Water for weight loss: when, how much and what kind of water to drink

When all known diets have already been tried, but the desired result has not been achieved, you can try on yourself a world-famous method that will help you lose weight and also cleanse the body. This method was proposed by American naturopath Paul Bragg. Fasting is, according to the author, the key to a healthy body and rapid weight loss. Paul Bragg promoted the use of his own technique for health purposes and successfully applied it to himself. His teachings spread throughout the world.

It has long been proven that a person can live without food for about one month, so do not worry - you are not in danger of dying from hunger. Quite a lot has already been written about water fasting (7 days). The reviews and results, it must be said, are impressive. In the same article, the information will be discussed in more detail for those who are ready to fast in order to achieve a slim figure.

What actually happens in a situation of food refusal with the human body? How to fast on water? How long does this diet last? How to get out of it? We will answer your questions.

Water fasting (7 days): reviews, results

Don’t think that a day or two of fasting will immediately relieve you of extra pounds. If you stop eating for a short period of time, you can only lose a little weight. In this case, it will not be fat that will go away, but excess fluid, which is always present in large quantities in the body of obese people.

Two or three days of fasting will not have the same effect as a longer period of fasting (at least a week). Judging by the reviews, the weight comes off faster in the first two days, then the body adapts to the new conditions, and the fat reserve is used more sparingly. The number of kilograms that you will be able to get rid of cannot be determined in advance. Each person is individual, and it all depends on how long you can maintain such a diet. According to the results of people who have tried this method on themselves, it is clear that about one kilogram is lost per day.

Beneficial properties of water for the body

It can rightfully be called the “elixir of life.” It is present in every cell of the body. It is difficult to overestimate the benefits of this liquid:

1. Moisturizes the skin from the inside, thereby increasing its elasticity and improving color. Without sufficient hydration, the skin dries out and unnecessary wrinkles appear.
2. Helps in weight loss. If water does not enter the body in the required volume, the liver ceases to function normally. And it ends up with an extra couple of folds on the sides.
3. Is a temperature regulator. In summer, during the heat or after an intense workout in the gym, we sweat. Droplets of liquid released onto the surface of the skin help cool the body and protect us from overheating.
4. Serves as a filter - helps remove toxins, waste and other harmful substances from the body.

1. Restores energy and gives strength. Frequent headaches, apathy, fatigue and irritability are all signs that the body is not receiving enough water.
2. Dissolves vitamins and mineral compounds, transferring them to the cells of the body. If there is little fluid intake, this slows down the rate of transport of nutrients. As a result, the cells starve and die. And this leads to problems with metabolism - excess weight appears.
3. Serves as a lubricant for joints. Drinking enough water daily will minimize the likelihood of musculoskeletal problems.

According to Wikipedia, our body is 70% water. This is a compelling reason why you need to go to the kitchen and grab another glass of H2O

What can you drink besides water?

Nothing. You can only drink clean water, preferably spring water. The consumption of juices, herbal infusions, teas and other liquids is strictly prohibited, as they can interfere with the cleansing processes that occur in the body during fasting.

In hot weather, you can drink cool water, but in the cold season it is better to drink warm or slightly hot water. The thing is that a couple of days after the start of the hunger strike, the body begins to feel cold, and cold water only intensifies the chill.

The benefits of water for weight loss

It has long been proven that daily consumption of water helps to avoid all sorts of disruptions in the body. In addition, it promotes weight loss. Of course, you can get rid of fat without changing your drinking regimen, but with water this process will be much faster and easier.

So why is it so important to drink water for weight loss? Water in the human body is involved in a huge number of processes, including metabolic ones. It not only supplies cells with nutrients, but also flushes out waste products from them.

In addition, not a single biochemical process takes place without the participation of water.

In other words, without this fluid, fat breakdown occurs much more slowly than it could be, which, accordingly, will not have the best effect on weight loss. A lack of water will cause the body to begin to lose weight, but not due to a decrease in fat, but due to the burning of muscle mass.

Pay attention!

Burning extra pounds occurs due to the fact that fat is broken down. This process itself is toxic, and toxins, as a rule, negatively affect the entire body as a whole - they poison it. If you follow a diet and do not drink enough water, then lethargy and headaches will become constant companions.

Water is naturally the best cleanser. It removes decay products from the body and thereby normalizes well-being.

Water is also beneficial for weight loss because it can quench thirst, which the body confuses with hunger.

The confusion occurs due to the fact that in the brain the centers responsible for these needs are very close. In most cases, when you want to eat, the body does not need food, but water. The conclusion from all this is the following: you will not exceed the prescribed amount of calories, which means that you will lose weight.

