Drinking hot water for weight loss is one of the easiest and most painless ways to go on a diet without or doing anything too extreme. And it’s a lot safer and healthier than some of the other “quick fix” weight loss methods you may have heard about.
Health Benefits Of Drinking Hot Water:
Hot water is a boon to those who wish to enjoy good health and a beautiful body. To know the numerous health benefits of drinking hot water for skin hair and health, keep reading.
1. Promotes Hair Length:
To have long hair like a Disney princess, you do not need to spend more, you just have to increase the amount of water and change its temperature from normal to hot! Drinking hot or warm water works as a great source of energy for your hair cells. It promotes and accelerates the growth of your tresses. Also reduces hair fall!
2. Reduces Dandruff:
Hot water can effectively reduce dandruff by killing the yeast cells. Adding a few drops of lemon water to it can do the trick for you. However, you need to make sure to not pour boiling hot water on your scalp, as it can cause severe burns. It is advised to go for warm water rinse after shampooing to prevent dandruff and itchiness.
3. Renders Shine To Hair:
Water not only keeps your hair hydrated but also provides essential substances which your hair need to shine. Drinking hot water is also good for getting supple and shiny hair. This is beneficial for getting back the natural vitality of your hair and keeping it healthy.
4. Body Detox:
Body detox is one of the main advantages of drinking hot water. If you are suffering from indigestion, drinking hot water in the early morning or late at night (or both) is really beneficial. When you drink hot water, the body temperature gets high and your body starts sweating, which helps to flush out the toxic materials out of your internal system and cleanse it properly. For good or effective results, squeeze a lemon in the hot water and add a few drops of honey to it. This is one of the main benefits of honey with hot water.
5. Cures Constipation:
Low water levels in your body can result in problems like constipation, indigestion, gastric problems etc. As the stool gets accumulated within your intestine, bowel movement becomes slower and harder. It is always recommended to consume a glassful of hot or warm water (recommended to do empty stomach) every morning. This is one of the important hot water benefits for the stomach.
6. Aids In Digestion:
Hot water helps in full digestion and eradicates excess fat clogs in the body as opposed to cold water which can harden the oil present in the consumed foods, It creates a fat deposit on the inner wall of your intestine. However, if you replace the glass full of cold water with one having hot water, you can avoid this problem and accelerate your digestion to a great extent.
7. Promotes Weight Loss:
One of the main advantages of hot water is weight loss. Drinking hot water can help you in losing a good amount of fat. It improves your metabolism and speeds up the digestion process. Also, hot water breaks down the adipose tissues lying under the skin. Drinking hot water for weight loss is an excellent solution.
Tip: To increase the benefits of drinking hot water to lose weight, add some lemon and honey.
8. Treats Nasal Congestion:
Any form of congestion in the nasal passage as well as the throat can be treated with drinking hot water at regular intervals. The researched show, it treats well cough, sore throat and cold. It helps in dissolving the phlegm and thus makes it easier to be removed from the respiratory tract.
9. Helps In Comforting Menstrual Cramps:
Among the benefits of hot water, one that really helps women is the comfort it gives during those difficult days of the month. It diminishes the pain and discomfort related to menstrual cramps. The calming effects of the heat on the muscles from the hot water gives perfect outcomes. It also keeps away spasms.
10. Improves Blood Circulation:
Another of the uses of hot water comes in the form of improving blood circulation levels. The detox benefit of hot water is mentioned above which in turn helps the blood circulation in the body. It helps in disposing of off the accumulated fat as well as all toxic substances in the nervous system, thus giving this benefit as a result.
11. Keeps Ageing At Bay:
The radiant, younger-looking face is one of the major benefits of drinking hot water for skin. The toxins present in the body leads to faster ageing as per the researchers. Drinking hot water helps in the removal of these toxins from the body thus leading to slow the ageing process. It also helps in repairing the skin faster and increasing the elasticity of the skin. The damaged skin thus gets healed and looks smoother.
