We did the math on the "ice cube diet" in high school physics; the energy required to melt the ice was only a few calories. Not the Kilocalories listed on food labels- actual calories 1/1000th of that unit.
If there's an effect here, it's not from heating the water.
When I diet/track calories I def load up on water to help. And for me - it does work very well.
1 cubic inch is 2.54 * 2.54 * 2.54 = 16.4 cc = 16.4 grams. 1 F = 5/9 C. The heat capacity of water is 1 cal/gm.C. So the number of calories is 16.4 * 5/9= 9.1
9.1 cal / F / cubic inch * ( 98 F - 34 F) = 582 cal / cubic inch
Edit: Yes, I realize 1 Cal = 1000 cal, I just wanted to clarify the math.
1ml of water weights 1 gram, and raising this ml of water one degree celsius is 1 (little c) calorie.
Drinking 1 ml of ice water (at about 0 degrees celsius) and raising it to body temperature (at about 37 degrees celsius) thus takes about 37 (little c) calories.
Thus drinking a liter of ice cold water would consume about 37 (big C) Calories.
A grand total of 1.8kcal per ice cube. Only 1000 ice cubes and you could eat twice as much as usual!
At around 16 liters of water once melted that would be an interesting Darwin Award for sure.
Then we calculated how much liquid nitrogen you'd have to drink to offset a 2000 kcal basal metabolic rate. The volume wasn't shocking-- under 10 L, if I remember correctly. We decided it wouldn't be a very healthy diet, though.
Step 1: Count every calorie you consume. If you don't know the exact amount of a dish, do your best. Apps like MyFitnessPal make this easier.
Step 2: Limit that amount to 1500 calories per day.
Step 3: Weigh yourself everyday first thing in the morning, and only look at rolling 7 day averages at least. Daily fluctuations don't matter.
Step 4: After 2 weeks, see how much you've lost (if any). If you've lost more than 1% of your body weight per week, raise that 1500 number. If you've lost less than 1% per week, lower that 1500 number.
Repeat until satisfied!
How can you make this easier?
1. Eat things that are filling with fewer calories. Think vegetables and protein. Stay away from things that aren't filling and have a lot of calories. Think candy bars. Water helps too, as the article says.
2. Walk/run. This will burn calories efficiently and if you attach a fit bit to it, you can incorporate the calories burned into your 1500 number above. Weight lifting doesn't burn many calories, though it's nice for your overall health of course.
This overall strategy lets you drink a beer if you want, or have that piece of cake. Just count every calorie and you're good to go. Even if you don't hit the number every day, log it anyway as a habit.
The only think I'd change is that starting with only 1500 calories a day might not make sense, it really depends on your starting weight / calorie consumption. Someone regularly consuming 3500 calories will have a really hard time going down to 1500, plus they'd lose way more muscle mass than they otherwise could.
I'd advise tracking calories for a week, then just eating 500 calories lower for two weeks as a start.
- You should drink water.
- Before or after?
- Instead.
Same goes for weight loss I presume. If you can fill your belly with water, you can delay your next meal more easily.
e.g. Switching up meal timings after eating consistently for a while, or stopping my morning coffee, or a sudden reduction in water intake, etc.
I think what works best (for me) is to have a varied approach where you don't stick to one schedule/program.
I used to attribute my ability to focus clearly when flying to the lack of distractions but I think a large part is also the unfinished water bottles I inadvertently end up drinking before going through security.
- lips are chapped
- skin feels especially warm to the touch
- moreso if skin is reddish or clammy
- droopy, tired eyes
- sticky tongue, “clicky” speech
- persistent sniffing, a dry nose
- difficult defecation
It’s amazing how quickly a large amount of water will make these conditions go away and boost mood and energy. If I find myself thinking particularly grouchy thoughts I feel my forehead, and if feels warm relative to my hand I know I need to hydrate. I try to go and get a big glass of water, drink it, then refill it and go back to my desk. Too many times I’ve got up and gotten water only to come back to my station with an already empty cup.
I used to never drink water. After having some health issues for about a week, I swore off sugary sodas (except for a few a week when eating out). I also started walking 4 miles every other day. I now drink about 50% diet soda and 50% water.
I've lost 35 pounds in 3 months.
I don't snore anymore, I don't get constant heartburn anymore, my skin in clear and I no longer take naps every afternoon. I think the water has enabled me to reduce my meals to one, maybe two a day, instead of 3, and I am never that hungry.
The major click bait of the title is that water causes weight loss. It in fact does not. It just helps curb your appetite in ways that cause a caloric deficit.
in addition I've found my body abilty to handle dehydration drops with age, this is magnified with the day after drinking alcohol - drink water
for me, I go for a minimum of about 1 litre/ 1.75 uk pints/ 2 US pints first thing in the morning, then the same again around 2pm and then about a litre in the evening (soda based)
I can only do this if the water is at room temperature (I'm UK based so not hot here)
something the article does not say is that food has a lot of water in it as well - think soup or eating tomatoes etc.. also adds massively to your daily in take
Any diet advice or strategies are just ways to achieve that. Keto, low carb, intermittent fasting, whatever. It's all just getting you to consume fewer calories than you burn. Often it gets you to feel full with fewer calories so you don't overeat. It's easy to see how drinking more water falls into all of this.