You always want to lose weight quickly, so many people go on strict diets and hunger strikes for this, without following the drinking regime. As a result, a person loses weight, but his appearance leaves much to be desired, and all because all sorts of folds and stretch marks have appeared. Water will help avoid these troubles.

When losing weight, it is very important that the digestive system works like a clock. Saliva, gastric juice and bile - all these fluids cannot be formed in the liver without enough water

If the drinking regime is not observed, the absorption of food is disrupted, resulting in constipation. With such failures, the body puts the loss of extra pounds in the back drawer.

In the fight against extra pounds, all means are good, including sports. During training, the body begins to work much faster than at rest, so the muscles need to be saturated with nutrients and oxygen. The transport role, as is known, is assigned to blood.

If you do not drink enough water, the blood becomes somewhat thicker and begins to perform its functions worse than it should. As a result, the cells starve, which negatively affects overall well-being - a loss of strength occurs, which prevents a full workout.

Calculating the amount of fluid you need to drink daily is quite simple. To do this, it is enough to know your own weight. For 15 kilograms of weight, 0.5 liters of water is required. For example, a person whose weight is 75 kilograms will have a drinking requirement of 2.5 liters.

It’s clear how to calculate the volume of fluid consumed, now it’s worth figuring out what kind of water you need to drink in order to lose weight. First of all, it should be said that the water must certainly be clean.

It is important!

Soda, juice and other drinks cannot be counted toward your drinking allowance, if only because they contain calories. In addition, they help increase appetite, and this should not be allowed when losing weight.

But with weak tea without sugar you can replenish your water “reserves”, but it is still better to give preference to plain clean water, as it quenches thirst much more strongly, which is very important and useful when losing weight. https://www.youtube.com/embed/GhHJ_R3DM0M

The benefits of water for weight loss

One day of water fasting

A one-day fast on water practically does not pose any danger to the body. You can practice it at least every week. You just need to choose a specific day that is suitable for you and give your body a break from food.

This practice will relieve the digestive system and contribute to its healing. Is it possible to lose weight with this regimen? Depends on you. If, after a hungry day, you greedily pounce on food, without understanding what is on your plate, then you are unlikely to be able to lose weight. At the same time, observing moderation in diet the day after the fast will gradually lead you to the desired result.

Why water helps you lose weight

You've probably heard more than once in advice for losing weight that for this process the body needs to receive a sufficient amount of fluid. The recommended daily intake of water depends on your weight; the heavier it is, the higher the given intake.

In fact, it is very easy to calculate how much of this liquid you need to consume per day - for a 15 kilogram of body weight, 0.5 liters is enough for the human body to function normally, that is, someone whose weight is, for example, 60 kilograms needs to drink about two liters

It is very important to remember that water helps you lose weight most effectively only when it replaces all other drinks. First of all, I would like to say that when the human body lacks life-giving moisture, all metabolic processes begin to slow down, the work of which is very important when losing weight

First of all, I would like to say that when the human body lacks life-giving moisture, all metabolic processes begin to slow down, the work of which is very important when losing weight.

A slow metabolism, as a rule, not only will not help you lose excess weight, but, on the contrary, will increase it.

This is why it is imperative to stay hydrated, especially if you are on your way to a slim figure.

Pay attention!

In the human brain, the centers responsible for hunger and thirst are located quite close, so we very often confuse these two completely different desires. Knowing this, it is not difficult to understand the false hunger alarm and replace it with a glass of water. This way, you will not consume extra calories, which will have a positive effect on your figure.

Water, unlike food, does not contain calories, so it will in no way make you gain weight. In other words, water does not saturate the body with any nutrients. Instead, it is involved in a number of chemical reactions that occur in our body, including lipolysis, the process of breaking down fat.

Also, this life-giving moisture takes part in a process such as cellular metabolism. Due to the sufficient supply of water during cellular metabolism, all accumulated toxins that interfere with its normal functioning are removed from the cell.

Very often, with accelerated weight loss, people encounter such a problem as sagging skin. By drinking the required amount of water, this problem will either resolve itself before it occurs, or will make the process milder.

As you probably noticed, the role of water in losing weight is not at all exaggerated. Thanks to this simple liquid, a person will not only become beautiful, but also healthy.

What happens to the human body during a hunger strike

The human body is a smart and perfect system. A week of fasting sets into motion many complex processes that are aimed at cleansing and healing all organ systems.

Already on the second day, when refusing food, the secretion of the gastrointestinal tract changes - gastric juice stops secreting, and the organ itself is filled with proteins and unsaturated fatty acids. They, in turn, activate the neurohormone cholecystokinin, which suppresses the feeling of hunger.

