What is water weight? Water weight is the amount of water your body contains. Our bodies on average are made up of 50-60 percent of water. When you are first born, your body is about 80 percent water weight. As you get older your water weight percentage goes down and settles in to about 50-60 percent by the time you are an adult.
Studies have shown that the lean muscle tissues have much more water weight than fat tissue. This is why women and overweight people have less water weight than men and people of less weight.
Drinking water and other fluids can cause a huge fluctuation in your body weight. This is why many times when you weigh yourself throughout the day you see fluctuations in your body weight. One liter of water weighs about 2.2 pounds, so by consuming one liter of water you add 2.2 pounds to your body. So it is never a good idea to gauge your weight loss by simply weighing yourself on a scale. In order to get a true idea of how much weight you have lost you will need to measure your body fat percentage.
With that being said, water is a very important tool in weight loss and healthy living in general. Firstly, water flushes out a lot of toxins out of your body which helps your body feel more energetic and improve your immune system. Also it hydrates your skin cells making your skin glow and look/feel healthier. In addition water hydrates your muscles to help improve your muscle tone.
When it comes to loosing weight, water helps in that department as well. Since a lot of food contains water, oftentimes if you are dehydrated you can mistake your body as being hungry instead of thirsty. This will cause you to eat and put unnecessary calories in your body when all you need is to drink water. This works the other way around as well. You can drink water to suppress your appetite and eat less as your stomach will feel fuller with more consumption of water.
Besides suppressing your appetite, water also helps boost your metabolic rate. Studies have shown that water can temporarily increase your metabolic rate by up to 30 percent. This increase in metabolism occurs because water enters your body as a cool liquid and then is heated up by the stomach. The process of heating up water causes metabolism to rise. This is why ice water is good for weight loss as the colder the water the longer it takes for your stomach to heat it up.
Water has a lot of benefits. It helps with weight loss, boost your metabolic rate, and improve your immune system, in addition to several other benefits. So make sure to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day and be on your way to a healthy living.
