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Summary

Drinking 500ml of water before each meal can be a simple and effective trick to aid weight loss by reducing caloric intake, supported by recent studies showing significant weight loss results.

Abstract

The article discusses an easy fat loss method that involves drinking 500ml of water before meals, which can help reduce caloric intake and promote weight loss. It emphasizes that while clean diet and regular exercise are the traditional methods for losing weight, they can be challenging to maintain consistently. The article cites studies indicating that water consumption can lead to weight loss, with one study showing a mean percentage of weight loss of 5.15% over 12 weeks. It also suggests that replacing caloric beverages with water is particularly effective. Additionally, the article mentions other benefits of drinking water, such as reducing stress, stimulating metabolism, suppressing appetite, and aiding in fat burning. It provides practical steps for incorporating this habit into one's lifestyle, including starting small, opting for zero-calorie beverages, following the 80/20 rule, and making water consumption fun. The article encourages a gradual and sustainable approach to weight loss as a long-term lifestyle change rather than a quick fix.

Opinions

  • The author acknowledges that while everyone knows the basics of weight loss, not everyone can maintain a clean diet and regular exercise due to various reasons such as time constraints, health not being a priority, or disliking the process.
  • Drinking water before meals is presented as a simple and accessible method to help with weight loss, even for those who may struggle with dietary discipline.
  • The author suggests that the habit of drinking water before meals can be formed over time, with the process potentially taking anywhere from 18 to 254 days according to different studies.
  • Replacing caloric beverages with water is seen as a key factor in successful weight loss, not just the timing

The Easy Fat Loss Trick That Can Help You To Lose Weight (And No It’s Not Having a Clean Diet)

It’s so simple that almost anyone can do it

Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash

Everyone knows how to lose weight but not everyone does it well.

We all know to lose weight, we need to focus on 2 things:

  • Clean diet
  • Exercise regularly

That’s pretty much it.

And it all comes down to the idea of being in a caloric deficit. The more calories you burn each day compared to taking in, the more weight you’ll lose each day gradually. But not everyone can do those 2 things consistently.

Sometimes stick to it for a few days but fall off the track a few days later.

I get it. Habits are hard to stick and some studies found that 21 days is enough for a habit to be formed while other more recent studies even found that:

“(it takes) an average of 66 days was required to form a habit, with a range between 18 and 254 days”

Most of us are guilty of this for good reason. Reasons such as not having enough time, not prioritizing health that highly, or simply not enjoying the process are all understandable especially if you’re working a 9–5.

But what if you can do at least 1 of them really well?

That would be your little cherry on top.

What Could That Little Cherry Be?

Between the 2 ways of having a caloric deficit, the better way is to have a clean diet.

And that usually takes a lot of discipline to research what to cook, time spent to get groceries and prepare the food. At each step, there’s that little bit of added friction along the way which slowly deters lazy humans like you and me from moving towards that direction.

But there’s a simple way to make improvements to that with this 1 simple trick and it’s to drink 500ml of water before each meal.

If you’re even thinking about losing weight, it’s most probably easily accessible to you and you don’t spend much time worrying about your diet or exercising with this trick.

Now I’m not saying that this is all you need to lose weight, but it’s a simple trick to help lower your caloric intake in a day. Think about it, if you were to drink 500ml of water before each meal, the amount of space in which your stomach can hold food would be lower naturally.

And therefore, the amount of food you can consume would be lower which leads to a lower caloric intake.

How Does It Help With Weight Loss?

It might sound too good to be true so let’s look at some recent studies to convince you that it truly works.

In one study, researchers assessed the effect of water consumption on weight over 12 weeks and they found that:

“All the studies showed a weight loss effect after follow-up, ranged from -0.4 kg to -8.8 kg with a mean percentage of weight loss of 5.15%”

And even for those who are not drinking their 500ml of water before each meal. They found that:

The most effective intervention among the studies was the replacement of caloric beverages with water

This meant that it wasn’t the timing of drinking water before their meals that made the difference although that helped with the lowering in caloric intake. The other thing that supported this weight loss study was the replacement of caloric-dense liquids which are easily consumed and therefore their caloric intake was consistently higher compared to when they simply drank water which has 0 calories.

Another study found that drinking water further helps with:

  • Reduce stress
  • Stimulating metabolism
  • Suppressing your appetite
  • Burning fat through lipolysis

And based on experience, drinking water helps with the low energy problem that some of us face every day and it helps your body to remove waste such as urine and feces.

Therefore it’s that cherry on top that cannot be overlooked.

How To Get The Most Out Of It?

I’m not a bubble tea lover myself but my girlfriend has always been and it’s been difficult for her to lose the extra calories that she always wanted to lose.

But she’s making improvements every day but following these steps which have helped her to lose a little bit of weight in the past couple of weeks. These are the steps you can consider taking too:

  1. Start Small — If you aren’t used to drinking 500ml of water before meals, start small and drink 200ml of water and increase it with each day until you hit it.
  2. 0-Calorie Options — The same idea of starting small works the same for the drink itself too. You don’t always have to be stuck with plain old water all day long. Drinking diet Coke is better than drinking Coke itself. There are so many other 0-calorie options to consider which can help with your weight loss journey.
  3. Follow The 80/20 Rule — You don’t always have to do this every day. I get it, it can get boring sometimes so you want to indulge in that bubble tea or coffee and that’s fine. But treat those instances as cheat drinks which you do 20% of the time while you focus on drinking more water 80% of the time.
  4. Maybe Even Making It Fun: Consider consuming other types of water such as flavored water or carbonated water which might sound more interesting to some. Some people love to make fruit-infused water which can help with making things fun and interesting.

Losing Weight Is A Journey

You don’t have to give yourself a hard deadline to lose weight.

It’s a lifestyle you decide to have so that you start making progress with each day. By making this habit simple, as frictionless as possible, or even fun, you can start to see some progress along the way as you work towards your goal.

Be sure to stick to this habit for a couple of months and measure your progress along the way instead of searching for quick solutions that will get you nowhere.

It’s a simple trick but definitely requires some sacrifices which anybody can make.

Try it out and let me know if it works out for you!

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Health
Wellness
Nutrition
Weight Loss
Weight Loss Tips
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