Water is absolutely essential to the human body’s survival. A person can live for about a month without food, but only about a week without water.

During any normal day, fluid losses occur continuously, from skin evaporation, breathing, urine, and stool, and these losses must be replaced daily for good health. When your water intake does not equal your output, you can become dehydrated. Fluid losses are accentuated in warmer climates, during strenuous exercise, in high altitudes, and in older adults, whose sense of thirst may not be as sharp.

Let us find out some more important and inspiring reasons for drinking more water.

1. Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Body Fluids. Your body is composed of about 60% water. The functions of these bodily fluids include digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature.

When you’re low on fluids, the brain triggers the body’s thirst mechanism. And unless you are taking medications that make you thirsty, you should listen to those cues and get yourself a drink of water, juice, milk or coffee — anything but alcohol. Alcohol interferes with the brain and kidney communication and causes excess excretion of fluids which can then lead to dehydration.

Water leads to increased energy levels. The most common cause of daytime fatigue is actually mild dehydration.

2. Water Can Help Control Calories. For years, dieters have been drinking lots of water as a weight loss strategy. While water doesn’t have any magical effect on weight loss, substituting it for higher calorie beverages can certainly help.

What works with weight loss is if you choose water or a non-caloric beverage over a caloric beverage and/or eat a diet higher in water-rich foods that are healthier, more filling, and help you trim calorie intake.

Food with high water content tends to look larger, its higher volume requires more chewing, and it is absorbed more slowly by the body, which helps you feel full. Water-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, broth-based soups, oatmeal, and beans.

Water helps to maintain healthy body weight by increasing metabolism and regulating appetite.

3. Water Helps Energize Muscles. Cells that don’t maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytes shrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue. When muscle cells don’t have adequate fluids, they don’t work as well and performance can suffer.

Drinking enough fluids is important when exercising. During exercise, fluids should be drunk at regular intervals to replace fluids lost by sweating.

Being dehydrated can severely hamper your athletic activities, slowing you down and making it harder to lift weights. Exercise requires additional water, so be sure to hydrate before, during and after exercise.

4. Water Helps Keep Skin Looking Good. Your skin contains plenty of water, and functions as a protective barrier to prevent excess fluid loss.

Dehydration makes your skin look drier and wrinkled, which can be improved with proper hydration. But once you are adequately hydrated, the kidneys take over and excrete excess fluids.

You can also help “lock” moisture into your skin by using moisturizer, which creates a physical barrier to keep moisture in.

5. Water Helps Your Kidneys. Body fluids transport waste products in and out of cells. Your kidneys do an amazing job of cleansing and ridding your body of toxins as long as your intake of fluids is adequate.

When you’re getting enough fluids, urine flows freely, is light in color and free of odor. When your body is not getting enough fluids, urine concentration, color, and odor increases because the kidneys trap extra fluid for bodily functions.

If you chronically drink too little, you may be at higher risk for kidney stones, especially in warm climates.

6. Water Helps Maintain Normal Bowel Function. Adequate hydration keeps things flowing along your gastrointestinal tract and prevents constipation. When you don’t get enough fluid, the colon pulls water from stools to maintain hydration — and the result is constipation.

Adequate fluid and fiber is the perfect combination, because the fluid pumps up the fiber and acts like a broom to keep your bowel functioning properly.

7. Water Helps in Preventing Many Serious Health Problems. Drinking adequate amounts of water can decrease the risk of certain types of cancers, including colon cancer, bladder cancer, and breast cancer. Water also reduces your risk of heart attack.

8. Water Helps Reducing Joint and Back Pain. For a majority of sufferers, drinking water can significantly reduce joint and/or back pain. Water cushions and lubes your joints and muscles.

Tips to Help You Drink More

If you think you need to be drinking more, here are some tips to increase your fluid intake and reap the benefits of water:

• Have a beverage with every snack and meal.
• Choose beverages you enjoy; you’re likely to drink more liquids if you like the way they taste.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables. Their high water content will add to your hydration. About 20% of our fluid intake comes from foods.
• Keep a bottle of water with you in your car, at your desk, or in your bag.
• Choose beverages that meet your individual needs. If you’re watching calories, go for non-caloric beverages or water.

