There’s a reason that scientists look for signs of water on other planets to decide if life might exist there. Without water, life, at least as we know it, can’t happen.
That makes water sort of important. But water doesn’t just keep us alive, it makes our lives so much better in many ways.
None of this is news to our customers. We’ve told you about some of the benefits of water in previous blog posts. And drinking eight glasses of water a day is one of the first weight loss tips we share in the guidebook that accompanies our Personal Weight Loss Programs.
You Can Do One of the Best Weight Loss Tips in the World Right Now
But we’re not the only ones to tout the beneficial effects of water for our overall health, wellbeing and weight loss.
Bob Harper calls it “one of the best weight loss tips in the world”.
Who is Bob Harper? As a personal trainer and former host of TV’s “The Biggest Loser”, he already knew a thing or two about how to lose weight. But in 2017, he suffered a heart attack. Forced to transform his lifestyle once again, Harper lost another 40 pounds.
“Water intake is, I believe, one of the best weight-loss tips that you can do,” says Harper, who drinks at least two gallons (3.8 litres) of water a day. Among the weight-loss benefits of water that Harper promotes are:
- Drink water first if you’re feeling hungry to reduce how much you eat
- It energizes you to help you burn more calories
- It keeps you ‘regular’ and a healthy digestive system helps promote a healthy body weight
Before you go guzzling large quantities of water in hopes of losing more weight, Harper cautions about drinking too much water. While the two gallons Harper drinks every day is about 38 cups, Herbal One recommends two litres of water a day, or just over 8 cups.
3 Other Ways Water Helps You Lose Weight
In addition to the weight loss benefits of water listed above, and those we mentioned before, making water a regular part of your day can boost your weight loss in the following ways.
- It Helps Your Muscles Perform Their Best – If just the idea of working out makes you break into a sweat, it could be because you’re not drinking enough water. Even if you’re just slightly dehydrated (a 2% loss of fluids), it can affect the performance of your muscles. That can make exercising much more difficult than it really is. Properly hydrated muscles help make it easier to increase your activity levels and burn more calories.
- Water Improves Your Brain Function & Mood – Wait, so just how does that help you lose weight? Your brain and your entire body is mostly water. Your brain is highly sensitive to dehydration (got a hangover headache? It’s mostly due to dehydration). Again, even minor dehydration of between 1% and 3% can affect your memory, mood and even increase the symptoms of anxiety.
To understand how staying hydrated helps you lose weight, think of it this way. How motivated are you to stick to a diet or get active when you have a headache, feel down and/or are in a bad mood?
- It Reduces Your Cravings for Other Drinks – Not only does filling up with water help reduce your appetite, but it also stops you from drinking the wrong things. The unbelievably high levels of sugar in many soft drinks and fruit juices are among the worst hidden enemies of weight loss. And the artificial sweeteners in diet drinks can be even worse. The more water you drink, the less bad stuff you drink.
There are so many more weight loss benefits of water, but so little space! To learn more, call or visit your nearest Herbal One Center today.