Water Truly Can Help You Lose Weight — Not for The Reasons You Think
Often when we think we are hungry we are actually thirsty, this leads us to eat when we don’t need to
Hunger is a more powerful force than both fear and thirst. This is despite the fact that we would die of thirst long before we died of hunger. The reason hunger is so powerful is believed to be linked to the fact that historically it’s always been much harder to get food than it has been to get water.
Basically, prior to the dawn of agriculture we got water from natural reserves like rivers and lakes et cetera, and we would always live next to those reserves. However, for food we had to go out and hunt and forage for it.
So, water was at home, but food was out in the wild. Even after the dawn of agriculture, water historically has been a lot easier to come by than food — even today in many places it still is.
Because of this, we have simply evolved a system where we are much more motivated by hunger than by thirst. When it comes to losing weight and keeping weight off, this is an important reality to know.
Here is why, numerous clinical studies have shown that as many as 40 percent of people frequently mistake the feeling of thirst with hunger, while all of us mistake it some of the time. That means that all of us at least some of the time eat when we should in fact only drink, while nearly 40 percent of us do so frequently.
Needless to say, this is not good for a person’s waistline nor is it good for their health in general mainly because dehydration, which comes on swiftly, affects us far more than hunger.
Why so many mistake thirst with hunger and what to do about it
The typical symptoms of hunger are the following:
- Empty feeling in your stomach
- Stomach gurgling or rumbling
- Dizziness, faintness or light-headedness
- Headaches
- Irritability
- Lack of concentration
- Nausea
The typical symptoms of thirst are the following:
- Dry mouth
- Dry skin
- Dizziness, faintness or light-headedness
- Headache
- Dry eyes
- Increased heart rate
- Feeling sluggish, lack of concentration
- Nausea
You’ll note how similar the symptoms are, also, you will probably note that many of the symptoms of both could be mistaken for other problems or missed entirely. The only thing that can be specifically related to them, is for hunger, that empty feeling in your stomach and stomach gurgling or rumbling, and, for thirst, a dry mouth.
However, here is the thing about a dry mouth, firstly, through saliva we can momentarily deceive ourselves into believing we are not thirsty. But also, a dry mouth is nowhere near as compelling a motivator to drink as an empty stomach is to eat.
This is because hunger has a very specific design function that motivates us to eat, thirst on the other hand does not have an equivalent driver. Basically, our stomach releases something called ghrelin to give us that hunger feeling, and this is released under two circumstances, firstly it is released around the time that we habitually eat — whether we are hungry or not; and secondly, it gets released when our body stops metabolising food — because it’s run out — and starts using stored energy a.k.a. fat deposits instead.
The more ghrelin that is released, the more we desire to eat. But there is no thirst equivalent, so when it comes to dehydration, frequently, unless we are desperate, we simply don’t realise we are thirsty.
In a world where food was not easy to come by, but water was — at least by comparison (like said, our camps, homes, villages, towns et cetera would always be next to water spots) — this made sense. There was never any need to evolve a method to massively motivate us to drink because we already would be drinking enough water — for example, in our hunter-gatherer days, we would have quenched our thirst before every food foraging and hunting mission and aft8r.
However, in the modern world, where food and water are equally as easy to get, this motivational imbalance in favour of hunger is causing problems because inevitably — on an instinctual level — we are more driven to eat than drink and are more aware when we are hungry than when we are thirsty to the point that we frequently mistake the two.
This happens because thirst and hunger have pretty much the same effects on our bodies, and so many of us simply believe that when we start feeling groggy or irritable or sluggish or whatever, that we are hungry when we are not. We are thirsty. This leads us to eat and pile on the pounds whilst not solving the problem of why we are feeling the way we are feeling in the first place.
Some studies have shown that it is likely that one of the main reasons many people suffer from frequent headaches, irritability, and constant dizziness is dehydration. It is believed that many people may even have dehydration to blame for many of the skin problems they are having.
This is why one of the best ways not only to improve your health, but to lose weight and keep it off, is to consistently drink water throughout the day. Literally, if you constantly keep yourself well hydrated by always keeping water at hand and drinking, you make certain that you are never going to mistake thirst for hunger. You also make certain that you are never dehydrated, which ironically, despite our body acting otherwise, is more damaging than being hungry.
Literally, we are programmed to think, food, food, food, and only on a side note to remember to drink. This is why we feel hungry at the times we normally eat at whether we are hungry or not, and yet we hardly even notice when we are thirsty. Our instincts are saying, water is not a problem, we’ve got loads of that, it’s food you’ve got to go out and get.
The problem is, at least in the Western world, that’s no longer true — at least as true. So, a top tip for both losing weight and keeping weight off, and to help improve your overall general health, is to deliberately keep yourself hydrated with water throughout the day — whether you feel thirsty or not. The craziest thing is this actually works, as I used to frequently feel dizzy and groggy but then I started deliberately drinking water at set intervals, and I stopped feeling dizzy and groggy all the time.
That’s all from me, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy the following:
The Five Real Reasons Why People Struggle to Lose Weight
Seven Ways to Stay Fit and Healthy If You Don’t like the Gym
Ten Simple Ways to Lose Weight and Keep It Off
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