 

Level of Water for Adults

For healthy sedentary adults living in temperate climates:

Men: 125 oz (3.7 liters) of water per day from all dietary sources
Women: 91 oz (2.7 liters) of water per day from all dietary sources

For most people, this amount of water per day is a lot more than they normally drink. The requirement for men is roughly 1 gallon per day. How many of you men out there drink this much water every single day? For the women, 91 ounces is roughly 3 quarts.

However, an exercising athlete can lose enormous quantities of body water through perspiration. The recommendations listed above don’t apply to endurance athletes.

How Much You Need to Drink Water

The optimum amount of water you should drink depends on your body weight. The fatter you are, the more you need to drink.

Take one-half of the amounts of your weight in pounds and convert that to ounces and that is how many ounces you should be drinking. Thus, if you weigh 128 pounds, you should be drinking 64 ounces a day. If you weigh 300 pounds, you need to drink 150 ounces a day. You can’t just categorize any liquid consumption as being adequate to meet the recommended amount– for example, coffee is a diuretic and causes you to lose water, so you wouldn’t want to try meeting your daily water requirements with large quantities of that.

Everyone is looking for that secret little pill or drink that will make losing weight more effective and easy. Let me firstly tell you that only through proper diet and exercise will losing weight and keeping the weight off really work. Many people question if green tea should be used as a dietary supplement in boosting one’s weight loss and helping suppress one’s hunger.

Green Tea is very beneficial for health as it has undergone minimal oxidation during making. This tea basically originates from China, however now it has become extremely popular in many other Asian and European countries because of its proclaimed herbal qualities. Doctors even claim that regular consumption of green tea helps in minimizing the risk of heart disease and many kinds of cancer. However, the most widespread use of Green tea is done to treat obesity.

If you check the contents of many popular diet pills, you’ll see “green tea” or “green tea extract” listed as one of the ingredients. The reason diet pills use green tea is that the green tea helps you lose weight. Of course it won’t be “20 pounds in one week” or other nonsense that marketing companies like to claim, but green tea has been scientifically proven to burn calories and block fat absorption. Green tea is a decent fat burner and can be found in many over the counter supplements today.

How does green tea work and will it be effective in your weight loss goals?

• Green tea is a Power Antioxidant. Some researchers have suggested that green tea is 200 more times effective than vitamin E. That’s right, 200 more times effective in burning fat for weight loss.
• Green tea may be used as a Sugar Regulator also known as a glucose regulator. What this means in a sense is that taking green tea slows down the rise in blood sugar following a meal.
• One is that green tea has helped aid weight loss by increasing the heart rate, causing a Greater Calorie Burn. Green tea may also inhibit fatty acid synthase. What this means is that green tea takes the fatty acid synthase and turns the carbs into fat. There have been studies conducted on animals that show that this breakdown of fatty acid synthase can lead to weight loss.
• Green tea has also been shown to burn fat and Lower LDL levels (that’s “bad” cholesterol) as well as Triglyceride levels.

Food (including sugar and fat) is synthesized into a substance called “triglyceride” in the liver and small intestine. It is then carried into the bloodstream to other tissues in the body. Triglyceride is used as source of energy for life support and physical activities, and is very necessary. The problem comes about when there are excess amounts of triglyceride, because then it’s turned into fat which subsequently causes obesity.

That’s where green tea comes in. It contains high amounts of polyphenols which activate the enzyme that is responsible for dissolving excess triglyceride. In the long run, this means that green tea effectively aids in burning fat.

• Now, not to raise one’s hopes that just taking green tea alone will allow for weight loss, it is important that we remember we must exercise in order to effectively take the weight off. Green tea’s true effects are very minimal at best and the effects can truly only be seen with the right diet and exercise program.
• Green Tea Helps You Exercise Longer. Everyone knows how important exercise is to losing weight. It burns calories, increases your energy, and builds muscle which in turn boosts your metabolism even higher. The catechin polyphenols in green tea appear to stimulate the use of fatty acids by liver and muscle cells. This subsequently reduces the rate that carbohydrates are used and allows for more endurance and longer exercise times. More endurance means more exercise, which means more calories burned, and it all adds up to more pounds lost for you.

