08 Oct Drink More Water to Burn Fat Faster!
One of the things I see so often in my clients who want to burn fat for weight loss is they’re drinking way too much coffee, soft drinks, energy drinks and alcohol and very little water.
So what’s this got to do with weight loss? A few things actually.
When you’re dehydrated, which happens when you have drinks containing caffeine, you’re much more likely to confuse thirst with hunger, which sets you up to eat more! Research has shown that people who drink more water do lose more weight.
One study showed having a big glass of water before meals significantly reduced the amount of food eaten by the participants. Having too much fluid close to meals can dilute your digestive secretions though and set you up for bloating, wind and gastrointestinal discomfort, so I suggest doing it half an hour before your meal.
And drinking water regularly throughout the day will reduce hunger between meals too.
Caffeinated drinks like coffee, energy drinks and colas also boost your stress hormones including cortisol which can slow down fat-burning.
Why? Because cortisol and your fat storing hormone insulin oppose each other. Cortisol boosts your blood sugar level while insulin tries to bring it down.
That means your body is stuck in fat-storing mode – not what you want! Plus cortisol makes you store more fat around your middle. Ouch!
The sugar in soft drinks and alcohol and that yummy latte you’ve been having are a major cause of weight gain and will definitely sabotage your fat burning too!
Finally, when you do burn fat, toxins are being released from your fat cells. These are substances you were exposed to in the past that your body wasn’t able to get rid of at that time. It’s important to be able to get rid of these things as quickly as possible so they don’t hang around messing with your biochemistry and slowing your metabolism down.
Much of your toxic waste gets dumped into your gut to go out via your stools.
Water helps to move the contents of your large bowel through faster so it’s not hanging around there. If it does hang around, like when you don’t have regular bowel movements (I’m talking at least one a day), then a lot of the toxic waste that gets dumped into your gut can be reabsorbed back into your bloodstream. Again, not what you want.
Being toxic also causes you to hang onto more fat. Why? Because many toxic chemicals you’ve been exposed to mess up your delicate hormone balance.
So there you have it! Drink more water and you will burn more fat!
In another post I’ll discuss some simple ways to drink more water without getting bored so stay tuned.