Everything you read about weight loss talks about the need to drink water.  Whatever diet you research or exercise plan you complete, when you mention trying to lose weight you are told that you need to drink water.  When you watch weight loss TV shows like The Biggest Loser you always see the contestants carrying around water bottles.  Drinking water while attempting to lose weight is well known but did you ever stop to wonder why drinking water is so important to losing weight?  We at I Choose Thin were wondering the same thing and that is why we gathered this information for you to read about in one place. 

Why Drinking Water Is Important To Weight Loss

When you start your weight loss attempt the weight falls off fairly fast at first.  This motivates most dieters and more often than not that initial weight loss is nothing more than water weight.  Simply put, this means that the water is kind of stuck inside your body before you begin dieting.  Your body needs water and sodium to live because that is how the electrical impulses travel around your body.  When you digest too much sodium it will exit your blood stream, through osmosis, and”parks” in your skin.  When you consume too much sodium this “parking” is what causes you to look and feel puffy.  It is the way your body saves up for a “rainy day”.

Most diet plans that people embark on are low salt or salt restrictive.  As your body starts to receive more water and less salt the osmosis reverses itself and the salt leaves the body the opposite way that it entered.  As you drink more water and eat less salt the puffiness goes away as not only the salt leaves the body but the water that is with the salt is also carried away.  Hence, as you urinate the salt is washed away as is the water surrounding the salt.  As a result of this your weight decreases because the excess water is excreted also.  After this happens many are excited about rapid weight loss but this effect only lasts for a short while.

Another reason why drinking water helps a person with weight loss is because the process to burn calories requires an adequate supply of water.  Without an adequate supply of H2 0 your metabolism will actually slow down and this will make it harder for you to decrease the size of those fat cells.  Water is once again needed when you exercise to help melt the fat away.  Also when you burn calories your body creates toxins that your body needs to flush out.  When you drink the water you are literally flushing the toxins out of your body.

Additionally, if you allow your body to become dehydrated this causes the volume of your blood to decrease.  By the actual volume of the blood decreasing you are restricting how much oxygen is circulated throughout your body.  This restriction causes you to feel tired which in turn may take away your motivation to exercise which is what accelerates your attempt at weight loss.  If you were to exercise while being dehydrated you are also preventing your body from achieving the full benefits of the workout because of poor oxygen flow.  Poor oxygen flow equates to a poor workout overall.

Another tidbit of water knowledge is that water actually maintains muscle tone by helping with their ability to contract.  Also an adequate water supply lubricates your joints.  Proper hydration actually can help reduce muscle and joint soreness when exercising.  While speaking of lubrication one must also be aware that when they eat more fiber they need more water to avoid being constipated.  Without the water the fiber can and will cause problems with bowel movements.

When you are trying to lose weight most people are trying to accomplish this by eating less.  If you were to drink a glass of water before each meal you would eat less during the meal.  The water will provide volume in your stomach and this volume is what makes you feel full.  What makes this effect work even more so is to eat calories that are bulky.  Fiber is a great example of what to eat when trying to use water to facilitate appetite suppressant.

How much water should you drink?

This is not an answer that you can just get by looking to the internet or a book.  There are too many factors that need to be input into the equation to arrive at a correct answer.  What is the temperature and the humidity level of your area?  How active are you in that temperature?  How much of the food you eat contains water such as fruit?  How much water you should drink in one day is best answered by looking at your urine.  When you go pee the color of the urine should be a light yellow.  If it is dark yellow you need to drink more water.  If it is clear you have had enough for now.  Be aware that vitamins, antibiotics and certain foods can color your urine.  Also you should not be going to the restroom every few minutes because that means you have overdone the water intake.  You really do not have to worry about drinking too much water because that would be something you would really have to try and accomplish.  Just be reasonable and observe your urine and you will know if you drank enough or too little merely by the color.

One thing to note is that liquids that are not water may not count if you are trying to lose weight.  Coffee, tea, alcohol and especially soda rank up there among the worst of liquid choices.  When you drink those liquids you will still need to drink more water.

If you want to lose weight then by all means you need to drink water all day long every day of the year.    It is not just a diet addition it is a weight loss necessity.

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