The next question you probably have is how green tea works as power antioxidant and glucose regulator possible. Well, let me explain. Green tea slows down the process by amylase which is a digestive enzyme. This enzyme is important because this enzyme breaks down the carbs that can cause your blood sugar to peak after having a meal

How To Use Green Tea?

In order to derive the benefits from Green Tea, you need to use the green tea in a proper way. On a general you should use 2.25 grams of tea per 150 gm of water, or about one teaspoon of green tea per cup water. Green Tea is preferably brewed in an earthen pot with its lid covered. Timings for brewing Green tea depend upon the quality of the tea. High quality tea needs to be brewed for less time while low quality tea require a little more time to brew.

How Much Of Green Tea Is Enough?

Now when you have understood all the benefits of Green tea and its use, the million dollar question is that how much of green tea should you use daily? Now different scholars answer it differently. Some Chinese homeopathic practitioner asks to consume about 10 cups a day while many other tell to limit the use to 2 to 3 cups a day. On an average, extracts of all the results say that it is best to consume about 4 to 5 eight ounce cups of green tea per day for maximum weight loss and health benefits..

I advise that you always consult with a doctor before beginning any type of diet or exercise regimen. As with any supplement, there are risks. With green tea, the biggest risk is increased heart rate or feeling shaky. If this occurs, stop taking green tea or limit the amount of green tea you are taking and consult a doctor. All the best !!!

Sugary treats are no more as pleasant as they used to be when we were kids. So many factors now come into our minds when we think about sweets, chocolates, soft-drinks or any other sugary treat. These treats surely are inviting and also keep us craving for them, but they also trigger an on-going process in our mind about what can be better dietary choices made.

Have you heard that honey is better than sugar because it’s a quicker source of energy, a richer source of minerals and less fattening?

Honey is a great alternative to sugar and retains most of its properties unlike sugar when processed. Refined dietary sugars lack minerals and vitamins and are often called empty calories. In the process of manufacturing the refined sugar, the protein, nitrogen elements, organic acids, enzymes and vitamins in the sugar cane are destroyed. On contrary, no real processing is required in case of honey and no loss happens after heating it.

Honey also offers incredible antioxidant, antiseptic, antimicrobial and cleansing properties for our bodies and health.

Even though both honey and sugar are sweeteners and both contain glucose and fructose, honey is the ideal liver fuel because it contains a nearly 1:1 ratio of fructose to glucose. Fructose ‘unlocks’ the enzyme from the liver cell’s nucleus that is necessary for the incorporation of glucose into glycogen (the form in which sugar is stored in the liver and muscle cells). Honey also may promote better blood sugar control. Proper fueling of the liver is central to optimal glucose metabolism during sleep and exercise.

When we eat sugar our bodies have to use a special enzyme in our pancreas called insulin to convert the sugars to glucose which then can be absorbed by the cells in our bodies to provide us with energy. However, with honey the bees have already added a special enzyme to the nectar that divides the sucrose into glucose and fructose. These are two simple sugars that our body cells can absorb directly. Hence, compared to processed sugar, honey has a healthier Glycemic Index (GI) which measures the negative impact of a given food on the blood-glucose level. The lower the GI rating, the slower the absorption and infusion of sugars into the bloodstream and hence a more gradual and healthier digestion process takes place.

Ounce for ounce, honey does have fewer calories than sugar, but honey contains water which has no calories and refined sugar does not, so a tablespoon of table sugar has 64 calories while a tablespoon of honey contains water so it has only 46 calories. Because honey is sweeter than sugar, the total calories intake is lower as less honey is needed to sweeten the same quantity of food items (cereals, cakes, pies, tea, coffee, etc). Therefore, if you are watching your weight or trying to lose weight, honey will be a smarter choice than refine sugar.

Honey does contain iron and calcium while table sugar does not, but to meet your needs for iron, you would have to eat 10 cups of honey a day, and for calcium, you would have to eat 40 cups.

It is believed that drinking lemon juice with a little honey the first thing in the morning is an effective anti cellulite treatment as it helps to increase body metabolism. If you are determined to shed weight and speed up your sluggish metabolism, try this honey and lemon diet tip.

