Anyone actually lost weight from ONLY drinking a lot of water?
 

I've heard of people losing a significant amount of weight and the only change they made is the upped their water intake. I don't mean subsitute water for other drinks, I mean just by drinking more water. If so, about how many glasses or bottles of water per day will help?

I don't think water itself can make you lose any weight. In some people, it might influence their other choices.

Hey! :wave:

As far as I know, only increasing the amount of water you drink will have no effect on fat loss, which is what you want to lose. It may reduce some water weight because it flushes out salt, but that's not the point of a weight loss program.

It's a good idea to drink plenty of fluids (and water is usually what's meant)while on a weight reduction program to make sure your body is flushing out the byproducts of fat metabolism. These byproducts can be dangerous if they are excessive.

So, wish I could tell you that just drinking water would help! But IMO, it won't do much by itself.

Jay

Only if the water causes you to take in less calories.

Drinking lots of water can help keep you full, and can replace calories from other beverages with high caloric values. Both of these can reduce the amount of calories you eat in a day, which can then cause weight loss. But water, taken alone, isn't going to make any difference (except -possibly- helping to eliminate some extra fluid retention from higher sodium intake in a poor diet) if it doesn't serve as a tool to reduce total calories in the diet.

Hi!
It MIGHT help you feel fuller, which is why there is a common recommendation to drink a glass or 2 of water prior to meals. But hunger is a result of a combination of body messages including physical stretching of the stomach (how you know you are physically "full", which is the principle behind gastric bypass - if you make the stomach smaller it will take less food for the stomach to stretch and signal "fullness") and blood sugar indicators and hormonal indicators released when food travels through the digestive tract.

Drinking lots of water addresses only one of these factors, so it might help with food volume, but won't address the other factors and won't make you metabolize food any faster...
:)
Kira

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

i do not recommend drinking water before meals or really even with meals water dilutes digestive enzymes. And that can lead to gastrointestinal problems.

water with a little lemon would be beneficial though.

I always thought that a certain amount of digestive juices were required to digest food. If they become diluted, the stomach just secretes more. The concentration is kind of a moot point -- you need x amount and enough is secreted automatically to compensate throughout your meal. Kind of like saliva -- you need it to chew and your body produces more if there isn`t enough at that particular time...

Kira

And I can`t believe that we now have dietary rules about drinking WATER to "maximize" weight loss! As if my life wasn`t complicated enough, I have to worry about amount, and temperature, and timing...sigh...

Kira

I always drink water... before meals.. during meals.. after meals.. morning, noon, & night! lol!! So far it's ok for me.. ??

There is no scientific evidence I'm aware of that the timing of water drinking has any effect on digestion. I've seen these claims before, but never any evidence backing them up.

There is some limited evidence that drinking cold water may burn a few extra calories as compared to body-temperature water, but not enough that I've changed my water temperature...if I drink it cold, I won't drink it, so room-temp it is. I'll burn my calories through MOVEMENT, not through heating up a glass of water.

As for amount, I make sure I'm drinking enough that my pee is pale yellow. Some days (lots of exercise, lots of sweat), this is a lot. Other days, it is less. This is the standard medical explanation of how to know if you're getting a good amount of water. Dehydration isn't good...neither is drinking too much, which in some cases, can lead to serious side effects.

I did a couple years back... I was drinking 100 oz a day and lost about 5 lbs in two weeks. I stopped all the water... it was kind of hard to do... so I never followed through.

I probably ate less or certainly stopped drinking other beverages I normally would've, which could be the cause.