Visitors
Click on any Link for more Information
What our Members have learned from taking it off
The ABC's of Weight Loss Terms
Diet Reviews for an indepth look and additional links
Water, Water and MORE Water!!!
Please consult with your Doctor before starting any diet plan
Water Water Everywhere! The miracle drink that could change your life.
Looking
for a quick fix? Want to lose weight, look younger, have more energy, and
stronger muscles? Water is the miracle elixir you are searching for. You
may know that you’re supposed to drink 8 glasses of water a day. You may
know that this is important to be healthy, have good skin, prevent
dehydration, and lose weight. But why does it make you healthy? Why does
it improve your ability to lose weight? Do you really need 8 glasses a
day? What
Water Can Do For You
Like
most people, I am only interested in something if I believe it will
enhance or benefit my life in some way. Humans are selfish, and this is an
important trait for survival. So read on to learn about what water as a
nutrient can do for you. Water
does for your body what it does for your house. Water flushes waste
products away from your house, it cleans your house, and it cooks the food
that nourishes you. While water doesn’t cook anything in your body, it
is the highway that your food’s nutrients drive on to get to your cells.
Water
is essential to digestion of proteins and carbohydrates. Without water,
your body cannot perform the chemical process necessary to extract
nutrients Water
keeps you at a healthy 98.6 degrees. If you’ve ever waited impatiently
for a pot of water to boil, you know that water’s temperature changes
very slowly. This action regulates your body’s temperature, releasing
(sweating) or retaining heat at a healthy rate. Water
helps to keep you trim. It is the magic potion for weight loss,
coming to you right out of your kitchen tap. Your liver converts fat to
energy, but another of its jobs is to help the kidneys. Kidneys need a lot
of water. If the kidneys don’t have enough water to do their job, your
liver picks up the slack. This means your liver cannot quickly or
efficiently metabolism fat, impeding weight loss. If you drink enough,
your liver can go back to performing all it’s duties at maximum level. Water
makes you look young. It fills out your skin cells, plumping up saggy
skin; it clears away impurities, giving you a youthful glow; it improves
muscle tone because your muscles are mostly water. How
much do I need?
Alright,
so you are convinced now that water is a miracle potion, and people
absolutely must get enough. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to determine
how much water you should be getting. If
you truly lead a sedentary lifestyle (you’re bedridden or have severely
impaired movement), your body probably doesn’t need 8 glasses a day, 6
could do it. But if you move at any point throughout the day, you need 8
eight-ounce glasses or more. That’s right, more. You
lose water constantly all day long, and the human body does not possess
the ability to produce its own water supply. Therefore, you must replace
the water. You lose water sweating (you may not notice this), exhaling,
urinating, and bowel movements. It isn’t enough to simply drink when you
are thirsty; by the time you feel the sensation of thirst, you are already
dehydrated. 8 eight-ounce glasses a day is a good baseline for women, 9
eight-ounce glasses for men. If
you exercise, you need to increase your water intake. A good way to figure
out how much to consume is to weight yourself before and after your
workout. If you weigh less at the end of your workout than you did at the
beginning, you’ve lost water weight. Drink enough extra water during the
workout so that your weight remains stable. You
could also use an online hydration calculator like the one at the end of
this article Could
I ever drink too much?
Unlikely,
but possible. If you are an elite athlete or a long-distance
runner/cyclist, you could develop a condition know as “water
intoxication.” The huge amounts of water the athlete consumes during an
athletic event causes blood plasma to increase, diluting salt levels in
the body. The athlete is also losing salt through his sweat, so the amount
of salt available to the body is decreasing on two levels. There aren’t
always any symptoms of this condition (confusion, weakness), but most
athletes can avoid it by drinking a sports drink containing sodium during
sporting events.
Even
if you aren’t an athlete, but workout for extended periods of time or in
extreme heat, this condition could affect you. Adding a little fruit juice
to your water or drinking a diluted sports drink can help prevent water
intoxication. Remember
that it is very unhealthy to consume half or all of your daily water
allowance in one sitting. Your body may not need that much water all at
once, and you could still end up dehydrated when the kidneys flush away
the excess water. Drink a glass or two at specific times throughout the
day and during exercise. During
the first few days or weeks of increasing your water consumption, you can
expect to run to the toilet more often. It will go away, however, as your
body corrects its fluid balance. What happens in the beginning is that
your body begins to flush out waste and extra water it has been holding
onto. You may notice a drop on the scale as you let go of retained water,
so called “water weight.” Once your body becomes used to receiving
adequate amounts of water, it will not hang on to extra fluid, and the
detoxification process eventually ceases. So stick with it! Is
bottled really better?
No.
In fact it is worse in a lot of cases. Purified water (essentially
filtered tap water) lacks the minerals present in regular spring, ground,
or tap water. If you want to drink bottled water, make sure it is natural
spring or ground water or has had minerals added back into the water after
purification. Bottled
water is very expensive, especially if you need to drink 64 ounces or more
a day. Tap water is practically free. Plus it has the added bonus of
fluoride, an added mineral (done by the municipal water system) which
protects your teeth from cavities.
ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE EMAIL THE MODERATORS
|
|
Members
Don't forget to weigh in BEFORE each Sunday