The latest theory based on the hibernation diet also builds a link between honey and weight loss. It suggests taking a generous spoonful or two of honey at night, either as a warm drink or straight from the jar, and promises to help us sleep and lose weight at the same time by fuelling the liver, speeding up fat-burning metabolism and easing stress hormones.

Also, the wonderful taste of honey is so unique that is why it is used in several recipes such as honey bread, honey chicken recipes, chicken honey mustard, honey glazed chicken, and honey baked chicken to name a few.

When using honey in a crystallized form like with organic honey crystal you get the benefits of honey without the sticky mess that is sometimes an issue with honey. With organic honey crystal you can add a taste of honey to your favorite cookies, breakfast cereal, cakes, pies, rolls, coatings, dressings, and even to sweeten your coffee or tea! by just replacing sugar 1:1 for a delicious sweet honey flavor.

Hunger is for your stomach and body but the craving is more to do with our mind. Just think ! Are we really hungry when we eat our meals every time? Not necessarily! Most of the time it is the urge to eat something we like or we are tired with lots of work, eating gives nice break.

If we watch out for few simple things, we can beat the craving and keep ourselves full. I am going to discuss few tips for controlling hunger and avoiding cravings. Here you go -

1. Eat small frequent meals. Want to lose weight? Eat more — frequently, that is.

Your body needs food to provide energy, repair damaged muscle tissue, and to carry out various other functions.

But there are only so many nutrients it can draw from each meal. Large meals mean more nutrients than your body can handle, thus causing an ‘overflow effect’.

Thus, go for smaller, more frequent meals. They provide just the right amount of nutrients every few hours, without causing that overflow effect. They also maintain blood sugar levels, thus keeping your appetite and energy levels in control.

Eat 5-6 small meals per day. This is very important because it keeps you satisfied throughout the day

2. Don’t skip meals  and breakfast too! Skipping meals and going too long without food can turn hunger pangs into irresistible cravings.

To start with, don’t skip breakfast! It is amazing how so many people skip this meal. If you are one of those, change that nasty food habit. NOW!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Your first meal of the day helps replenish all those nutrients lost during that all-night fast. It raises those early morning low blood sugar levels. Missing out on this meal means setting you up for low blood sugar levels and, thus, low energy levels and irresistible hunger pangs and cravings at lunchtime.

3. Drink more water.  Water is the healthiest, cheapest and most easily available appetite suppressant around. Thirst is often mistaken as hunger. Also, foods with high water content can fill you up easily. They naturally pack fewer calories for their volume.

Drink 2-3 big glasses of water when hunger pangs hit. Water fills up the stomach and makes you feel full.

Toss together a salad of lettuce, cucumbers, celery and tomatoes, or a fruit cup with watermelon, strawberries and orange slices for a watery hunger-satisfying snack.

4.  Eat lots of veggies. Vegetables are healthy. They are chockfull with nutrients that can boost your health. They are also rich in fibre, the dieters’ secret weapon to control hunger.

While all vegetables are beneficial as far as good health and hunger control go, certain veggies, like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and mushrooms, are super-high in fibre and have a negligible amount of calories.

They can fill your stomach and control your hunger while filling you with a small amount of calories.

5. Eat more whole grains and less refined carbohydrates. Whole grains, besides being healthier than their ‘nutrient-stripped’ refined counterparts, are also higher in fibre. Thus they are more filling and satisfying. While refined carbs — like white bread, white rice, idlis, dosas — are lower in fibre. You may run the risk of over-consuming calories.

6. Eat slowly. Give it a shot. Believe me, it actually works. I myself have tried it and it really works.

The brain actually takes ten minutes longer than the stomach to receive the message that it is full. Thus, eating too fast might cause you to eat beyond the point of fullness without even realizing.

Eating slowly will allow the body/mind time to respond to the presence of food in the stomach.

7. Sleep and shed those pounds! Studies have found that people who sleep only five hours every night were 50 per cent more likely to be obese than those who sleep seven to nine hours. Researchers believe lack of sleep affects hormones related to appetite, causing you to gain pounds.

