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How Does Daily Water Consumption Affect your Overall Weight Loss

If you’re here, chances are you suspect that weight loss and hydration are closely related. You guessed it! Dehydration slows down fat loss. In today’s article, I want to break down the science behind hydration and weight loss. We all hear this before: “drink more water – it’s good for your health, drink more water – it’s going to help you stay in shape, drink more water – it will help you burn fat.” While that is all true, I want to explain how it works.

By the end of this article, you will learn why dehydration hinders fat loss and why it’s so crucial to stay hydrated. However, when I talk about hydration, I don’t just mean drinking water. I mean taking extra steps to be hydrated and get the proper mineral balance for your body. And finally, I’m going to give you an easy tip to make sure you make the most out of your hydration! This tip will help you retain water in the right places, prevent bloating, and stay well-hydrated to burn fat.

How dehydration affects the liver’s ability to burn fat

 

When we burn fat for fuel, our liver has a key role: breaking down fatty acids. Thus, the liver processes fats and either turns them into energy or excretes them. Here’s the thing, when you’re dehydrated, the kidneys stop working well. Therefore, the kidneys can’t properly filter out toxins because they’re not getting enough fluid to do so.

This means they are forced to slow down, meaning that now the liver has to save the day and assist the kidneys. So, now the liver has to do part of the kidneys’ work. Thus, the liver takes a part of the load, as if it were babysitting the kidney, instead of taking care of its own business. This ends up taking away its potential to burn fat. What happens when you’re dehydrated is you’re stripping the liver of its ability to burn fat.

How Dehydration affects your endocrine system

The endocrine system is a set of organs and tissues in the body, which secrete hormones. The endocrine system is key to help us maintain a healthy hormonal balance. Our hormones control the most important body functions, such as growth and development, metabolism and ability to burn calories, energy levels, memory and focus, mood, and the reproductive system.

There’s also a reason, from an endocrinology standpoint, as to why hydration matters. Human growth hormone, produced by the brain’s pituitary gland, is responsible for increasing height and muscle mass, reducing body fat, and controlling metabolism.

When we are dehydrated, our brain becomes dehydrated too. This means that it won’t function properly, and not only you’ll have a hard time focusing at work, but your pituitary gland will not secrete or signal enough human growth hormone. As we know, growth hormone binds to receptor cells, causing triglycerides to mobilize and become utilized. In other words, it helps shrinks the fat cell. So, growth hormone burns fat. And being dehydrated takes away from your body’s ability to produce this miraculous hormone, thus hindering your fat-burning capacity.

The link between dehydration and obesity

Another reason why being dehydrated is terrible for weight loss is closely related to measurable data. A recent study pulled key data from an older analysis. In this study, researchers were able to pinpoint dehydration and obesity by comparing data from obese patients’ urine samples from the National Health and Nutrition Exam Survey over the years. The urine samples measured how dehydrated they were, and the study concluded that a third of them were dehydrated.

The study also found out that being dehydrated increased the risk of being obese by nine times! After observing 9,500 participants, the researchers found that obese participants were also dehydrated.

A few recommendations to stay properly hydrated and boost your natural fat burning process

 

By now, you might be probably wondering what you can do to stay hydrated? Although the answer seems pretty straightforward: drink more water, in reality, there’s more to it. What you want to do is to start implementing strategic actions to maximize your hydration effectively. So, here are few tips you can implement right away.

Rise and drink!

First thing in the morning, you’re sleepy and run towards the coffee machine. WRONG! Before you run to get a cup or two of coffee to kick-start your day, drink one to two glasses of water. The worst you can do right at the start of the day is to start with coffee.

Spice it up!

Add pink Himalayan salt to your water. Now, don’t freak out! People tend to be so afraid of salt because they think it’s going to bloat them. However, small strategic amounts won’t! Besides, we need the minerals present in salt to survive! In reality, a lack of salt increases the chances of becoming dehydrated.

I know this may sound counterintuitive but bear with me. Here’s why: If you don’t consume enough salt, your body will eventually retain water in an attempt to hold on to whatever little bits of sodium it can. Since water contains sodium, your body will hold on to it, causing you to get bloated. So, add a bit of salt, and your body will excrete the excess water. Add an excess of salt, and the opposite happens. It’s all about balance!

Get a big bottle!

Probably the main tip to not forget to drink your water is to get used to always carrying a big bottle of water with you. Make sure your bottle has at least 1-liter capacity, and take it everywhere with you, wherever you go. Keep zipping throughout the day, and remember, stainless steel or glass are the best materials!.

Final Thoughts

It’s not rocket science, so we all understand that drinking water is overall good for our health, not just to lose weight. But if you’re drinking all the water but still need help to lose weight, you can book your free consultation with me, and together we’ll achieve your goals!

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