we need at least this amount of water as intake every day to function properly and efficiently. Unless we actually drink water however, then we will need to drink more of other things to get the right amount. So for example to intake 1 liter of water I might need to drink 2 liters of milk, or 4 liters of soda. The difference being that most other drinks are high in calories, where as water has none at all.
By comparison of how many calories we might consume through drinking water against drinking other common drinks the difference is staggering. So for example if I were to drink 3 liters of water in any given day, to get this amount from other drinks I would need to drink more. So for example if I had a liter of cola, a liter of milk and a liter of beer I would be adding around 1400 extra calories every day onto whatever I was eating.
Water is also essential for exercise as it helps to repair the muscles after we have used them. It also helps our muscles to grow larger if we are doing sufficient exercise to warrant it, and larger muscles means that we burn more calories even when at rest. Basically because more energy is required to make larger muscles work than smaller ones.
The final effect water can have on weight loss is that the less water someone consumes, the more their body tends to store or retain in their body for later use. This is because the body reacts to a lack of water as if there is very little available, and just like a hibernating animal stores fat for when they aren't going to be eating.
The body stores water in case we don't get much to drink for long periods of time. This is useful as a survival trait, but not that useful these days when water is readily available. So drinking more water regularly will decrease the amount that the body stores, again lowering body weight.
So overall water consumption is an essential part of trying to lose weight, and has a profound effect on the success of our endeavors. Even good diets and exercise aren't enough without water playing a large role as well, and this can mean the difference between struggling to shift a single pound, and dropping several every week.