What is Water Diet?
A water diet is a nutrition model devoted to people who want to get rid of excess weight. It is based on the well-known origins of wholesome eating, not drinking water alone. According to the name, its essential policy is hydration, with an additional caloric deficit. What can you eat during a water diet?
Water diet – principles
Many nutritional recommendations can be found under the phrase water diet. Some of them belong to very limiting methods such as total water fasting, which is guarded by a large number of liquids drunk. Such solutions should not, however, be treated as a sound strategy for weight loss.
What’s more, a diet on water alone can be a severe health risk for some people. At the same time, it is evident that adequate hydration of the body is an essential factor in keeping health. The most popular nutrition strategy performing under the name of the water diet assumes the use of sufficient fluid intake as a factor affecting the level of satiety, metabolism rate, and overall human well-being in the process of effective weight loss. Its rules include:
- drinking at least 8 glasses of water, preferably mineral, still water every day.
- drinking water in small sips, slowly throughout the day.
- eluding one-time consumption of large amounts of water.
- drinking 30 minutes before the first and each consequent meal a glass of mineral water – it is allowed to add lemon juice or mint leaves to it.
- drinking 1.5 hours after each meal a glass of mineral water.
- consumption of a glass of water 30 minutes before bedtime.
- drinking water whenever you feel hungry.
- avoiding sipping meals.
Other assumptions of the water diet include the expenditure of a large number of vegetables, the presence of fruit, whole grains, and lean meats, and fish. They should be consumed slowly until a slight feeling of satiety is obtained. It is recommended to avoid eating your fill and snacking between meals.
The water diet gives effects after the first week of use. They mainly result from a reduction in the expense of energy consumed. There is no definite answer to the question of how much weight you can lose on a water diet. It depends in no small extent on the energy deficit generated, but also on the first bodyweight of the person using it.
It is worth memorizing that already drinking the only water it may facilitate the regulation of hunger and satiety mechanisms, which serves the slimming process.
Indicated and Contraindicated products
The water diet bases its policies on the commonly known rules of healthy eating. Promotes the consumption of unprocessed, seasonal and nutrient-rich foods. Answering the question, what can you eat during a water diet is worth considering:
- whole-grain cereal products
- vegetables – in large quantities
- fruit – limited to 2-3 servings per day
- lean meat such as poultry
- fish
- lean or full-fat dairy products
- pods
- nuts and seeds in limited quantities.
It should be remembered that this model of nutrition especially maintains drinking water. This can be considered a huge plus because this recommendation is most often used by slimming people pushed into the background. Many people wonder, so what can’t you eat on a water diet? The foods that should be excluded during this include:
- fast food
- unhealthy snacks like crackers, chips, sticks,
- sweets,
- sugar,
- sweetened drinks,
- hard-to-eat, fatty, fried foods,
- salt.
The calorific value of the diet should be determined individually concerning the energy demand resulting from factors such as gender, age, height, weight, state of health, or the level of physical activity. The critical issue, however, is the need to generate an energy deficit that will enable the release of fat stores.
Drinking water and slimming
Water in the human diet plays a significant role. It is necessary for conveying digestion and thermoregulation processes, takes part in the absorption and transport of nutrients, or ensures joint mobility by entering into the synovial fluid. It is also an essential element of slimming itself.
Scientific research suggests that an adequate level of intake of non-calorie or low-calorie fluids is conducive to reducing the number of calories consumed, which leads to weight loss. It is estimated that the energy value of the menu with increased fluid intake may be lower by up to 15 percent.
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Displacing sugar-rich juices and drinks with water makes it possible to achieve an energy deficit with relatively small patient involvement. Some studies also suggest that boosting water intake stimulates lipolysis, i.e., the breakdown of triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol. This is most likely due to the lack of effect of this fluid consumption on insulin levels that inhibit the breakdown of triacylglycerols.
It matters when we talk about water consumption between meals, but also to the feeds themselves.
As the study shows, water consumption has an impact on physiological reactions changing the body’s energy metabolism. Probably this involves the activation of the thoughtful part of the autonomic nervous system. It leads to an increase in glucose uptake by cells, activates lipolysis, and contributes to the acceleration of the metabolic rate.
In addition, the consumption of water before or during a meal reduces the feeling of hunger and increases the feeling of satiety. Various studies have shown that dietary interventions involving the use of reduction diets with increased water intake give better results in the form of weight loss than just using caloric restrictions. So the answer to the question of whether drinking water helps you lose weight sounds like that.
Is a water diet safe for health?
Many people ask themselves whether the water diet is healthy? When assessing its principles, it should be emphasized that it serves an essential recommendation regarding the proper hydration of the body. This is an important element not only in the context of the proper functioning of the system but also in relation to the results of weight reduction.
Adequate water consumption reduces appetite, has a beneficial effect on the metabolic rate, and thus on fat burning. If we support this fundamental dietary principle with regular meals consisting of vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, and fish with meals with an appropriate caloric deficit, we can safely consider the water diet as beneficial to the health of most people with excessive body weight.
However, it is worth stressing that starvation as one of the types of this type of diet is not a reasonable long-term strategy for reducing body fat. To sum up, drinking water while losing weight is particularly important, but it will not replace rational changes in the menu itself.
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