Exactly How Much Water You Should Drink To Lose Weight
Water is great for you. Proper hydration helps your brain stay alert, your cells function at top rate, and your exercise performance on key.
There's another benefit to water, too, and it pertains to weight loss. That said, some so-called experts make it seem like H20 is an instant fat burner. Except that's not really true. It's a little more complex than that.
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There's some truth behind the claim that water can help you lose weight. “Oftentimes water is pushed to those seeking weight loss because there is a belief that water can ‘fill you up’ leading to eating less often or less volume come meal time,” says Kelly Jones, MS, RD, CSSD, LDN.
So because you’re filling up on water, you’ll be less likely to snack and can better control hunger. Plus, as the theory goes, when you are hydrated and eating foods that have high water content, you are more likely to have better hydration overall throughout the day to help manage weight.
“Poor hydration can mean that your body continues to seek out fluid through the foods you are eating though, which is why sometimes people feel as if they may eat less when they have water before or at a meal,” Jones says.
So, rather than trying to use water to mask your hunger, sip water regularly throughout the day in an attempt to prevent feelings of thirst (a sign you're already dehydrated) and then you may have a more regular appetite regulation throughout the day.
“Along with well balanced meals and snacks, adequate hydration may help you better listen to your hunger and fullness cues, helping your body reach the weight it is meant to be over time,” she says. Still though, beyond weight management, can it help you drop weight when you’re looking to slim down?
Can drinking water help you lose weight?
© adamkaz Senior African American Man Drinking WaterIt can help in the short-term but not so much long-term. “While volume of food and liquids puts pressure on the nerve cells in your digestive tract, sending some signals to your brain that you may be full, it doesn't last for very long,” Jones says.
“Without intake of protein, fat, and fiber, proper satiety signals will not be released and if it doesn't catch up to you very soon after once the water has left your stomach, it often will later in the day, leading to extreme hunger and potentially ease in overeating,” she adds.
How much water should I really drink daily to help with weight loss?
© Jacobs Stock Photography Ltd Hispanic runner drinking water in middle of roadOn top of your baseline needs, it's recommended to drink an additional 16 to 24 ounces of fluid starting around 3 hours before exercise, up to 1 liter an hour during exercise and between 13 to 27 ounces per hour depending on conditions of your workout, says Jones.
Afterwards, you should replace whatever you lost during your workout. By weighing yourself before and after your training session, you can calculate this need. “For every pound lost while moving, drink an additional 16 to 20 ounces on top of your baseline needs. Thirst is not a good indicator of hydration status and fluid needs,” Jones says.
Can I drink too much water?
© Mike Kemp USA, Utah, Salt Lake City, Athlete young man drinking water form bottle, cloudy sky in backgroundIt is possible. “You drink more water than your kidneys can remove in your urine. This can cause too much water to collect in your bloodstream and an imbalance of fluids,” says Maggie Michalczyk, MS, RD.
While more risky for women than men, men can still over-do it with water, which can be life threatening.
“Excessive fluid intake occurs when the body has so much fluid that minerals such as sodium are diluted in the blood, leading to fluid imbalances in and out of cells,” Jones says.
“Known as hyponatremia, or low blood sodium, creates symptoms from nausea and fatigue to brain damage
and death,” she says.This is isn’t something to worry too much about—but it is a risk associated with excess water intake.
What about “water weight?” Can’t water make me weigh more?
© Westend61 Close-up of athlete eating pasta dishWater weight is when the body retains fluids that would normally get filtered by the kidneys. “It's usually temporary and doesn't mean that you've gained weight, however can be discouraging for someone trying to lose weight,” says Michalczyk.
It might happen for a few reasons. “An increase in salt in the diet, and sitting for long periods of time (like on a long flight) can all be reasons why people gain water weight,” Michalczyk says.Yet, you can help manage it. “Avoiding salty foods (like processed foods that usually contain a lot of salt), drinking enough water and exercising are all ways to prevent water weight
and get it to go away,” Michalczyk says.Carbs can also have an impact on fluid retention, because glycogen (storage form of carbohydrates) pulls in water. “This explains why people on a crash diet with very little carbs lose weight right away but then tend to gain right back when they resume their normal,” Michalczyk says. It's water weight that is being lost from the stored glycogen in our muscles—just another reason why slow, sustained weight loss is the way to go.
