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The #1 Must-Use Weight Loss Supplement: WATER!
By Eugene Thong, CSCS
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 What if I told you
that there was a miracle supplement out there that could help you blast
off the pounds, had no side effects, was readily available, and (best of
all) F-R-E-E?
You and all your
closest friends would likely be foaming at the mouth and ready to rush
out and buy it by the box load.
And I’m sure one of
your financially savvy buddies would make a beeline for the computer and
make some surreptitious investments on his eTrade account.
Well, this amazing
supplement does exist. And no, it’s not exactly free, but
it’s close.
The A#1, numero- uno,
all-important, paramount, top-of-the-heap supplement we recommend for
your
fat loss efforts is WATER.
What is it about
plain-ol’ water that puts it ahead of protein powders, fish oil,
creatine, metabolic accelerators, or any other supplement out there?
Simply put, water is
vital to life. If you don’t take fish oil for a week, the worst
thing that can happen is that you compromise fat burning a little or
that your mood might be less than optimal. If you don’t drink
water for a week, however, there’s a strong likelihood you’ll die.
Of course, it’s common
knowledge that water is necessary for good health and all – but let’s
cut to the heart of the matter. What fat loss benefits can
drinking water confer upon us?
Here’s a short list of
fat burning benefits that water gives to you:
1)
Drinking
water actually burns calories. A significant amount of them, in
fact.
I’m sure you’ve heard
this on other sites and thought to yourself, “Yeah, right. How can
drinking water
make a difference in calorie burning?”
Well, a study from the
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that metabolic
rate actually increases by a whopping 30% after drinking just 17 ounces
of water. The majority of the metabolic increase came from warming
the water to body temperature.
Being that it requires
roughly one Calorie of energy to heat an ounce of water to body
temperature, drinking a gallon of cold water daily can result in a net
calorie burn of over 120 calories!
That’s something to tip your glass to.
Does it have to be
pure water? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Another
study (this time from the folks over at Charite University Medicine in
Berlin) compared the metabolic boost from drinking a pint of pure water
against drinking the same amount of an isotonic saline drink (i.e.,
water with some salt added to it), and there was no comparison.
The pure water caused a 24% boost in metabolism; the saline drink caused
none.
2)
Water is a
natural hunger suppressant.
One of the best ways
to
kill a hunger craving is to drink a tall glass of water.
By temporarily filling out your stomach, your hunger cravings diminish.
You can use this method to stop your inner Tasmanian Devil long enough
to make sure you’re mindful of your food choices and to prevent yourself
from bingeing on foods that don’t support your
fat loss goals.
3)
Dehydration stops fat-burning in its tracks.
Did you know that your
body uses roughly a liter of water to go about its daily business?
If left unreplaced, it’s easy for you to slip into mild dehydration, and
that’s a
death knell for fat-burning. Just 1-2% dehydration can cause
your fat-burning machinery to stop in its tracks.
Here’s why: Fat
burning is not a priority to your body. Survival is.
Our bodies still
operate in
Stone Age mode – your liver doesn’t know that there’s a Costco down
the street with jugs of water or that 50 feet away there’s a faucet with
a Pur filter installed on it; if the water’s not in your body, it
doesn’t exist!
From a survival
perspective, it doesn’t make much sense for your body to break down fat
cells for energy when death from dehydration presents a much greater
(and more eminent) threat. So your kidneys say to your liver,
“Hold on a moment, boys; let us sort this water thing out before you
continue with evergy production.” Drats.
Luckily, this
scenario’s pretty easy for you to prevent: just drink your damn water!
4)
Water is
calorie-free.
Because water contains
no calories, it can really help you reduce your daily caloric intake if
substituted for other drinks you normally have that do contain calories
(like sweetened iced tea, soft drinks, and alcohol).
As Mike wrote about in
The Quickest and Easiest Way to Lose Fat From Your Waistline,
diluting your calories by making smart substitions is one of the most
powerful strategies in your fat loss toolbox.
 Even
small substitutions can have a big impact: a study presented at a
meeting of the Obesity Society in Boston showed that overweight women
who replaced all the sugary drinks in their diet with water lost on
average 5 pounds more each year than women who didn’t, even though both
groups were following similar diets.
Tally up all the
beverages you drink in a given weekend (yes, alcohol too) and figure out
the total amount of calories that represents. If you’re like most
folks, you’ll probably total well over 1500 calories. That’s an
awful lot of calories you can save just by making one small distinction:
drinking only water.
5)
Water can
help regulate body temperature, which results in improved workouts.
If you don’t work out
hard, your results will be sub-optimal. Anything that helps you
excel in the weight room will help your fat-burning efforts in the long
run, and regulation of body temperature by keeping adequately hydrated
is one of the best things you can do.
A study from the
Australian Institute of Sport found that cycling performance suffered
greatly in athletes that were dehydrated, even if they were
consuming carbohydrate gels to compensate for energy losses.
What is really
striking about this study is that the dehydrated athletes were given
easier workloads than the hydrated athletes, yet their time to
exhaustion was nearly 30% sooner. In other words, they pooped out
faster, even with easier exercise.
If you’re not giving
your best efforts, you can’t reasonably expect to get the best results.
So do yourself a favor and stay hydrated during your workouts, ok?
“Enough with the
studies already! So where do you start? How much is enough?”
The best starting
guideline is to drink as much water as you can tolerate – in most
cases, we’ve found that this will almost be enough. A good
baseline level of water consumption is the tried and true 64 oz of
water a day.
You should seek to
progressively increase your water consumption a little bit each week
(much in the same way you’d increase the poundage on your squat or bench
press), up to consuming an ounce of water per pound of bodyweight, or
one gallon (that’s 128 whole ounces, folks). Unless you’re
involved in rigorous athletics, you likely won’t need more.
As a point of
reference, Mike and I both carry around and drink a gallon of water each
day (although I am physically smaller than Mike, I lose tons of water
during my jiujitsu training, so our daily intake is similar).
It’s the biggest point
of frustration to a weight loss devotee to “be doing everything right”
and not seeing the results translate to fewer pounds and less inches.
When you’re looking to
optimize your fat-burning,
do everything you can to “get the little things right.” That
includes getting enough water.
In fact, go pour
yourself a tall, frosty glass right now. Cheers!
P.S.
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About the Author:
Eugene Thong, CSCS, was born a weak, skinny,
bespectacled child. Now, thanks to a steady diet of martial arts,
scientific inquiry, and heavy compound movements, he's no longer weak.
His scientific bent, Zen-like demeanor, and efficient but intense
methods have made him one of New York's most sought-after personal
trainers.
 When
not helping clients cultivate their own inner 6-packs, Eugene can be
found arm barring opponents at Renzo Gracie's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Academy or sailing through the air on his snowboard. Read Eugene's
semi-weekly musings on
exercise, fitness, and fat loss at his blog
Eugene is Mike's co-author of The Black Book of Secrets. You can
purchase it by clicking here.
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