Does drinking more water really help you lose weight and burn fat? This is one of the most popular questions and one of the most widely discussed topics pertaining to diet and nutrition. Is it true or is it false? This article will help set the record straight.
The Short Answer:
Absolutely! Water helps you lose weight and burn more fat by:
- acting as a zero-calorie substitute for other high-calorie beverages;
- suppressing your appetite and cravings for snacks in between meals;
- providing you with a slight overall boost to your metabolism;
- taking added stress off of your kidneys which in turn allows your liver to mobilize fat more effectively and efficiently
Water Does More Than Just Burn Fat
Now I’m not here to tell you that water is the be-all and end-all of weight-loss because it’s absolutely not. Then again, neither is drinking water with lemon, honey, and cayenne pepper — and we all know how much people love following that stupid trend. 😑
The truth is that water does FAR much more than just help you lose weight and burn fat. It is truly a vital part of life.
If you’re interested in knowing more about water — the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth — continue reading along.
By the end of this article, my hope is to make you a water expert of sorts, improve your relationship with H2O, and have you make it a priority in your daily regimen. This way you can drink more of it and experience all of the wonderful benefits yourself.
When you’re done reading, leave a comment down below if I succeeded with that. And if not, leave your thoughts anyway. Personally, I’d like to know what I could’ve done better to convince you. 😃
Feel free to use the navigation box above to skip ahead at your leisure. Personally, I think all of it is extremely important, but go on… get whatever you came for!
Why Is Drinking Water so Important?
Water is easily thee most essential macronutrient for your body and human survival. How do I know? Because you can literally live for months if you had absolutely no food to eat, but you’d probably die in less than a week if you had no water to drink. Crazy, right?
Naturally then, it would make sense that water makes up an extremely large portion of your body composition and weight and is required in large amounts to maintain proper bodily functions.
Water serves as a vital carrier within the body, shuttling nutrients to cells while also removing waste product through our urine. It also serves to regulate our body temperature, balance the ions in our blood, and lubricate our joints in order to handle shock absorption throughout the body.
Yadda yadda yadda! Look, I could insert a whole bunch more of some super boring sciencey stuff here, but I don’t think that’s what you came for. If it is, there are other medical sites out there that geek out on stuff like this. 🤓
In fact, here’s a list of some great resources in case you’re interested:
- 16 Reasons Why Water Is Important to Human Health
- 7 Science-Based Health Benefits of Drinking Enough Water
- Functions of Water in the Body
In an effort not to bore you, let’s delve into how water actually affects and benefits your body in everyday life; specifically as it pertains to your health and fitness journey.
10 Major Benefits of Drinking Water
Water has a plethora of benefits, which is why I’m so gung-ho on getting you to drink more of it. You’ll find out the exact amount to drink in just a second. Without digging too deep, here are some of the most important benefits of drinking water.
First, let’s start with the reason why most of you are here:
- Water Helps You Lose Weight and Burn More Fat – For one, water is calorie-free, so you can drink as much of it as you want and not put on a single gram of fat. Aside from that, water assists in speeding up your metabolism, helps control calorie intake, energizes your muscles, and — drum roll please — relieves added stress from your kidneys allowing your liver to mobilize fat!
- Water Detoxifies Your Body – I’m not a huge fan of liquid or juice “detoxes” for one main reason: The key ingredient in the detox recipe is ALWAYS — you guessed it — water! Do you wanna know how to detox your body? DRINK MORE WATER! 😅 If you want to add lemon, cayenne pepper, honey, and make a fancy “potion” then go for it! But please, don’t take the credit away from the water.
- Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Bodily Fluids – When people say, “Your body is made up of 60% water,” what they’re actually trying to say is, “Your body is composed of roughly 60% fluids and water is highly responsible for the composition of those fluids.” The main functions of your bodily fluids include digestion, absorption, blood circulation, saliva creation, nutrient transportation, body temperature regulation, and so much more.
- Water Helps Control Your Caloric Intake – This is kind of a no-brainer, but let’s discuss it anyway. Increasing your daily water intake helps control calorie intake in two ways: 1) by using it as a zero-calorie substitute for other high-calorie beverages; and 2) by filling your stomach up and tricking your brain into thinking you’re full, which can help curb your appetite throughout the day.
