weight loss and water

Make water your beverage of choice, and favor foods that fill you up without excess calories.

Secret weapon: Drink water before eating for extra weight loss.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—There is no shortage of weight-loss potions, pills, herbs, and other products. And many of them will cost you an arm and a leg without helping you shed pounds. But a new study of the connection between weight loss and water points to H20 as a secret weight-loss weapon that's been around all along, and costs almost nothing. As reported in the latest issue of the journal Obesity, dieters who drank a large glass of water before each meal lost significantly more weight than dieters who didn't drink water before meals.

THE DETAILS: The study of weight loss and water followed 48 overweight or obese older adults over a 12-week period, during which each subject was put on a low-calorie diet. One group drank 16 ounces of water before each meal, while a second group drank no water before meals. Researchers measured the subjects' body weight each week and found that both groups lost weight steadily over the study period. However, at the end of 12 weeks, the nonwater group lost an average of 11 pounds, whereas the water group lost 15 pounds—a 44 percent relative improvement among the water-drinkers.

Read on for more about the connection between drinking water and weight loss.