MIAMI.- He agua It has been associated in recent years with weight loss, so it is common for those looking to lose a few extra kilos to have received these tips: “drink more water” or “drink a full glass of water before each meal”.
Although the second recommendation may be reasonable, since if you fill your stomach with water before eating, you may feel full faster and therefore eat less, but why do people really say that drinking water can help you lose weight? and what does the evidence show?
Robert H. Shmerling, member of the School of Medicine of the Harvard Universitypublished an analysis in Harvard Health Publishing on some theories that explain the benefits of water to lose weight and what various studies show.
Does water help you lose weight?
Shmerling points out that drink water before food It could send signals to the brain of fullness, just as the nerves in the stomach do that detect stretching when food is eaten, giving the sensation of fullness.
“Some small, short-term studies support this idea,” he says. One of them, for example, showed that older subjects who drank a full glass of water before meals tended to eat less than those who did not.
In another analysis, it was found that those who followed a low calorie diet and drank more water before meals had less appetite and more weight loss over 12 weeks than those on a similar diet without additional water. “But none of the studies evaluated the impact of drinking more water on long-term weight loss,” he adds.
Another theory put forward by the Harvard researcher suggests that sometimes people go to the kitchen in search of food when They are actually thirsty instead of hungryso if you choose to drink water, you would avoid consuming unnecessary calories, thus promoting weight loss.
“The regulation of thirst and hunger is complex and varies throughout a person’s life,” says Shmerling. An example is that thirst can decrease in older adults.
However, it indicates that there are no convincing studies in humans that support the idea that people who are thirsty misinterpret the feeling of hunger, or that this is why drinking water could help you lose weight.
Reinforcement and substitute
Another hypothesis would be that being well hydrated improves exercise capacity and, therefore, weight loss. “For most people, hydrating before exercise seems unnecessary, and I couldn’t find any studies that specifically examine the role of hydration in exercise-related weight loss,” he notes.
He switch high calorie drinks, such as soda, juice or alcohol, by water can help you lose weight over time. In this case, the specialist points out that a drastic reduction in calorie intake by replacing high-calorie drinks with water could certainly lead to long-term weight loss.
“While it is difficult to design a study to prove this, indirect evidence suggests a link between replacing high-calorie drinks with water and weight loss. Still, just as calorie-restricting diets are difficult to follow long-term, following a water-only plan may be easier said than done,” he notes.
Does burning fat require water? According to one theory, dehydration affects the body’s ability to break down fat for fuel, so it might be possible that drinking more water could help break down fat and eventually lead to weight loss.
“Although some animal studies support the idea, I could not find convincing evidence from human studies that drinking more water helps burn fat as a means of losing excess weight,” he says.
Does it really work?
As for the benefits of increasing hydration by drinking water before, during meals, or at other times of the day, Shmerling notes that this could work, at least for some people.
“Some evidence suggests this might help with weight loss, at least for some people,” says. However, he adds, they are small or short-term studies, which are mostly based on animals.
Furthermore, it indicates that those who showed positive results about the benefits of water for weight loss “are modest.”
Therefore, it stands out that although many people recommend drinking water to lose a few extra kilos, there is no research to support this theory.
“If you think it’s working for you, there are few downsides to drinking a little more water, other than the challenge of trying to drink if you’re not very thirsty,” he emphasizes.
Source: With information from Harvard Health Publishing