However, anything claiming to switch around body chemistry or change your metabolism is either wrong or micro optimizing.
Edit: People are getting very hyped up about my comment. To be clear:
- I'm not hating on the article. I said in my post that it's easy to see how drinking water helps when you understand what causes weight changes.
- I'm not hating on Keto and Intermittent fasting or whatever. They work, and they largely work because you end up consuming fewer calories than you burn. It's not largely because of some change in your body's chemistry.
- It's harder to lose weight eating shittier food because it often doesn't make you full, causing you to eat more. Eating 1200 calories of chocolate bars a day will (often for most people) make you lose weight, it just won't feel very good doing it. That's why what you eat is just as important as how many calories you consume.
People seem to desperately want some trick to losing weight that isn’t “eat less food.” It won’t be forthcoming. You can’t trick your body into losing weight. We are adapted to scarcity, but food is not scarce.
Until they do they are susceptible to many get rich (or slim) quick schemes and dreaming they can eat their cake and have it too.
You may go into details once you firmly internalize the base. Not before.
When I began Keto, several intelligent and well-meaning friend made that exact same comment. A year later they are asking me what is the best way to start and stay on keto ;)
Genetics and medication might affect your appetite, metabolism, water retention levels, fat storage areas, ect., but at the end of the day one only needs to know one number and follow one rule to lose fat:
Number: Daily caloric expenditure
Rule: Consume items with fewer total calories than the above number
Measure weekly for best results.
Daily caloric expenditure can be approximated with heart rate data over a day and your height & weight.
The exact weight lost if it's only fat will be 1lb per 3500 kcal deficit.
You must consume 2g of protein daily per lb of muscle (approximating this requires calipers) to not lose muscle mass.
Water weight will vary, but over a week the number ought to go down if you're eating at an actual deficit.
You'll see the results in the mirror after a month if you actually do the above.
Of course. And your body is a dynamic system that changes how and where it uses and stores energy based on the source of the energy. Your body responds differently to 100 calories of table sugar compared to 100 calories of nuts.
I _lost_ weight by increasing the amount of food I was eating. Obviously this means that I had to start burning or otherwise shedding more calories otherwise we broke physics. It is important to note that "losing weight is just consuming fewer calories than you burn" is not the same as "eat less and you'll lose weight" since eating less can cause your dynamic system to require less calories.
A lot of people consumed more calories in their 20s and 30s than later in life. Yet in their 40s and 50s they gain weight, with the same sedentary lifestyle or even after taking up a sport.
Something is missing in your equation ...
... Then all changed very abruptly (there was little transition, on the order of weeks). Basically had to get used to being hungry most of the time, to keep from shooting toward obese territory. Sucks. I mean, the stuff I was eating as a teenager was going to kill me early in life anyway so it's good I don't do that anymore (so much pizza, snack food, fried food, and soda) but I'm not sure I appreciated, at the time, how special it was to be able to down a large pizza, a couple orders of fries, a couple liters of soda, a bag of chips [edit: and not a single-serve bag...], a snickers, plus a pile of toast or eggo waffles, day after day after day, and still look quite good at the swimming pool.
There are a large number of factors that go into some people seeming to be able to eat large numbers of calories while others can't despite similar expenditures that we're still figuring out, but if you want a 100% guaranteed way to lose weight it is this: track your calories and make sure you eat fewer than you expend. If you want to keep it off, don't eat more than you expend.
Source: lost >150lbs and kept it off until this pandemic fiasco where I put about 30 of it back on.
As noted by others, this is simple. It is not necessarily easy. We're still working on figuring out why some people find it easy and others don't. Gut microbiome science seems promising.
Also, metabolic rate slows down with age.
But the equation is the same: calories in - calories out = calories kept.
Calories in vs calories out is nothing more than the second law of thermodynamics.
"As much"? Are you joking? This is why America is overly obese. So many people like you make weight loss seem so complicated when it's not.
CICO is the vast vast vast vast vast majority of the situation. You can completely ignore hormones and such and JUST pay attention to CICO and you'll lose weight 99.9% of the time.
Remaining fully sedentary and running a 1000 calorie deficit isn't maintaining a diet, it's starving yourself. You'll get the weight back as soon as you call the diet a success and go back to your 'default' lifestyle.
(This of course doesn't apply to everyone: medical reasons, disability, etc.)
Calories are calories. There are other mechanisms involved as far as general health and satiety, but at the end of the day CICO is king.
So I think they'd have the same effect for weight loss, but maybe not health, and probably not quality of life (I think the person eating candy bars would feel pretty lousy).
You can look up stories of people losing weight by counting calories and eating nothing but candy bars.
> It's easy to see how drinking more water falls into all of this.
If you are 800 calories, and burnt 1100, you would lose weight slower than if you ate 900 and burnt 1300.
