4 Ways Water Controls How Much You Eat

Weight loss is a hard task for anyone. There are so many different elements that go into losing weight it can be like learning a completely new skill. There’s one simple thing that you can do to help regulate how much and what you eat. Drinking water is not a magical cure-all, but it may seem like it after you learn what it can do to help you regulate your eating.

Water Aids Digestion Through Saliva

Digestion starts with saliva. Saliva is made up mostly of water. According to Everyday Health, the enzymes in saliva are the beginning of the digestive tract. These enzymes help break down food so that they can be properly digested in the stomach. Without these food would never be able to be processed in the stomach.

Water also helps break down the fiber. Water-soluble fiber makes you feel full after you eat. If you have not had enough water, or are dehydrated, digesting water-soluble fiber becomes almost impossible. Make sure that you are able to digest this food element properly by drinking lots of water.

Water Soluble Vitamins

One of the reasons that we eat food is to get access to vitamins. Vitamins and minerals are vital for the various body functions. Deficits in these minerals and vitamins can cause cravings in the body. The body just can’t digest certain water-soluble vitamins without enough water in the body.

Water-soluble vitamins are vitamins that can only be absorbed with the aid of water. These vitamins break down with the water in the digestive tract and are absorbed into the body. Absorption of these essential vitamins stops when there is not enough water in the body. When even slight deficiencies are present, you may begin craving additional foods even though you’re not hungry. These cravings are due to vitamin deficiencies and not hunger so make sure that you have enough water so that you can digest all of your water-soluble vitamins.

Eating Fewer Calories

Water can help you eat fewer calories than you would if you didn’t drink water before meals. Livestrong notes a study where participants consumed 75-90 fewer calories drinking 2 8-oz glasses before a meal. Now consuming 90 fewer calories per meal may not seem like a whole lot. However, if you did this every meal you could lose up to 28 pounds a year.

How?

If you save 90 calories a meal, three times a day, that’s 270 calories every day that you’re not eating. If you do this every day for a week, you’re saving 1890 calories.

Continue saving that 90 calories a meal every week for a year, and you’ve saved 98,280 calories. 3500 calories make up a pound. The theory is that a deficit of 3500 calories means 1 pound of weight loss. By saving 98,280 cals you’ve created a pretty big gap, meaning 28 pounds! On the flipside, if you were to continue eating that 90 calories it could be an excess. Therefore, instead of saving yourself you’re actually gaining 28 pounds in a year. All of this weight loss or weight gain is changed by only drinking two 8-ounce glasses of water before each meal.

Hunger And Thirst Cues Are the Same

You may be reaching for a snack when what you should be reaching for is a tall glass of water. The body sends out the exact same signal for hunger as it does for thirst. Many people don’t know how to tell the difference between hunger and thirst, and because we so rarely think about dehydration, we assume that we are hungry. We put on unnecessary weight.

Next time you’re getting hungry signals from your brain try reaching for a glass of water instead. You may find out that you were just thirsty. Now you know four ways that water helps you control how much and what you eat. Helping to stop cravings and eating less, water is a fantastic one-stop shop for your diet solutions.

What are some ways that you’ve noticed how water helps you with your diet?

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