Tips to use hot water for weight loss plan
So now you know how drinking warm water benefits not only your body but also your weight loss goals! But how should you go about actually incorporating this habit and making it a part of your daily routine? Here are 5 tips to use hot water for weight loss.
- Start your day with a glass of warm water. It is the easiest and safest way to ‘wake up’ your body.
- Consider additives like lemon, mint leaves, etc. for additional benefits. Particularly for weight loss, squeezing half a lemon into a glass of warm water is recommended.
- Before a meal, the warm water cuts back calorie intake up to 13%. After the meal, the warm water helps aid digestion and also prevents the oily and spices in the food from causing any digestion problems.
- Drink warm water before bed. This helps to calm down nerves, and ensure deep sleep. Sleep is very important and closely linked to weight loss.
Exactly How Much Water You Should Drink to Lose Weight
No one has to to tell you that drinking water is great for you.
You’ve likely heard this your entire life: Drinking water is one of the building blocks of good health. And, on a deeper level, proper hydration helps your brain stay alert, your cells function as they should, and your exercise performance operating at top gear.
And you know the dangers of dehydration: brain fog, feeling tired and/or dizzy, and that foul-smelling discolored nature of your urine—just to name a few.
But there’s another benefit to water, too, and it’s not one you might think of: weight loss.
Dietitians tend to recommend drinking water as one of the building blocks of a lifestyle that can lead to healthy weight maintenance. That said, the effective mechanism isn’t just water in, fat out.
“Oftentimes water is pushed to those seeking weight loss because there is a belief that water can ‘fill you up’ leading to eating less often or less volume come meal time,” says Kelly Jones, M.S., R.D.
So because you’re filling up on water, the theory goes, you’ll be less likely to snack and can better control your hunger. Plus, when you are hydrated and eating foods that have high water content, you are more likely to have better hydration overall throughout the day to help manage weight.
“Poor hydration can mean that your body continues to seek out fluid through the foods you are eating though, which is why sometimes people feel as if they may eat less when they have water before or at a meal,” Jones says.
There’s some truth behind the claim that water can help you lose weight. That said, some so-called “experts” make it seem like H20 is an instant fat burner. Like, if you’re not carrying around a jug of water and drinking it at all times, weight loss is going to be a long, hard road for you.
Not true.
Think of water more as a maintenance tool, not a magic bullet, for weight loss.
Rather than trying to use water to mask your hunger, sip water regularly throughout the day in an attempt to prevent feelings of thirst (a sign you’re already dehydrated) and then you may have a more regular appetite regulation throughout the day.
“Along with well balanced meals and snacks, adequate hydration may help you better listen to your hunger and fullness cues, helping your body reach the weight it is meant to be over time,” Jones says.
Still, though, beyond weight management, can water help you drop weight when you’re looking to slim down?
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Can drinking water help you lose weight?
You’ve heard the old adage: “If you’re hungry, you might actually be thirsty.”
This is only sort of partially true.
Drinking water may help you curb your hunger in the short-term, but not so much long-term. “While volume of food and liquids puts pressure on the nerve cells in your digestive tract, sending some signals to your brain that you may be full, it doesn’t last for very long,” Jones says.
Jones continues:”Without intake of protein, fat, and fiber, proper satiety signals will not be released and if it doesn’t catch up to you very soon after once the water has left your stomach, it often will later in the day, leading to extreme hunger and potentially ease in overeating,” she adds.
So, in short, water can fill you up in a pinch, but only for a pinch.
How much water should you drink daily to help with weight loss?
On top of your baseline needs, experts recommend that you drink an additional 16 to 24 ounces of fluid starting around 3 hours before exercise, up to 1 liter an hour during exercise, and between 13 to 27 ounces per hour depending on conditions of your workout, says Jones.
After your workout, you should replace whatever fluids you lost. By weighing yourself before and after your training session, you can calculate this need. “For every pound lost while moving, drink an additional 16 to 20 ounces on top of your baseline needs. Thirst is not a good indicator of hydration status and fluid needs,” Jones says.
Can you drink too much water?
It is possible.
