Why Low Calorie Diets Are Helpful For Losing Weight

Losing weight is a problem that many people have to struggle with, and being able to successfully lose weight is a secret which many people will tell you that they can help you with, but one of the most important aspects to losing weight will be to commit to a low calorie diet.

The essence of the link between the low calorie diet and successfully losing weight is the simple equation that the number of calories that you take absorb versus the number of calories that you burn means the difference between gaining and losing weight.

If you take on more calories than you burn, then you will gain weight, but on the other hand if you burn more calories than you consume, then you will actually lose weight. This is the ultimate balance that people who are trying to lose weight have been trying to master for a long time.

This is where the low calorie diet comes in. If you can discipline yourself to sticking to a low calorie diet, or find a low calorie diet where you do not feel hungry and constantly resisting the urge to eat, then your day to day activities can actually be enough to help you to lose weight.

However, if you are able to find time to include exercise along with your low calorie diet into your everyday life, then you will find that achieving success in trying to lose weight will come, and you will be able to reach a weight and body shape that you are happy with.

Finding the right low calorie diet can often be a difficult process, and you may find that your hunger will simply be too strong for you to resist giving in to the temptation to eat more than your chosen diet would advise you to.

This is why you should be looking to choose a low calorie diet which will help you to stay full, and to resist the hunger pangs which are usually a part of the dieting process.

There are tips you can use to try and lessen the hunger pangs, such as drinking plenty of water or eating foods that are low calorie, but high in fiber, which will help you to feel full.

Ultimately however, if you are trying to lose weight simply by using low calorie dieting, then you will have to depend on your strength of character and discipline to succeed in losing weight.

Why You Should Ensure Your Diet Will Provide Stable Weight Loss

For many people trying to lose weight they can often have tried numerous different techniques and diets, so the lure of quick weight loss through crash diets can be tempting, but in order to achieve real and lasting effects it is important to choose a diet which will provide stable weight loss.

When losing weight, it is often seen where someone will find that they can lose some weight quite quickly, but will hit a plateau after a short time, and find it much more difficult to restart the regular loss of weight.

One of the important things if you are looking for weight loss, which is both realistic and sustainable, then being able to lose the weight you’re looking for gradually and regularly means that it will be a more healthy and sustainable way to lose weight than to lose weight in spurts.

The benefits of having stable weight loss is also that it is a great motivator for you to continue following the programme that you’re on, and that regular weight loss will also help you to see that your diet is continuing to work and that you’re still on the right track.

A problem that you may encounter when trying to lose weight through a fad diet is that it will work for a certain time, but after a while your body may adapt to the type of diet that you have chosen, and will then render it ineffective as it absorbs the necessary nutrition from whatever sort of food you are eating.

This is why that diets that generally involve the key factors of weight loss do tend to stand the test of time better than those, which utilise a quirk of the human physiology. Ultimately, to lose weight you will have to burn more calories than you consume, so a diet, which is regularly low in calories will provide you with regular weight loss.

While it can often be more difficult and strenuous to stick to a low calorie diet, it is certainly beneficial as it can provide you with stable weight loss, and the key feature of such weight loss is that your body will have more time to adapt to the changes that are occurring, and will help you to sustain your weight loss, and avoid the mistakes which can cause the weight to be piled back on once you finish the diet that you’re following and go back to eating normally.

The Psychological Benefits Of Losing Weight

When you’re trying to get yourself fit and to lose weight, then there are a lot of reasons which should be a great motivator to help you to lose weight, but you should also be aware of the psychological benefits of losing weight which can really be significant.

So when you make the choice to improve your health by losing any excess weight, you are also likely to be benefiting your mental health because of the numerous psychological benefits of losing weight.

One of the biggest things that will cause many people to want to lose weight is so that they will get a great boost to their confidence. This is of course likely to make a big change to your life, as most people will find that their confidence is very much dictated by their body image, which losing weight will usually prove to be a significant improvement.

Another reason why you are likely to find that losing weight will give you a psychological benefit comes with one of the key aspects of losing weight will usually be regular exercise. When you do take regular exercise then it will lead to endorphins being released into your blood stream, which will give you a feeling of happiness and well-being, which is always a plus.

There are also studies which have been carried out which indicate that there is a link between people suffering with depression, and an improvement in the condition if they are successful in losing weight, which should be another reason for people to consider losing weight.

