Everybody knows the importance of drinking enough water. Aside from its benefits to your skin, muscles, organs, and digestion, it detoxifies, prevents certain cancers, and can improve your post-workout mood. Heck, when you're a baby, you're 75 percent water. Then, as the years get higher, you get drier. There's another reason to drink water right there. Here's one more: it helps you lose weight, according to a new study from the University of Birmingham.
This week, researchers from the University of Birmingham released the results of a 12-week study involving 84 obese adults which found that drinking 500ml of water thirty minutes before a meal helped participants lose almost 10 more pounds than participants who did not drink water. The study began with a weight management consultation, where all participants were given advice for improving their diet and physical activity levels. 41 participants were told to "preload" with water, while 43 participants were told to imagine being full before eating. After 12 weeks, participants who were instructed to preload with water lost, on average, 2.87lbs more than those in the control group. In addition, participants who reported preloading with water before each of their three main meals everyday lost 9.48lbs over the 12 weeks. In contrast, those who reported preloading once a day, or never preloading, lost just 1.76lbs. To be clear (pun intended), tap water, not sparkling water, soda, or sports drinks, was the only beverage allowed for the study.
Dr. Helen Parretti, an NIHR Clinical Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, had this to say of the findings:
"The beauty of these findings is in the simplicity. Just drinking a pint of water, three times a day, before your main meals may help reduce your weight... Losing a few extra pounds over the course of a year can be significant to an individual, and this could be an easy way to help with that weight loss. It's a simple message that has the potential to make a real contribution to public health."
Drink more water, people.
Fuente: www.huffingtonpost.com
