On the Joy Behar Show she had a panel discussing weight loss. One of them is a female trainer who has a reality show. Jackie something. She said if you add lemon juice to the water you drink, and drink a lot of water, your metabolism will be boosted.
Someone else said you need to drink half your body weight in ounces of water a day and your metabolisim will be boosted.
I've always been an 8-oz.- glass -of- water -a day gal, and I have to say it hasn't seemed to have an affect on my weight or metabolism. But it makes me feel better, that's for sure.
Does anyone here subscribe to the lemon juice theory? If so, how much, and is bottled lemon juice okay instead of a fresh lemon? I wonder too if there would be side effects from the acidity of the lemon.
YOu do not need to drink half your body weight in ounces - it can even be dangerous if you're very large. For example, at my starting weight, that would have been almost 200 ounces that would be over 6 quarts.
My mom was hospitalized for water poisoning, drinking only a bit over a gallon a day (it probable took weeks or even months to wash enough sodium out of her blood to cause problems, but regardless of how long it too, the 4+ quarts of water was too much for her to be drinking).
The kidney specialist called in told me (because I'm on a similar blood pressure medication and also don't eat much salt) that I shouldn't drink more than 3 quarts of fluids on a regular basis, and that really there's no need for anyone (except some athlests) to drink more than 3 quarts of liquid (and all liquids except hard liquor count toward that count, even coffee, tea, wine and beer).
As for lemon, I do add lemon, lime, and other citrus to my water alot. Because I like the flavor, and it does seem to help with water retention after eating restaurant (high sodium) food and around pms/tom, so I drink the most around that time of the month. If it boosts metabolism, it must be a very minor boost at best, because I've not noticed any weight loss improvement (except for helping relieving water retention a little faster).
Jackie Warner, bless her heart because I actually think she looks fantastic, makes part of her living selling "diet and fitness secrets" that are proven time and time again to be myths by actual nutritionists (PhD's and such). Lemon juice boosting metabolism is a bunk myth. There is no truth to it whatsoever.
This myth came from the truth that lemon juice is a diuretic - so yes, with a lot of lemon juice consumption, you could see some water weight shifting, but that's all. No actual fat.
That being said, IF you enjoy lemon juice in water and it encourages you to drink more (but not 1/2 your body weight as kaplods points out), then by all means do so.
I'm sure I've not said this right (what Jackie said). And, I can't say for sure that it was Jackie who said it. She did say the thing about the lemon juice in water, though.
Here's roughly what I think was said:
If you weigh 170, for example, half of that is 85. So 85 ounces (approx. 10 and a half 8-oz. glasses) a day is what you should drink.
This makes a little more sense. But whether it's right or not is another story.
Did anyone see the Joy Behar show and see this discussion??
The half ounce per pound of weight isn't entirely unreasonable (necessary is another matter), as long as you're at a relatively normal weight. The more overweight you are, the more dangerous the myth becomes, because larger folks do not have significantly greater kidney and bladder capacities or function. So the larger you are, the more likely it is for that particular water myth to risk your health.
There are a few substances that increase you're metabolism significantly enough to be effective (at least in the short term) and they're generally in diet pills (the effective ones are prescription only).
Capsaicin (hot peppers) has been shown to have a significant effect on metabolism - but at concentrations that no sane person is going to eat. If you like hot peppers, enjoy - but don't con't on them for weight loss.
Lemon is going to be the same - because anything that is truly effective would become common knowledge by now. And the "lemon water" advice has been around since the 1930's or longer. If it produced reliable results, we'd know about it by now.
I drink water with lemon juice in it because I enjoy drinking it. I find it refreshing. I have never noticed it having any special weight-loss effect.
I drink at least one gallon of water each day. I live in a warm climate. Drinking the gallon of water throughout the day does helps me feel refreshed. When I was only drinking eight glasses per day, I sometimes ate when I was actually thirsty.
I have never seen a scientific study regarding the eight glasses per day. If someone has a reference at PubMed, for example, and a reference for a sound analysis to the study, I'd be interested in reading them.
Anecdotal, "I think", "I feel", "I believe", may be useful in testimonies, but they don't replace good biochemistry analyses.
For some reason I can't explain, I got out of the habit of drinking 8 glasses a day of water. I like water, too. I've also read that "hunger" pains is often or sometimes satisfied by water because you are dehydrated. So I've tried to be mindful of that and drink more of it. The lemon juice sounds good, but I worry a bit about acidity making my stomach hurt. Though maybe that's just nutty thinking on my part. I'll try it and see how it tastes.
Water AND water plus lemon juice