However, it has to be said that the biggest reason that most people will want to lose weight is for the boost to their self esteem. We live in a society where self image has become increasingly important, and if you can succeed in trying to lose weight, then you can give yourself a real boost which can shine through to many different areas of your life that you may not even expect to improve.

Almost all health authorities do place a great importance on the schemes encouraging people to lose weight. This is with good reason, as the physical health improvements are significant, but the mental improvements from losing weight certainly shouldn’t be overlooked, and when many people look for treatment then losing weight could well be a great benefit for many psychological issues.

While it certainly isn’t an answer in every case, losing weight is of great benefit for anyone who is overweight, and can improve your outlook on life.

Tips For Helping You Keep Weight Off

Once you have reached your weight loss target, then it can be easy to slip back into the old ways, and start putting the weight that you’ve lost straight back on again. Whether you were losing weight for a specific occasion, or simply to improve your health, keeping the weight off can be almost as difficult as losing the weight.

If you were only trying to lose weight for a specific occasion, then you might not be too worried about starting to put the weight back on, but if you’re not careful then it is very easy to actually find you’ve gained all the weight you’ve lost and more.

One important thing that you will need to be aware of if you have been on a diet in order to lose weight is that if you have been following a low-calorie diet then your metabolism will have slowed in order to match the level of calories the body is receiving.

If you finish your diet, and then go straight back to eating a normal amount of calories then your metabolism won’t get straight back to the old level, so if you’re going straight back to eating a lot of calories then more of it will actually be stored in fat more quickly.

For this reason, if you do want to keep the weight off then it is best to gradually increase a number of calories that you will be consuming.

You should also look to maintain a routine of regular exercise which will help your metabolism to speed back up again to help you burn off the extra calories which you will be consuming.

Another thing that you can do to help you to try and keep the weight off once you’ve completed your dieting is to try and continue a few of the things you’d been doing whilst you were dieting.

Drinking plenty of water is a very important tip that you should continue to use, as it will still help you to avoid the hunger pangs, and it will also help to speed up your metabolism back to the levels that it was at before you started dieting.

Once you’ve finished off your diet, then you should certainly be free to go enjoy the best of the good life after all that hard work, but it is important that you are balanced and maintain a healthy lifestyle after losing all the weight unless you want to have to do it all again.

Importance of Protein in Your Diet

As more and more people have taken to calorie-counting to control their weight, protein has fallen by the wayside. Higher in calories, protein is considered by many to be fattening, but many dieters don’t understand that protein is very necessary for a healthy and nutritious diet. While vegetables and fruits are also a vital part of your diet, these low-calorie options really cannot replace the very important macronutrient–protein. Protein’s most popular sources–meat, beans, dairy, or fish–also suffer when compared to carbs or produce for convenience; it’s harder to simply grab and go with a healthy protein source. Still, the ever-growing percentage of women between the ages of 20 and 40 who aren’t getting their recommended daily allowance of protein should reconsider their daily consumption for many reasons; read on to learn more about this very important part of our daily diet.

Diets rich in protein do the opposite of what much calorie-counter fear they will–they actually help to prevent obesity, as well as such bugaboos as diabetes and osteoporosis. In fact, foods that are high in protein take more work to digest, metabolize, and use, meaning that your body will actually burn more calories processing these foods. Because they take a longer time to leave your stomach, they leave the dieter feeling fuller longer, which is always helpful to cut down on hunger pangs when you’ve reduced your caloric intake. Protein will also help to ensure that you lose fat instead of muscle as you exercise; the amino acids found in protein help your body to build lean muscles, which make you look toned and burns calories even while you’re at rest.

It’s recommended by dietary experts that you eat between 0.5 and 1 grams of protein per pound of body weight; even more importantly, you should consume at least thirty of these daily protein grams at breakfast. Deprived of food as you sleep, your body is completely empty and might start to burn muscle tissue for fuel if you neglect to stock up on its protein stores as soon as you wake up. Hard-boiled eggs are a great source of early-morning protein as is cottage cheese. The most effective forms of protein come in animal products, such as lean beef, skinless white chicken or turkey, low-fat dairy, or seafood. A vegetarian can find complex protein sources with a little bit of imagination–it’s best to pair incomplete proteins together to get a more balanced diet. Nuts, whole grains, and vegetables all have some forms of protein, and combining them can aid you in getting your dose of protein for the day.

