Drink more water, lose more weight?

Dieters who drink more water have greater weight loss, according to a new review of several prior studies.

Researchers said there is not yet enough evidence, however, to say for sure that drinking more water will help people shed the pounds.  This study is actually a review of prior water studies.

Eleven studies fit their criteria.

Three of them showed that increased water intake among dieters was tied to greater weight loss.

It’s not clear how water might help people shed pounds. One possibility is that water could squelch feelings of hunger.

The idea is that “drinking water itself increases energy expenditure of your body. It has an energy consuming effect. This is not very well studied,” a researcher noted to Reuters Health.

The Institute of Medicine recommends that adults consume between 91 ounces of water for women and 125 ounces for men (2.7 – 3.7 liters) each day, but this total can come through food, plain water or other beverages.

She said people in the U.S. typically drink about 400 to 500 calories a day from other beverages, and replacing them with water is not a bad idea.

One study found that women who drink water, rather than sweet drinks, had a slightly lower chance of developing diabetes (see Reuters Health story of May 31, 2012).

And women who don’t drink plenty of water have greater odds of getting kidney stones (see Reuters Health report of March 29, 2012).

“There’s not a lot of risk for recommending (increased water intake) for individuals,” Davy said.

It will be helpful to have larger experiments looking at the potential weight loss benefits of adding more water to the diet.

SOURCE: bit.ly/17EdiFq The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online June 26, 2013.

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