Can You Lose Weight by Drinking Water?

Can you lose weight by drinking water? Here's what you need to know about water and weight loss.

The human body is anywhere from 55% to 78% water depending on age, gender and amount of body fat. Water is the catalyst in all metabolic functions throughout the body and it has a variety of health benefits.

Water can also help you lose weight. Here's how.

One of the important functions of your kidneys is to eliminate waste products from your body through your urine. When you're dehydrated, your body's instinctive reaction is to hold on to whatever water it does have in order to survive. When this water retention occurs, the waste products in your body aren't flushed out, and they build up in your system.

At this point, your liver will try to help alleviate this build up of waste products. But when your liver helps out, it becomes harder for your liver to do its own jobs, one of which is burning stored body fat for energy. The result is that your body may not be able to burn fat as efficiently as possible.

There are two other ways that water helps with weight loss: Water contains no calories, so substituting water for other beverages is an easy way to reduce calories. Water is also a natural appetite suppressant.

So how much water should you be drinking? Eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day is a commonly quoted amount, but this is just a general rule. The amount can vary widely from person to person depending on factors such as age, physical condition, activity level and climate. If you drink enough water so you rarely feel thirsty and you produce urine that's clear or light yellow, your water intake is most likely adequate.

You also need to make sure that the water you drink is as clean and healthy as possible. This is why I recommend drinking filtered water instead of tap water or bottled water.

Tap water contains trace amounts of a variety of contaminants, such as chlorine, lead and pesticides. Visit the Tap Water Facts page for more information on tap water.

Bottled water is often little more than tap water in a bottle. There are no government standards that require bottled water to be any better, purer or safer than tap water. Visit the Bottled Water Facts page for more information on bottled water.

Using a water filter is the only way to ensure that the water you drink is clean and healthy.

In conclusion, now that you know that you can lose weight by drinking water, make sure that your weight loss program includes plenty of good, clean water.