How The HCG Diet Works

When you’re overweight and trying to find the best way to shed those excess pounds, sometimes it can be extremely difficult to burn enough calories and limit your diet enough to have a real impact on your weight.

This is when people start looking for alternatives or other solutions which can help you on the weight loss journey, and whilst there are many products on the market which can make big promises about losing weight, there are of course some which are much more effective than others.

One of the products that you can take which has proven to be particularly effective in helping you to lose weight is HCG, or to give it its full title – Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. This is a naturally occurring hormone, which is produced during pregnancy and regulates the hypothalamus.

The effects of HCG were discovered by British doctor Albert Simeons while carrying out studies on pregnant women in India who were on diets where they received a strictly limited amount of calories, and also on overweight boys who had suffered from problems stemming from the pituitary gland.

What he found in his studies was that those who were treated with HCG would actually lose fat without seeing any losses in terms of healthy muscle tissue, which is what led to the growth in popularity for those using HCG to lose weight.

In order for this diet to be fully successful, then you need to combine the use of HCG with a strict calorie controlled diet of 500 calories per day, and whilst the small number of calories you consume will mean that your body will turn to its natural reserves for fuel, the HCG helps to release the fat for your body to consume.

Whilst you are on the diet, you will find that the weight loss you will experience will be dramatic, and most people will find that they will tend to lose between one and two pounds per day, although the minimum you would expect to lose would be half a pound every day. There are even some people who have confirmed that they have lost three or more pounds a day whilst on this diet.

Whatever your reason for wanting to lose weight, if you have tried to do so before then you will certainly know that this can be very hard work, and by using the HCG diet, then you too can make it easier for you to lose weight, and reach those weight loss goals you’re looking for.

How You Can Fit The HCG Diet Into Your Everyday Life

Being able to lose weight successfully is probably one of the things that many people would admit would be a fantastic thing to be able to do, but in today’s modern world it can often be difficult to be able to fit a strict diet and supplements into your everyday life.

However, with a bit of forethought and planning then you can fit a diet like the HCG diet into your everyday life, and proceed to make the most of the opportunity to lose plenty of weight without it having too large an impact on your everyday life.

Whether you choose the HCG supplements which are taken via injection, or by the more popular drops, you will find that these can be arranged simply into a spare five minutes, and are ideal for somebody looking for a diet to fit around their busy lifestyle.

The second aspect of the diet which might be more difficult to fit into your everyday life is that of the low-calorie diet aspect, however by preparing well and making sure that it is actually difficult for you to give in to the temptations that will so often besiege someone who is trying to successfully lose weight.

The first thing you can do is to have a fully scheduled meal plan that will cover every day for you, and cover every meal within the daily calorie limit of the diet. This will give you the time to prepare each meal beforehand, either in the evening before or in the morning. The important aspect of sticking to the diet in this way is that you will remain in control of each meal, and will be less likely to eat meals outside of your diet.

Another thing you should do is to make sure that you always have a bottle of water with you. Water will be important during your diet, as it helps to control your hunger twinges and increases your metabolism, and will also help you as an excuse if you are offered a drink that might take you over your daily calorie limit.

For whatever reason you decide that you would like to lose weight, the HCG diet is a fantastic tool which will allow you to successfully lose weight as long as you discipline yourself, and are strong in sticking to the diet. With a little preparation, you can fit this diet into your everyday life, and lose the weight you want.

Choosing The Right Diet For You

If you have been overweight for some time, then you will probably have tried a few different diet solutions in order to try and help you lose weight, but it is important to make sure that you look at yourself and choose a diet that is suited to you and will help you to lose weight in the right way.

One of the most important things that you can do is to be certain that the diet you choose isn’t a crash diet, as this is likely to lead to putting the weight straight back on, as crash diets tend to strip away more than just fat, and your body will be absorbing more of what you consume that was lost during that crash diet.

Because dieting will require you to make sacrifices in terms of what you eat and drink, then you should consider what it is in your diet that you simply cannot do without, and then look for a diet which will still allow you to eat some of those things, whatever it is that you feel you cannot do without.

For example, if you cannot do without meat, but don’t mind cutting out the carbs such as bread and potatoes, then you might want to have a look at the Atkins diet. However, if you are looking for a diet which will still allow you to have the occasional bar of chocolate or bag of crisps, then you should look at a calorie controlled diet, where you can then cut out more calories in your meals, and still be able to enjoy your favorite snacks.

