Water and Weight Loss
Just eyeballed this study abstract – Drinking Water Is Associated With Weight Loss in Overweight Dieting Women Independent of Diet and Activity – and figured I’d pass it on.
Ok, it’s an epidemiological study, so it’s tough to draw a “cause and effect” conclusion here. But we can speculate…what is there about drinking water that might enhance weight loss?
Well, for one thing, water may be replacing higher calorie beverages. An earlier study by the same research group demonstrated that simply replacing sweetened, caloric beverages with water was associated with an average decrease in total energy intake of 200 kcal/day – a significant amount. The beauty of it was that a) it was a simple intervention; and b) the calorie deficit was not negated by a compensatory increase in calories from other food/beverage sources. Thus, the water drinkers in this most recent study may have been consuming fewer liquid calories.
Water drinking may also have reduced their intake of solid food too. Two separate studies have shown that pre-meal water consumption can reduce subsequent food intake in both older obese and non-obese adults.
Mild dehydration is also associated with fatigue and impaired exercise performance…the water drinkers may have been better hydrated, and more active overall – which would increase the number of daily calories burned (and, as we know, every little bit counts).
At any rate, if you’re looking to lose weight, you’ll do yourself no harm by making sure you’re well-hydrated. It’s not just a good habit for your health…it looks like it could help with your waistline as well.
