The cheapest, easiest way to diet may be to actually watch what you drink. New research has found that drinking two cups of water before a meal helped participants lose an average of 4 lbs.
It’s long been claimed that drinking water before a meal will help you feel full, reducing calorie intake. But it might also help by providing enough water for cells to process the nutrients better. (It’s also said that warm/room temperature water with lemon during a meal is best for digestion, while cold drinks are less than ideal).
Water isn’t the only thing that you can change in your drink-diet: feel free to drink the full calorie/fat version of your favorite flavored drinks. Sound crazy? Study after study has shown that people who drink low fat soda are more likely to be overweight, and now a new study has found that the same applies to skim and 1% milk. While past researchers have accounted for the difference by suggesting that diet soda drinkers tend to consume far more than people who drink regular soda (i.e., drinking it all the time rather than as a treat), the milk researchers suggest that the low fat/sugar version might actually fail to provide the same satisfaction, prompting calorie consumption in other ways.
Finally, watch your juice consumption. Because it’s healthy in one way (fiber, antioxidants, vitamins) people tend to forget it’s less healthy in another (tons of sugar). Save juice for dessert (you can make a delicious ice cream float with it for a healthy twist on the classic), or drink one glass worth over the course of the day heavily watered down (this is especially great if you hate the taste of water, or need to get used to it after drinking sugar drinks).
Of course, you could just switch to tea—as long as you don’t add sugar/honey, you can get antioxidants AND flavor sans the calories!
What do you drink?