You should also consider where that your previous diets have fallen down, and look for supplements that may help you to continue to lose weight even if you do have a slip up in your diet, and as long as it doesn’t happen too often, then you should be able to continue to diet.

For example, if you found that you couldn’t resist a portion of fries when you were on your diet, then maybe using a crab blocking supplement which will stop some of the carbs that you eat from being absorbed might be helpful.

Whatever the reason that you’re actually looking to lose weight, as long as you put a bit of thought into what you’re choosing as your diet, then you can be successful in losing weight, and getting to the target weight that you have in mind.

Tips for Healthy Weight Loss

Everyone knows that your weight is a reflection of the total number of calories you consume as well as your metabolic rate and the amount of exercise you get in a given day, but the composition of the food you actually consume every day makes a big difference in the number you see on the scale when you weigh in. A careful assessment of the things that you eat and when you eat them can help you to lose weight quickly and keep the weight off permanently. Keep reading for helpful tips to aid you in losing unsightly body fat.

Reducing your fat intake is an important part of any successful diet. It helps you to lose weight quicker because the foods that are high in fat tend to be calorie dense, and this causes you to put on weight. You should also reduce your carbohydrates. It’s nearly impossible to lose any weight without reconsidering how many carbs you eat each day; those with a high glycemic load should be the first to go, as any consumption of high glycemic load carbohydrates simply causes you do crave more and more carbs. No one can drop pounds when they’re consuming such foods as loaves of bread, pasta, and anything with a high amount of sugar. Your total amount of carbs should stay under one-sixth of your caloric intake.

Vegetables and fiber can substitute for the loss you might feel when you eliminate those tasty carbohydrates. Low-starch veggies are particularly helpful to dieters everywhere, as they are very rich in nutrients of all sorts, they’re filling, and they’re high in fiber. Fiber is filling, too, and it slows down the processing of your food, letting you feel fuller longer. You should shoot for 25 grams of fiber daily, with at least 10 of those grams in the insoluble form. Ultimately, your goal should be healthiness, not weight loss. A healthy lifestyle will aid you in losing weight, and though it might take a little longer, it will help you ensure that you won’t ever have to focus on dropping a lot of pounds ever again. A healthy lifestyle will allow you to maintain your loss with little or no effort.

Weight loss plateaus are a common cause of discouragement and drop-outs from weight loss programs, but they’re common. As you gain muscle mass due to increased exercise, it might cause your weight loss to halt as you lose body fat and gain muscle. You must be patient and stay your course toward a healthier lifestyle.

Easy Ways to Squeeze in Exercise

For people trying to lose weight and get fit, experts recommend that you work out anywhere from thirty to sixty to minutes every day; however, most adults don’t have a block of time that they can dedicate to working out, so they tend to skip exercise. However, if you break up the time into ten to fifteen-minute increments, it’s easy to squeeze much-needed physical activity into your already busy day if you get creative and resourceful.

Short bursts of activity have a cumulative effect on your physical fitness; four ten-minute workouts a day three to five times every week are easier to stick with than a solid block of time that can fall by the wayside as our lives get busier. When people eliminate the destructive all-or-nothing mindset that can be destructive to their workout, they find that they get fit faster. Skipping your physical activity for the day can feel self-destructive, but taking ten minutes to walk up and down the stairs at your office can be invigorating, and encourage you to seek out other ways to get active.

If you are home, there are several ways to sneak exercise into your day. When you head outside to get the mail, extend your walk–briskly walk five minutes up the street in one direction and then briskly walk back to your home. As you cook your family’s dinner, practice standing push-ups in the kitchen by standing an arm’s length away from the kitchen counter and then push your arms against the counter. To work your arms and shoulders, just push in and out.

If you find yourself with time to burn as you’re waiting for an appointment, or watching a child’s sports team practice, it’s easy to find little ways to stay active as you wait. You can briskly walk around the block as you wait then end of your child’s music lesson, or circle the soccer field as your kid tends goal. A trip to the playground is a perfect opportunity for snatched bits of fitness–you can do pull-ups on the monkey bars, or throw a ball back and forth with your child.

During the work day, there are several ways to stay active. If possible, try to walk to work–if your job is only a mile or two away, this can be a great daily workout. If you dine away from your office, find a restaurant that will require you to walk a good distance. Always take the stairs whenever possible, and use a phone call to stretch your back.