When refusing food, a person may experience headache, weakness, sleep disturbance, nausea and sometimes even vomiting. Fats are broken down, and a week later the so-called acidotic crisis occurs, and the body completely switches to internal nutrition.

After the acidotic crisis has passed, your health improves, your headache and dizziness go away, and you feel a surge of strength. Now daily weight loss is about 500 grams per day. This pace continues until the end of the hunger strike.

The secret to efficiency

It’s worth mentioning right away that the benefits of water for weight loss are not a circumstance contrived by users, the importance of which is exaggerated by nutritionists. This is a scientifically proven fact, confirmed by many laboratory studies, during which it was found that with regular and abundant drinking, very important processes for weight loss occur in the body:

• metabolism accelerates by 20%, which leads to the breakdown of fats, rather than storing them in reserve;
• the body is saturated with various microelements that are contained in water and take an active part in metabolism: calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, fluorine, sodium, etc.;
• hunger is effectively satisfied: if you want to eat, drink a healing liquid - and you will last much longer without food, so you definitely won’t be in danger of overeating during such weight loss;
• a glass drunk shortly before a meal reduces the amount of serving that a person is able to eat on a still full stomach - accordingly, calorie consumption is automatically reduced;
• urination becomes more frequent (especially in the first days of such a water diet), and along with urine, unnecessary salts, toxins and carcinogens leave the body, which could remain on the body in the form of unpleasant folds;
• ensures good health, which has become an almost incompatible concept with diets: with this method of losing weight, you will not feel a decrease in performance and attention, or irritability, which are characteristic of almost any hunger strike;
• the body feels that it is supplied with moisture in sufficient quantities and ceases to retain fluid in the tissues - accordingly, swelling, which makes up a significant percentage of excess weight, disappears.

This is the actual role of water in losing weight: a lot of advantages without any disadvantages. When studying information about such an unusual diet, you will not find a list of contraindications and side effects. Of course, we are talking about a healthy attitude towards such a technique. If you fanatically drink 5 or even 4 liters a day instead of the prescribed 1.5-2, the body will resist such violence with indigestion, which will then take a very long time to recover.

Therefore, it is so important to know the basic postulates of this technique and follow some of its rules - again, to maintain health and more effective weight loss.

Facts are just facts. Water does not have fat-burning properties, but it still helps to lose weight due to two factors. Firstly, if you consume only it during the day, high-calorie drinks - sweet juices and sodas - are automatically excluded from your diet. Secondly, after it you don’t crave sweets at all, which usually happens after tea or coffee.

How to properly prepare for fasting

Fasting on water for 3 days or less does not require any special preparation. The main thing here is willpower, firmness of intention and determination. But longer-term refusal of food needs a serious approach. About a week before the hunger strike, give up heavy fatty foods: meat, hot spices and alcohol. It is best to follow a dairy-vegetable diet.

Before the first day of the hunger strike, you should carry out a bowel cleansing procedure.

Breaking out of fasting

A very important point of this diet is that you need to know how to break fast correctly. You should return to the normal regime gradually, for about the same number of days as the hunger strike itself lasted. That is, if you practiced water fasting for 7 days, reviews and results from other people claim that restoring your diet should last exactly a week. The gradual exit from fasting can be described as follows.

1. On the first day after the end of the hunger strike, you can only eat natural juice. It is desirable that it be fruit and vegetable, diluted with water in a one to one ratio.
2. On the second day, undiluted juice and vegetable and fruit purees in small quantities are allowed.
3. On the third day, in addition to pureed fruits and vegetables, you can allow yourself to eat porridge cooked in water, with a small amount of bread, as well as some dried fruits.
4. On the fourth day, in addition to all of the above, vegetarian soups using a small amount of vegetable oil are allowed to be consumed.
5. On the fifth day, you can already afford some fermented milk products, for example, kefir or fermented baked milk.
6. On the sixth day, you can add sour cream, a little cheese and salt to your diet.
7. On the seventh day, it is permissible to eat low-fat cottage cheese and eggs.

After a week of recovery, you can gradually begin to eat chicken, fish and other foods.

As you can see, with a diet such as water fasting, the solution turns out to be no less difficult for a person than the process of fasting itself.

Water diet

The recommended duration of such a fat burning program is 3-4 weeks. You can’t do it longer, otherwise there will be a heavy load on the excretory system. If desired, you can repeat the course a month later.

There are several methods that allow you to calculate how much water you need to drink daily on this diet:

1. In the first option, you need to divide the weight by 20. Let's say, if you weigh 60 kg, then your norm is 3 liters.
2. The second option is to use 30-40 ml of liquid per kilo of weight. According to this scheme, if you weigh 60 kg per day, you need to drink up to 2.4 liters of water.