The takeaway? Overall, water can help you lose weight as a healthy lifestyle habit where you may control appetite better and go for less sugary drinks to quench your thirst, but pure water alone won’t really tip the scale for long-term changes.
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11 Ways To Lose Weight Before Labor Day
During the current Coronavirus quarantine, you might have put on a little weight while staying inside at home. And you may be looking to shed some summer pounds before the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend
. While it doesn't leave you with a lot of time, it can be done, and in a healthy, safe way."It's normal for anyone trying to lose weight to want to do so quickly. However, faster doesn't always mean better, especially in this case," says Charlotte Martin, Ms, RDN, CSOWM, CPT, registered dietitian nutritionist and founder of Shaped by Charlotte. "The concern with trying to lose weight too quickly is that it often requires drastic, unsustainable measures, like too much restriction and over-exercising. It is possible to lose a safe amount of weight in a short amount of time with the following tips."
As long as you set manageable goals and expectations, you can lose weight before Labor Day to look and feel your best. And if you want to keep your weight loss going after the end-of-summer holiday, try these ways to lose weight and keep it off.
What is the one weight loss trick you should be doing, but aren't? Finding the right calorie amount for your metabolism. "The first trick to lose weight by Labor Day is understanding your caloric intake. Track everything you're eating on a fitness app or write it down to set the standard. When you understand how many calories you are taking in daily then you can improve your daily caloric burn to reach your goal," says CJ Hammond, XPS certified trainer with RSP Nutrition. "Also, using a fitness app you can see your daily caloric burn by tracking everything you do. I highly recommend increasing aerobic exercises to burn more calories daily. Circuit training can be very productive with minimal breaks with high reps and sets of exercises. This helps to keep the heart rate elevated even after training is done." To get you started, we put together a guide to the best diet apps for weight loss.
"Protein is the most satiating macronutrient," says Martin."Research suggests that increasing protein intake, especially getting a big dose in the morning with a high-protein breakfast, can increase calorie burn. (That's because it takes more energy for the body to process protein than it does fat and carbohydrates). Following a high-protein diet can also lower nighttime snack cravings and even alter our beloved hormones to reduce hunger and control appetite."
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"Get your meals and snacks in order," says Angel Planells, MS, RDN, Seattle-based registered dietitian nutritionist and National Media Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics. "Know what snacks you will bring, what meals you need to eat, what things you need to grocery shopping for– jot it on your calendar and make it happen." To plan ahead, start with these healthy snack ideas.
"There's a lot of apps on your phone such as MyFitnessPal and Cronometer that can easily help you count calories, macro, and micronutrients. By counting calories and weighing in daily at the same time, you can get a good idea of your calorie needs and adjust accordingly," says Jonathan Valdez, MBA, RDN, CSG, CDN, owner of Genki Nutrition and media spokesperson for New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Valdez has great advice: stepping on the scale is the #1 thing you can do every day to lose weight — here's why.
"Water is calorie-free and may even help to decrease calorie intake when consumed before meals. Drinking two cups of water before meals has been shown to result in smaller intakes during those meals," says Martin. "The benefits of drinking water for weight loss are even greater when you use it as a sugar-rich beverage replacement. Bored of plain old water? Try fruit-infused water! Simply combine some still and/or sparkling water with your favorite fruits and herbs in a pitcher and refrigerate (for at least a few hours)." Not sure if you're drinking enough? Here's How to Make Sure You're Drinking Enough Water While You're Stuck at Home.
"An accountability partner, coach, friend, family member, or an app can help to increase accountability and keep you on track for meeting your goals," says Cardwell. "Holding yourself accountable for creating habit change works and this can be for any new habit that you are trying to create. "
"Find a form of exercise that you enjoy! If you don't like running or lifting weights, that's okay. It's important to find something you enjoy and look forward to for at least 30 minutes per day or 150 minutes per week," says Valdez. "That could be climbing, yoga, biking, basketball, or even just walking. This will help burn some calories to lose weight, but more importantly, keep your body strong and healthy so you'll feel even better." Yes, even walking counts as exercise, so get started with these tips for how to walk to lose weight.
