Water for Weight Loss

Excess weight is a known factor in insulin resistance, and for most people, getting a handle on weight is all it takes to control blood sugar and help rebound overall health. While engaging in regular exercise and eating a healthful diet are very important if you want to shed pounds, you also need to drink at least eight glasses of filtered water each day.

In addition to filling you up, water burns calories. German researchers gave healthy, normal-weight volunteers two cups of water to drink, and within 10 minutes their metabolic rates began to rev up, increasing after 30–40 minutes by an average of 30 percent.

The researchers figured out that 40 percent of this energy expenditure was used to heat up the water from room temperature to body temperature, while the remainder was attributed to an increase in fat and carbohydrate burning stimulated by the sympathetic nervous system. They concluded that drinking eight cups of water could burn off 100 additional calories daily—about as many as you’d expend during a leisurely 30-minute walk.

Drinking ice water may burn off even more calories. Several years ago, a physician I know told me he lost 35 pounds simply by eating ice. Although I’ve never seen any research to support this novel method of weight loss, it makes sense, because your body must produce the energy to first melt the ice, then heat up the water. Just be careful not to break a tooth—and avoid brain freeze.