How Exercising Can Help You Losing Weight

Losing weight can be a difficult thing at the best of times, so anything that can help you to lose weight should certainly be something to consider when you’re planning how you will lose that weight, and exercise is one of the big things you can do to help you lose weight.

Don’t think that exercise is simply something which can burn a few extra calories, although it certainly does fulfill this function. In the same way that your body won’t just react to certain triggers in one way alone, exercising will trigger a number of different reactions within your body which can all be beneficial.

The most important way in which exercising can help you to lose weight is that it does burn calories, and once your body is burning more calories than you are consuming, then you will start to burn the fat reserves which are held within your body, which will lead to you losing weight. By taking part in regular exercise, then you will be burning more calories, and when combined with a healthy diet then you will start to lose weight.

However, this isn’t the only way in which exercising can be important in helping you to lose weight. Once you start to exercise regularly then your body starts to become used to burning more calories, and your metabolism will actually increase, which will mean that you will be burning, even more, calories than you were when you started your exercise program.

This can be vital, as it means that your body will actually help you on your way to your weight loss goals, and the quicker your metabolism will work then the quicker you will reach those weight loss goals.

When you combine a program of exercise with a calorie controlled diet, then you will be using even more of those unsightly fat reserves which are stored within your body and will be burning the fuel that makes up your excess weight. Along with the combination of diet and exercise, there are further supplements you can take which can also help you on your way, and make the weight loss a little bit easier.

Once you decide that you want to lose weight, then the way in which you do it is up to you, but when you factor in regular exercise into your plans, then you will find yourself much more likely to achieve the weight loss goals which you set yourself.

Nutrition That Will Increase Energy

As children, we learn that food gives our bodies energy; however, what we seem to forget as we get older is that the quality of the food we consume directly affects the quality of the energy the food provides. When you feed your body food that gives you a quick burst of energy–specifically, foods that are concentrated sources of sugar–you will soon find that this form of energy is fleeting. Simple carbohydrates, such as sugar, break down very quickly, leaving the blood sugar levels low and your energy flagging. A complex carbohydrate, such as grain, will provide you with steady energy that can allow you to complete your to-do list for the day without dozing off at your desk.

Ideally, you should consume a mixture of high carbohydrates, low fat, and moderate protein. You should also be sure to divide your daily calories equally among the three meals you eat every day. A light breakfast coupled with a quick lunch and a heavy evening meal is the worst way to distribute your day’s calories. Also, avoid skipping any meal; some women avoid eating breakfast or lunch in hopes of saving some calories, but they are simply keeping their bodies from maintaining the optimum amount of energy for the tasks of the day as well as setting themselves up for a large meal eaten to compensate for being hungry all day.

Many experts recommend eating five smaller meals each day; a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack can provide your body with a much-needed energy boost just as it’s starting to wind down. A careful redistribution of calories can be a great way to maximize your food’s energy-giving potential. Foods rich in vitamin C and in iron are vital for maintaining energy to tackle your day. Foods rich in these nutrients are very helpful, and it’s easy to add them to your diet.

Your mother probably told you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Your mother is right–starting the day with a balanced breakfast rich in protein and complex carbohydrates is vital for giving you enough energy to tackle your day. Dairy products such as milk or yogurt are protein-rich, too, so don’t feel like you have to splurge your day’s calories on traditional breakfast meats such as bacon or sausage. Oatmeal is full of soluble fiber, which slows down the absorption of carbohydrates, ensuring that your blood sugar levels remain constant. Avoid the sweet breakfasts, such as pancakes with syrup. Simple carbohydrates give you a spike of energy, but cause you to crash soon after.

Quick and Easy Ways to Eat Less

If you’re making smarter choices in your daily meals, but you still find you weigh more than you’d like, it’s time to consider the choices you make about food when you’re not paying attention. A little taste of cookie dough, the macaroni and cheese left over on your child’s plate, or the snatched handful of M&M’s as you pass the bowl in your neighbor’s cubicle all add up to thoughtless calories. These additional bits and pieces of food can be eliminated with a few simple changes to your daily habits.

If you are in the habit of nibbling as you bake, simply chew gum while you’re in the kitchen. This will keep your mouth occupied, and you will be far less likely to mindlessly pop the dough into your mouth if it’s full of minty goodness. A sugar-free gum is calorie sensible and it will save you from your usual bad habits. Or, if you’re out of chewing gum, keep a bag of washed baby carrots on the counter next to your mixing bowl. If you find yourself longing for a taste, grab a carrot. They’re delicious, crunchy, and far fewer calories than chocolate-chip cookie dough. They take awhile to properly chew, so by the time you have consumed your carrot the urge to sample the dough will hopefully have passed.