"No need to cut carbs from your life, simply swap out fiber-less carbs for fiber-rich foods!" says Martin. "Fiber fills you up without filling you out by helping stabilize blood sugar levels and reducing cravings."
"I find people underestimate the power of fruits and vegetables with their antioxidant properties, high fiber content, high satiety, and overall low-calorie profile," says Valdez. "If you're not making half your meals aren't fruits and/or vegetables you will be making up the satiety and higher amount of calories elsewhere."
"The hardest part of the journey is starting. If at the end of 3 weeks, you only lose 1 pound. Some may look at this as a bad thing, and I will say bravo, you are 1 pound less than you were when you started," says Planells. "It is about quality of life and feeling good about starting the journey. There is always something you can work on – getting more servings of fruits and vegetables, cooking more, and eating out less, drinking more water, getting more activity." For more science-backed tips to lose weight, don't miss these easy ways to lose 5 pounds.
Weight Loss Pill Poisonings Seem To Be Spiking. What Is Going On?
© Yulia Reznikov - Getty Images After a fall in cases over the past years, poisonings from DNP – a chemical that’s almost as explosive as TNT, the compound in dynamite – are at a record high.You’d probably think of weight loss pills as a public health crisis we’ve already dealt with, legislated for and moved on from. But after a steady fall in cases over the past few years, poisonings from DNP – a chemical that’s almost as explosive as TNT, the compound in dynamite – are at a record high once again.(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({"serve": {}});
In this feature, which originally appeared in the May 2020 issue of WH, we report on the unlikely come back of a worrying trend...
Abigail Davies felt like she was on fire. Within an hour of swallowing two small pastel-yellow capsules, the teenager began to sweat profusely and lay down on the sofa at her parents’ house, attempting to conceal the overwhelming effects of the chemical she’d just chosen to ingest.
Her body began to heat at such an alarming rate, the noise from the TV quickly melted into nothing and she lost the power of speech. What Abigail, then 15 years old, had taken was poison. The tablets she’d ordered online days earlier were marketed as a weight-loss supplement, but they contained 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) – a chemical that’s nearly as explosive as TNT, the compound used in dynamite.
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‘It felt like I was burning from the inside out,’ Abigail, now 27, tells WH. ‘That’s the only way I can think to describe it. There was a point where I thought to myself: "This is it. This is where it ends." '’ The circumstances that led the teenager from Swansea to this point were complicated and, with hindsight, she describes her mindset that day as ‘desperate’, so intent was shqe on shedding weight. While Abigail’s story is deeply distressing, it isn’t unheard of – because we’ve been here before.
What is the history of weight loss pills? Helvetica, Arial, serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">DNP has been in and out of the headlines for decades. It was in the munitions factories of the First World War where its use as a potential weight-loss drug was first recognised; workers exposed to the chemical suffered fatigue, excessive sweating and elevated body temperature, plus an unbidden drop in weight.By the 1930s, it was being billed by pharmacists and drug firms in the US as a magic bullet for slimming, until its severe side effects – everything from fever and vomiting to heart attacks and comas – led to it being
banned in many countries around the world. The UK took longer than most; it wasn’t until 2003, nearly 70 years after the US, that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued an urgent warning that DNP wasn’t fit for human consumption. The warning came in response to the rising use of DNP among amateur bodybuilders, who were using the drug to burn fat and build muscle, trading advice and stockists on online forums.It was arguably the death of 21-year-old student Eloise Parry in 2015 that cemented DNP in the British public’s consciousness. In the weeks leading up to her death, Eloise was admitted to hospital multiple times, suffering from side effects of taking the drug. On 12 April 2015, she took eight capsules and died hours later at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
Her tragic death reignited the debate around DNP, leading the FSA to launch an awareness campaign around its dangers. The statistics suggest it was effective; data from the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) shows that use of DNP steadily declined in the years following. Until 2018 that is, when cases suddenly spiked.
In the 10 months between January and September 2018, there were 17 cases referred to the NPIS, compared with 12 in the whole of 2017 – an increase of 40%, with 35% of these cases tragically proving fatal. Considering the cases noted by NPIS are only those that make it to A&E, there’s really no way of knowing how widespread use of DNP currently is.