“You drink more water than your kidneys can remove in your urine. This can cause too much water to collect in your bloodstream and an imbalance of fluids,” says Maggie Michalczyk, MS.., R.D.
While more risky for women than men, men can still over-do it with water, which can be life threatening.
“Excessive fluid intake occurs when the body has so much fluid that minerals such as sodium are diluted in the blood, leading to fluid imbalances in and out of cells,” Jones says.
“Known as hyponatremia, or low blood sodium, creates symptoms from nausea and fatigue to brain damage and death,” she says.
This is isn’t something to worry too much about—but it is a risk associated with excess water intake.
Drinking Cold Water for Weight Loss
The sheer number of fitness, nutrition, and supplementation myths surrounding weight loss is simply astonishing.
One of the biggest fallacies told to dieters is that drinking cold water boosts metabolism and helps you lose weight faster. This idea stems from the notion that our bodies expend energy (burn calories) to warm up. Therefore, by drinking lots of cold water each day, your body has to burn extra calories to keep you warm continually.
Sounds pretty good in theory, doesn’t it?
The difference in the number of calories burned while drinking a glass of ice-cold water rather than a glass of warm water or room temperature water is only about eight calories.
And, while drinking more water can help you lose weight, the reason it does so isn’t due to your body having to raise its temperature to process the cold water.
You see, your metabolism is comprised of several factors, including:
- Basal metabolic rate (the bare minimum amount of energy to keep you alive at rest),
- Energy burned during exercise,
- Energy burned during non-exercise activity (fidgeting, tapping your toes, blinking your eyes, etc.), and
- Energy burned digesting and absorbing food (also known as the thermic effect of feeding, TEF)
Your resting metabolic rate accounts for about 70% of your total daily energy expenditure. In contrast, physical activity (both exercise and non-exercise activity) accounts for 20%, and digestion accounts for a paltry 10% of your daily energy expenditure.
What this means is that trying to boost your metabolic rate by drinking lots of cold water each day is a very inefficient means to do so.
Drinking 2 liters of water per day only boosts energy expenditure by approximately ~95 calories. <3> That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of calories your body burns each day.
So, How Does Drinking More Water Help You Lose Weight?
Simply put, when you drink more water during the day, you are replacing other sources of calorie-containing beverages like juices, gourmet coffees, energy drinks, soda, and alcoholic beverages.
Since water contains no calories and all of those other options contain a significantly higher number of calories, making the switch to water reduces your daily calorie intake, which supports weight loss.
Furthermore, when you do a water “pre-load” before a meal (drinking a tall glass of water before eating), you reduce appetite. This means you’ll consume fewer calories during your meal, which again decreases your total energy intake.
Lastly, staying hydrated also helps you perform to your best mentally and physically, which allows you to burn more calories while you are working out.
Benefits of Drinking Warm Water
Supports Digestion
Drinking warm water can help soothe and stimulate your digestive tract.
One of the most important roles water serves in the body is as a lubricant for secretions in the GI tract, which helps your body process and excrete waste.
Supports Joint Health
Water also helps from lubricating fluids for joints and acts as a shock absorber during physical activity.
This function is important for the brain and spinal cord and is particularly important for the fetus, which is protected by a water cushion.
Maintains Regularity
We already mentioned that drinking warm water can stimulate the digestive tract and helps “move” things along as your body processes nutrients from food and excretes the waste.
Dehydration can be an underlying cause of constipation.
Drinking enough water each day can help prevent this from happening and maintain regularity.
May Improve Swallowing
Many individuals have struggled to swallow, often having the sensation of food being “stuck” in their esophagus.
Research finds that drinking warm water can help these individuals swallow and digest their food more comfortably.
May Reduce Stress
Drinking a cup of warm milk or tea before bed is an age-old remedy to take the edge off and help people wind down before sleep.
Research finds that consuming hot liquids (such as coffee and tea) helped lower stress and reduce feelings of anxiety.
Researchers note that some of the effects are attributed to the caffeine contained in tea and coffee. Still, they also state that the warm temperature of the liquid also contributed to the improvement in mood.