When you overfill your child’s plate, you’re faced with a lot of food that you don’t want to waste. Rather than eat the extra, simply start out with a smaller portion. Teaching your child to dish out just enough food to satiate his or her appetite is a great lesson, and it will save you from your own tendencies to clean the plate. If, despite your best efforts, your child still ends up with excess food on his or her plate, allow your child to clear the plate. Even a child as young as 4 can be responsible for walking a plate into the kitchen and dumping the excess food into the trash.

It’s also wise to keep any tempting snacks out of sight. Keep them wrapped, put them in a difficult-to-reach part of the cupboard, or put them in the drawer in the fridge or the freezer. Studies show that office workers eat significantly less candy from a covered dish than from a similar see-through container without a lid. Steer clear of the office that has the tempting candy dish, or enter the cube only if you’ve got your hands full or your mouth occupied.

Did You Know – Exercising Regularly Can Actually Make Us Immune To Stress

As many of us know there is good and bad stress in life. An angry boss, an argument with your spouse or fears about an upcoming presentation at work are all examples of negative stress. However placing our bodies under positive stress, which can include a 30-minute workout on the treadmill, a hike on the weekend with your family or a bike ride along the coast are all examples of good stress.

Some recent studies have indicated that this good stress can actually help us handle the bad kind.

Here’s the process that happens when you’re hammering it out on the treadmill for 30-40 minutes.

When you first start jogging your body is releasing increased levels of the hormones dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. These are “feel good” hormones that the body uses to improve our mood.

Of course, if you’ve been under a lot of bad stress then before your workout levels of bad hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol would be flowing freely through the body.

So as you begin your workout things are starting to feel better.

Now, after a few more minutes something else interesting happens. The body begins to increase the level of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). A naturally occurring substance in the body which helps repair the damage caused by bad stress in our lives and protect us from emotional disorders.

At this point, you’re feeling pretty good.

New studies are showing that as our workouts boost levels of BDNF and help repair damage caused by ongoing stress in our lives we’re actually becoming in a way “immune” to those negative stressors in our lives.

In effect, we’re better able to cope with the difficulties of everyday life at work and home.

The opposite argument is that those of us who live a more sedentary lifestyle are more likely to be more sensitive to stress in work and home life, and it will impact you for a longer period of time which could lead to a more depressive state.

I know most of us here exercise for fat loss and to help us achieve our six pack abs goal, but making ourselves more immune to stressors which we encounter each and every day isn’t such a bad by-product either if you ask me.

Study Proves Middle Aged Adults Can Lose 44% More Weight When Drinking Water

Every weight loss program I’ve ever read about, that works, has preached the benefits of drinking 6-8 glasses of water each day. The reason was because most of us are slightly dehydrated and without drinking enough water we’re actually holding onto water weight that makes us look and weigh in heavier than we actually should.

I recently read a study on Discovery.com that provided some solid proof that drinking water aids in weight loss.

The study had two groups of middle-aged (55-75 years old) dieters. The first group was instructed to drink two cups of cold water about 30 minutes before every meal. The second group was given water, but no exact instructions on when to consume it.

Each participant was eating no more than 1200-1500 calories a day and  instructed to eat only healthy meals.

The study lasted 12 weeks, and all of the participants were overweight at the beginning of the study.

So what did they find out?

Well, too my surprise, the group that wasn’t instructed to drink water before every meal lost on average about 11 pounds. How did the water drinking group do? They lost an average of 15 and a half pounds, that’s 44% more, and the only difference was that they drink water before every meal.

So what does this tell us?

First off, it screams to us that water plays an important role not only in our hydration but also for maintaining a healthy weight.

Second, it tells us that this produces amazing results for middle-aged individuals, but what about us younger folks?

Well, unfortunately, similar experiments done in younger men and women did not yield such drastic results. There are a couple of potential reasons for this.

• It’s possible the gastro tract of middle-aged individuals clears more slowly than that of younger adults.
• Water may create a “feeling full” effect on older people more so than younger people.

Of course, this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t drink water, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. The benefits are there. Drinking more water means you’re less likely to consume high sugar content fruit juices or sodas, which means fewer calories, and that’s a good thing.

The fewer calories we consume from beverages we drink the better since.