5 Ways Water Helps You Lose Weight and Get In Better Shape
Drinking enough water is one of the simplest and easiest changes you can make to help lose weight, keep it off and improve your fitness levels.
1. Increase intensity:
Heat, not lactic acid, is what produces muscular fatigue1 and eventual failure. The hotter your muscle cells get the less they want to work because getting too hot means cell death. Proper hydration (and air-conditioning) helps your body better regulate your temperature. In other words, being properly hydrated allows you to do more work and harder work, which burns more calories.
2. Improve recovery:
The more water your drink the less DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) you will get. The less sore you are, the more often you can workout and the better your results will be in terms of fat-loss and strength thus helping you stay motivated and moving, which is another way drinking enough water helps you lose weight.
3. Regulate appetite:
Very often people confuse thirst with hunger, and drinking water – especially before or during a meal – helps people to better regulate their appetite. Water also helps to activate the stretch reflex in your stomach that is part of what tells your brain you’ve had enough to eat. In other words drinking enough water helps people eat less without being hungry.
4. Protects your joints:
Water (and movement) are essential for keeping your joints lubricated and your cartilage supple. Without enough water and enough full range movement our joints and cartilage can dry out and become painful. Keeping your joints healthy is essential for being able to move and maintain/establish a healthy weight which is just another way drinking enough water helps you lose weight and stay fit.
5. Displaces high calorie beverages:
The more water you drink, the less juice, soda or other high calorie beverages you’ll drink because there is only so much room in your stomach. In behavior change it is often much more effective to replace or displace something in your diet than it is to try and eliminate something.
How much water do I need? At True 180 Personal Training we’ve had a lot of success 2 liters (64 oz) per day as a minimum. (Yes, you can drink more!) Thinking about this in terms of “how many bottles of water is that?” helps most people get it done. Look at your bottle and do a little bit of math.
After reading this, 5 Ways Water Helps You Lose Weight and Get In Better Shape, here’s a sneak peak into: Charlotte Personal Trainer on Heat Wave Fitness: Do’s and Don’t’s Right Now
1. Don’t give up. Walking and/or getting enough steps in is super important, and it’s still important during a heat wave. Be creative and resourceful in getting things done. One strategy that we use when it’s boiling or pouring rain is to walk around our living room. We live in a small apartment, and have kids, but it still works.
2. Do know the signs. Walking outside when it’s hot is uncomfortable, but there’s a difference between discomfort and danger. Here are the “get back inside” signs: cramps, nausea, (new) headache, extreme fatigue, dizziness, rapid heartbeat and/or if you stop sweating. If you start having any of these it’s time to cool off inside. If you have a fan to stand in front of this can help the sweat do it’s job of cooling you off more quickly.
New here? We’d love to meet you! Book your free Intro Call with a member of the team now. We offer custom fit personal training for women. All of our sessions are about an hour long and will be a full body strength training session every time. The first step is to set up a quick Intro Call to see if we are what you are looking for and we will be happy to discuss more ways water helps you lose weight and get In better shape.