The Aspen Clinic - Articles

Water...a Friend in Weight Loss

We've all heard it..."drink at least 8 glasses of water every day!"  But why? Lack of drinking enough water (usually in combination with drinking too much carbonated soda) has been directly linked to individuals having more kidney, bladder, and urinary tract problems.  You may have heard that one already, but did you know that if you changed nothing but increasing how much water you drink you will loose weight? 

Your kidney's are a very important organs.  One of the responsibilities that they have is to clean out the fluids in the body.  When you don't drink enough water your body can get to the point that the kidney's are unable to clean the bodies fluids enough all by themselves.  As a result the body causes the liver to kick in and help the kidney's out.  This results in taking the liver AWAY from one of it's major functions which is metabolizing fats!   The more water you drink, the cleaner your system will be, and the more effective your body will be at metabolizing fats, and the better you will feel.  You will go the bathroom more often but you'll get used to it. 

You may have figured out from what we said above that it's also a good idea to lay off of the soda.  If you must drink soda at least drink diet soda.  One problem about soda in general is that it has been linked to kidney and urinary tract problems.  When you don't drink enough water but instead drink 3 or 4 Big Gulps every day you are making your kidney's work harder while at the same time filling them full of chemical substrates.  Needless to say this is bad on the kidney's.  Drink water instead of soda if you can.  Make sure, however when you're drinking your water that you don't drink too much when you're eating because it can interfere with digestion.

The general rule is to drink one glass of water for every 14 pounds of body weight. One more simple thing to remember is to always drink cold water.  Your body has to expend some energy to warm the water up to the optimum temperature before it can be used and it takes calories (a unit of energy) to warm the water up.