Water Before Meals Could Encourage Weight Loss
Health care experts have long touted the benefits of drinking water, but now researchers from Virginia Tech have found evidence that consuming H2O before eating could help you lose weight.
The findings of the study, which were presented Monday during the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) annual meeting in Boston, found that drinking two eight-ounce glasses of water before breakfast, lunch and dinner when dieting could help you lose nearly five pounds more over a three-month period.
"As part of a prudent, low-calorie weight-loss diet, adding water may help with weight-loss success," lead author Dr. Brenda Davy, an associate professor of nutrition at the Blacksburg, Virginia-based university, told Denise Mann of Health.com.
Davy and her colleagues asked 48 adults, ages 55 to 75, to participate in a 12 week study. The subjects were split into two groups. Both followed a low-calorie diet, but only members of one group were given two extra glasses of water before dining. After the conclusion of the three-month period, those who were given the additional water lost 15.5 pounds on average, while those who did not dropped an average of 11 pounds.
Furthermore, when the experts followed-up with their subjects following a full year of their regimens, they discovered that the pre-meal drinkers had lost an additional 1.5 pounds on average, while those who did not consume water before eating gained back an average of two pounds.
According to BBC News, "Davy”¦ said it was the first randomized controlled trial looking at water consumption and dieting," and that water was effective as a diet aid because it filled up the stomach yet contained zero calories.
"People should drink more water and less sugary, high-calorie drinks. It’s a simple way to facilitate weight management," she told the British news organization, adding that diet soda drinks and other no-calorie beverages could have similar effects, but that sugar-sweetened drinks should be avoided due to their high caloric content.
Consuming water instead of those high-calorie beverages "will slow down your weight gain or reverse it," provided all other consumption remains constant, University of Rochester Medical Center obesity specialist Dr. Stephen Cook told Mann. "It is one of the safest things we can recommend to help people lose weight."
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