What is clear, experts say, is that young and often vulnerable women are making up a far bigger proportion of users than before. In these switched-on, health-literate times, why is this deadly drug making a comeback?
When Abigail typed her details into the online form to purchase a pack of DNP, she was fully aware of the risk – but in her mind, in that moment, it was a risk worth taking.
She was first taken to the doctor six years earlier, but while her GP suspected she was suffering with anorexia, she was told her weight wasn’t low enough to receive treatment. ‘An eating disorder is like a cancer,’ Abigail says. ‘If left untreated, it spreads and gets worse. The longer it went on, the more it controlled my thoughts. I needed to do anything I possibly could to satisfy my eating disorder and was already taking up to 100 laxatives a day when I discovered DNP.’
A simple online search into fast ways to lose weight promptly led her to a website selling DNP as a diet aid. There were no age or health restrictions to prevent her from purchasing the pills and, within a week or two, they arrived at her parents’ house.
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she was so severely unwell that she had given up all hope of surviving the disease. ‘I’d read that DNP had been used in explosives and I knew that it could be fatal, but that wasn’t a deterrent. Anorexia makes you rationalise the irrational. I’d been told by doctors that if I carried on as I was, my organs were going to start shutting down. By that point, I’d already stopped having periods and was regularly passing out.’She took DNP and, in less than an hour, the severe side effects kicked in. She started sweating profusely and became confused and delirious, but she was ultimately lucky – her body didn’t heat enough to induce fatal hyperthermia. Lasting evidence of its effects and other symptoms of her eating disorder were picked up at a hospital appointment a few days later and she was admitted for in-patient treatment for anorexia. It was the first and last time she took DNP.
Why Abigail survived when others have died is difficult to explain, as it’s impossible to predict how DNP might affect any one person. During a criminal case brought against the man who sold the drug to Eloise Parry, a lawyer for the prosecution compared ingesting any amount of DNP to playing Russian roulette. ‘Each of your body’s cells contain mitochondria, whose job it is to generate energy,’ says Professor Gino Martini, chief scientist at the Royal PharmaceuticalSociety (RPS). He explains that within an hour of taking DNP, it inhibits the ability of these mitochondria to regulate energy output efficiently.
‘As a result, the cells are stimulated to work harder and faster, generating more and more energy – and heat. This means that your core temperature rises, and you can reach the point of overheating or dying from heat exhaustion.’ In the worst-case scenario, DNP can raise body temperature from the average of 37.5°C to a potentially fatal 43.1°C.
Following the death of Eloise Parry, the RPS was among the organisations calling for tighter controls on the sale of DNP. It may be illegal to sell the chemical as a diet pill – which must adhere to strict food safety standards enforced by the FSA – but DNP can be sold legally as a fertiliser, wood preservative or pesticide.
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appear in any registered pesticides for sale in the UK or the EU, and it’s widely thought to have been withdrawn from commercial agricultural use. But given that information about its use as a dieting aid exists online, even the wholesale outlawing of DNP may not be enough to prevent women in the UK from purchasing DNP-containing products from websites registered abroad.‘Policymakers need to be conscious that there’s still a global platform where people can purchase and access anything they want,’ says Elisabeth Julie Vargo, a social psychologist who has worked on one of the few research papers on DNP use.
Indeed, it took one WH contributor less than five minutes to find a site based in Asia selling DNP capsules, with a pack of 30 costing the equivalent of around £23, plus postage.‘Not for newbies,’ the bright red packet warned, while describing the capsules as being ideal for ‘powerful shredded, ripped condition’ and ‘burning calories super-fast’. On another site, the product blurbs make similar claims, though in small print is the caveat: ‘Not recommended for human consumption.’
Why are more women buying weight loss pills?That DNP remains affordable and relatively easy to get hold of could explain why an increasing number of women appear to be buying it. Between 2011 and 2014, women made up just 23% of DNP cases referred to the NPIS, but this proportion rose to 42% by 2018, as it became talked about as a more mainstream weight-loss solution.
‘Type “diet pill” into Google once and it’ll throw up all kinds of weight-loss supplements, then you’ll start seeing them on social media because they’re targeting you – it becomes very tempting,’ says Helen Hine, 36, a former model from Dorset. She believes that the addictive nature of weight-loss products and the behavioural psychology of digital advertising led her down a path that, looking back, leaves her incredulous. She was working an 80-hour week across several jobs and going to the gym every day when she first started using dieting aids a decade ago in an attempt to lose weight to elevate her modelling career.
