Water for Weight Loss
Water is really important to effective weight loss. If you are drinking enough water than the pounds you lose will be actual fat and not simply water weight (which could mean the pounds seem to come off slower, but it is less likely that they will pile back on later). At the same time, if you give your body the water it needs, it will flush out the extra bits it has been storing because it knows (or at least thinks) that you will continue to give it the amount it needs. According to some sites water also helps with your complexion and to prevent saggy skin - who knows if that is true though. It also helps with muscle production as they too need water to function properly and if you don't have enough water in your system, you won't be able to increase your body muscle effectively. It also helps to keep your stomach full and therefore decrease your appetite - but it doesn't contain many nutrients or other substances that your body needs so you still need food!
As I have mentioned before I have been consistently drinking about 1.5L a day and I am attempting to increase this to 2L. Once I have that I will probably try to increase that as well. The problem is that I don't know how much water one is supposed to drink in a day. There is the old standby of 8 8ounce glasses a day which is about 2L. I have also heard that you are supposed to drink half your body weight in ounces to lose weight effectively. Now I don't know about you guys, but for me, that is a lot of water - much more than I am comfortable drinking so I highly doubt I will ever be drinking that much water in a regular day. Perhaps a day full of exercise and activity, but not a regular day in which I work all day in front of a computer and then hang out at the house all night (with of course the elliptical workouts that I do most nights).
According to some weight loss sites (the legit ones at least) you need to drink the regular 8-8ounce glasses and then an extra 8ounces for every 25lbs of excess weight you carry. I guess that would mean and extra 3.36-8ounce glasses for me (since I need to lose a total of 84 pounds or 3.12-8ounce glasses since I have already lost 5.8lbs!). That means I need to drink a total of just under 3L (again a whole crapload of water) about twice what I am currently taking in.
My big problem with water, as stated in the previous blog, is that I drink the vast majority of my water during one meal, lunch. This isn't good and I am trying to fix that starting today by sipping my water throughout the day while still having regular glasses with meals. We'll see how that goes and whether or not I can stay committed to it.
Considering that I don't really like drinking water that much, I think the amount I am taking in right now is amazing and the fact that I am willing to continue increasing it as I get hold on amount is simply remarkable. That being said I am interested to know what the proper amount is, so if you have heard anything else or know the right answer for sure, let me know.