As you can see, daily figures vary. The advice of a nutritionist will help you avoid making mistakes with the norm. Before going on a water diet, visit a specialist. Taking into account the characteristics of your body, he will calculate the optimal daily fluid intake for you.

Just drink a refreshing liquid in the morning. You should also drink half an hour before meals and 1.5-2 hours after a meal. Thanks to this regimen, the volume of consumed portions of food is reduced and metabolism is accelerated. The benefits of such a diet are considerable. This video will tell you more about it:

However, if you want to lose a significant amount of weight, you'll have to do a lot more than just drink water. After all, this is only one, very small piece of the puzzle. You can't do without moderate physical activity.

To maintain the results obtained, drink at least 1.5-2 liters of water per day. This is 6-8 glasses. Absorb life-giving moisture in the same mode as during the diet. That is, in the morning on an empty stomach, half an hour before meals, etc.

Rules of conduct during fasting

If you are completely healthy, you will tolerate fasting quite well. But there are a number of conditions that must be met.

In addition to observing the drinking regime, it is also necessary to do cleansing enemas every day. This procedure helps remove waste products from the rectum. If you refuse to do an enema, toxins will be absorbed into the blood, and this can cause self-poisoning of the body. An equally important point during fasting is taking a shower every day.

When refusing food, it is better to lead an active lifestyle, spend time outside more often, but under no circumstances lie on the sofa in a confined space. And, as already written above, do not forget that during a fast on the water, a person will feel cold, so you should dress a little warmer than usual. Well, as with any other diet, you should avoid stressful situations if you practice water fasting.

Contraindications

Important! Independent fasting at home is recommended to be practiced only by absolutely healthy people, regardless of the reasons for which it was decided to resort to this method: to improve well-being or to lose weight.

Therapeutic fasting is completely contraindicated for people with diseases such as active tuberculosis, severe pathologies of the heart, blood, malignant tumors, type I diabetes mellitus, bronchiectasis, thyrotoxicosis, thrombophlebitis, underweight, in the post-infarction period, during pregnancy and during breastfeeding.

Also, relative contraindications are for people suffering from type II diabetes mellitus, gout, cholelithiasis, hypotension, peptic ulcer disease, chronic venous insufficiency, and are also in childhood or old age.

Field Bragg technique

American doctor Paul Bragg fasted every week for 24 to 36 hours at intervals of 7-10 days, drinking only distilled water. At the same time, the man was actively moving and taking walks in the fresh air. Bragg looked great and was in excellent athletic shape even in his old age.

Bragg advised starting with a three-day fast in conditions of complete calm. These days you may feel slightly dizzy, so you need to make sure you can lie down in advance. Also during this period it is not recommended to watch TV, read, listen to the radio or talk on the phone. It is necessary to exclude physical activity and, if necessary, not even leave the house, sleep more. At the same time, Bragg did not recommend using enemas, calling it unnatural:

I don’t believe in any kind of violence against nature, and the use of enemas, in my opinion, is mostly unnatural. The same applies to taking any type of laxative. The intestines have their own sanitary and antiseptic agents, and the remaining food that was in the intestines before the fast begins will be neutralized before the end of the fast. The excretory system of nature is perfect if its natural work is not interfered with. When you finish your fast, start eating foods that are well-balanced in volume, moisture, and viscosity. And you will see that your intestines will begin to work better than ever because at least fifty percent of your diet has become natural, consisting of raw fruits and vegetables in the form of salads. Eat more greens and vegetables. Meat and fish should not be eaten more than three times a week. The need for proteins will be satisfied through nuts, seeds and vegetables. The bread you eat should be dried until the starch turns into sugar, which is easily digestible. After fasting, it is good to eat sprouted wheat grains - this is a very healthy food.

Bragg died at the age of 95 from a windsurfing accident. According to legend, when pathologists opened his body, they found organs like those of a young man.

Negative and positive reviews about fasting

Even in ancient times, people knew about the absolute benefits of fasting on water. Doctors and specialists have studied and continue to study the mechanisms of this method. Considerable experience has been accumulated in using this diet to get rid of certain diseases and to normalize body weight. Judging by the reviews of people who have tried this method, following the instructions for preparing for a change in diet, and knowing how to get out of fasting, they were more than satisfied with the result.

But there are also negative reviews. This is mainly due to the fact that mistakes were made during the diet, and the exit from fasting was carried out incorrectly. So before you try this method on yourself, it’s worth studying the theory better, which will help you do everything right in the future.