Names of diet pills were dropped in the gym like PT recommendations and discussed as a way of accelerating weight loss without ramping up your workouts or changing your nutrition. Using terms like ‘fat stripper’ and ‘lypo tech,' they were available from mainstream fitness websites, and Helen describes how using them became a kind of compulsion. ‘What was attractive was the ability to transform my body in minimal time, so they gave me a rush,’ she says. ‘Those effects were enough to make me want more and more.’ She ended up ordering a supplement containing DNP and, after receiving an initial pack containing 10 pills, she took them on and off over several years, alongside a number of other diet pills.
It wasn’t long before her body began to respond to the toxic cocktail; with the most severe of her symptoms– heart palpitations, sweats, headaches, severe fatigue and abdominal pains – regularly coinciding with when she was taking DNP. So acidic were the capsules that she began spitting blood. ‘I knew this supplement was stronger than anything else I’d taken, and the ingredients read like a list of crazy chemicals but, in my mind, it was just the next step to losing more weight, which I thought I needed to do to make a success of my career,’ she recalls.
Becoming a parent and realising the symptoms were impacting on her ability to live a normal life forced her to stop using diet pills. ‘I became so unwell that I couldn’t tie my shoelaces, walk up the stairs or put my son on a playground slide without my legs burning. If I pushed through the pain to go about my day or do a workout, the fatigue would make me ill for days on end. My health was destroyed.’ Though it was never confirmed by a doctor, Helen – teetotal and active in her everyday life – is convinced that the supplements were behind the deterioration of her health.
Registered nutritionist Mel Wakeman believes the behaviour of women like Helen, who gamble with their health in the pursuit of weight loss, can be explained by a culture in which unscrupulous companies have multiple platforms to prey upon their vulnerabilities.
How do weight loss pill companies push their product?‘Companies pushing products like “skinny teas” and appetite-suppressing lollipops on Instagram and Facebook know exactly what buttons to push with their messaging: that to be healthier, worthy
or successful you should be thinner,’ says Wakeman. Only specific health claims authorised by the EU around weight loss and fat-burning can be used for weight-loss supplements, and companies can’t make promises about how much weight can be lost over a certain period of time. But these rules are difficult to enforce on digital platforms, even by the platforms themselves, Wakeman explains.
Consider, too, that the internet doesn’t fall under UK jurisdiction and policing these companies feels a bit like a game of whack-a-mole. ‘Even with the recent move from Instagram to ban accounts promoting products that are ethically dubious, they’re always one step behind,’ she says, as sellers can open new accounts under different names. Factor in, too, that the women who are looking to these products for help may well be battling poor mental health or low self-esteem, and it’s not difficult to see the path from those perfectly legal teabags containing laxatives to the illegal but no less available packs of DNP.
‘It’s not unlike the person taking a legal prescription painkiller who moves on to an illegal substance,’agrees Chevese Turner, chief policy and strategy officer at the National Eating Disorder Association.
The fact that the digital age has made it easier to purchase DNP, while simultaneously making diet products more seductive, only highlights the need to support vulnerable people before they become desperate enough to swallow poison, says Abigail. 'Unfortunately, lack of funding means many cases are left to escalate, as mine was. There isn’t that early intervention that’s necessary to prevent people from getting to the stage of trying something like DNP.’
In the early stages of disordered eating, red flags include grazing or bingeing, skipping meals and cutting out food groups, as well as using diet pills, laxatives or supplements, advises Turner. ‘Anxiety tends to increase as people get closer to having a disordered relationship with food and, for this reason, many people will begin to engage in fewer social interactions, too.’
For those considering buying a weight-loss product– any weight-loss product – online? Know that any unregulated or unapproved diet pill bought off the internet – DNP-containing or otherwise – can be dangerous. ‘This is because of the unpredictability of how your body might react,’ says Professor Martini, who also urges caution around supplements or weight-loss aids sold over the counter, which contain high levels of caffeine.
‘If you’re looking to lose weight, do so through a balance of nutrition and exercise, and always consult with your GP or pharmacist first.’
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