8. Avoid simple sugars. Fruit juice and soda will kill any diet plan because they spike insulin and make you hungry.

Decrease sugar since Sugars seem to increase hunger because they raise blood insulin levels, which cause a drop in blood glucose levels about two hours after the sugar intake.

Chew sugarless gum. This is a great way to satisfy the “chewing” instinct and the mind will think its eating.

9. Do cardio exercise such as walking, jogging, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. This is the best way to burn maximum fat.

10. Include protein in every meal. Protein is critical for maintaining/building muscle and will keep you full. Protein takes longer to get digested so helps in controlling hunger.

11. Eat high fiber foods. Fiber expands in the stomach and makes you feel full. Oatmeal and beans have tons of fiber.

12. Choose low calorie snacks. Air popped popcorn and fat-free Jell-O are great snacks during the day if hunger hits.

13. Avoid your triggers. You surely can weaken your old cravings and strengthen new ones. The first few days are always the hardest while changing, and you probably can’t completely eliminate your old cravings. But the longer you avoid your trigger foods, the less likely you may be to want them. In fact, you’ll probably begin to crave the foods you eat, a real bonus if you’ve switched to fresh fruit.

14. Destroy temptation.  If you’ve succumbed to a craving and bought a box of cookies or some other trigger food and start to feel bad while eating it, destroy it. Don’t think about the money you’re wasting. If the cookies don’t go into the garbage, they’re going straight to your hips.

15. Add some healthy fats. Fat is very satiating and helps with hunger. Focus on olive oil, salmon, avocados, walnuts.

Drink two glasses of water and eat an ounce of nuts (6 walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts). This way you can overcome the temptation to eat.

16. Take a power nap. Cravings sneak up when we’re tired. Focus on the fatigue: Shut the door, close your eyes, re-energize.

17. Get minty fresh. Brush your teeth; gargle with mouthwash. You might not feel like messing up the clean mouth

18. Distract yourself.  Craving is only in your mind and not hunger always. Recognize that and divert your mind: Call someone, listen to music, run an errand, meditate or exercise.
Moderate exercise helps reduce appetite.

19. Plan or avoid. Vary your usual routine to avoid passing the bakery or pizzeria. If you know you’ll be face-to-face with irresistible birthday cake, allocate enough calories to fit it into your diet. Treat once in a while is good!

20. Don’t overeat. If your body becomes accustomed to overeating for even one or two meals, the habit will form. One also tends to be hungrier after massive overeating than after moderate eating.

21. Drink hot liquids. Hot liquids seem to be more satisfying than cold liquids. If you are considering a liquid diet program, look for one with a hot soup alternative. Take advantage of low caffeine and caffeine-free hot drinks.

22. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Both alcohol and caffeine are appetite stimulants and should be avoided during weight loss.

Did you know that honey and cinnamon can be used to lose weight? Many people who regularly take honey and cinnamon powder together lose weight.

As we discussed in my earlier post about Health Benefits of Honey and Cinnamon combination, regular consumption of honey also reduces the risk of heart disease and reduces cholesterol. Honey and cinnamon help make veins and arteries regain their flexibility. Honey and cinnamon are also purported to aid hair loss, bladder infections and toothaches.

Now let us see how honey and cinnamon powder together should be taken to lose weight.

The ingredients we will need are – Raw honey , Powered cinnamon – no sugar added and Water.

1. Combine one teaspoon honey with one-half teaspoon cinnamon powder.
2. Boil one cup of water, honey and cinnamon in a pan. Pour the mixture into two half cup servings. Let the mixtures cool down completely.
3. Consume one serving one half hour before breakfast, and consume one serving before going to bed at night. Make sure to wait a half an hour to consume the mixture before eating meals.
4. Watch the numbers on your scale go down. By following these suggestions, a person should easily lose three to five pounds a week without dieting.
5. To lose weight faster, exercise, eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water. These are the vital factors for weight loss
6. Make sure to keep your honey and cinnamon well stocked in your cupboards. They are good for many other ailments besides weight loss.

Tips & Warnings

• Always check with your doctor before starting any exercise and weight loss plans.

Resources

Health Benefits of Honey and Cinnamon combination

Medicinal Properties of Honey and Cinnamon