- Water Helps to Energize Your Muscles – Muscles need water to store energy in the form of glycogen. Muscle cells that don’t have an adequate balance of fluids and electrolytes wither, which results in muscle fatigue. More simply put, when your muscles don’t have enough fluids, they don’t work as well and your physical performance suffers.
- Water Keeps Your Skin Looking Great – This one is a bit superficial, but worth mentioning nonetheless. Your skin is the largest organ in the body and naturally contains plenty of water. It also functions as a protective barrier which encases the entire body to prevent excess fluid loss. Though you shouldn’t expect adequate hydration to erase wrinkles or fine lines, it can certainly help prevent blemishes and keep your skin looking lively.
- Water Helps Your Kidneys – One of the main food sources people eat when following a nutrition program is protein. One of the main toxins in the body is blood urea nitrogen — a waste product from the digestion of that protein — which passes through your kidneys and is released through your urine. Your kidneys have it tough; they’re constantly cleansing the body to rid it of various toxins. When your body is sufficiently hydrated, they undergo way less stress and can function at optimal performance.
- Water Helps Maintain Normal Bowel Function – Adequate hydration keeps everything flowing nicely along your gastrointestinal tract and prevents you from backing up. Fun fact: When you’re not drinking enough water, your colon has no choice but to draw water from your stool to maintain proper hydration. 🤢 Gross, right? The end result, of course, is constipation.
- Water Lubricates Your Joints and Provides Shock Absorption – Fluids help keep your joints lubricated and functioning properly, so you don’t end up like the Tinman from the Wizard of Oz. This all becomes increasingly more important, of course, when you live a very active lifestyle. In addition to supporting your joints, fluids also surround the brain and spinal cord acting as a shock absorber for added protection.
- Water Helps Deliver Oxygen Throughout the Body – Water is highly responsible for helping to disperse oxygen all throughout the body. Since we’re human and not fish, “How,” do you ask? Well, your blood is actually the carrier of all the oxygen that you breathe in. And guess what blood is made of? 90% water. So do the math: More water, cleaner blood, more oxygen, more energy.
The Bottom Line:
Water has a tremendous amount of benefits; many of which I’ve left out to keep this list concise. The takeaway is that water is pretty damn important, folks.
How Much Water Should You Drink?
The “right” amount of water to drink is a highly debated topic. I mean, you’ve got the obvious “industry standard” at 8 cups per day. But quite recently I’ve even heard a well-known medical doctor — I won’t mention any names — say that he doesn’t recommend drinking any more than 1 L of water per day. 🤔
In my personal opinion, this is absolute nonsense, and though I’m not a medical doctor — and will never claim to be — I would disregard such nonsensical advice for otherwise quite seemingly obvious and common-sensical (if that were a word) logic.
First Let’s Discuss the Logic
As I mentioned earlier, your body is made up of around 60% “water”. If we do some simple math, we can quickly deduce that a 100lb individual is carrying around 60 pounds worth of “water weight”. Furthermore, since 1 L of water weighs 2.2 lb, that would mean that 60 pounds of water is equal to around 27 L. Whoa! That’s a lot of fluids, right?
Now… add that to the fact that you now know JUST how important water’s role is within the body and all of the magical benefits that it provides.
Still processing that? I’ll wait… 🕒
Now I have a question for you. And I want you to answer it with simple common sense.
Do you think it’s better to have your body’s internal filtration system running on lots of new clean water or reusing its old recycled water?
If you answered “new clean water”, you are CORRECT — and a genius (kind of)! 🤓
OK. So How Much Should You Actually Drink?
You’ve probably heard most doctors recommend the industry standard; 8 cups or 2 L of water per day. Now, personally I think this is great as a general guideline and sets a nice target for the average person who simply isn’t drinking nearly enough water to begin with, but I think we can do better.
Next, you’ve likely heard most fitness experts and enthusiasts recommend drinking a minimum of a gallon of water per day, which is around 3.8 L. In my opinion, I’d have to agree with this, as this typically feels like the optimal range for ME personally — but I weigh 190 lb.
For example, this kid — who, by the way, is drinking like an absolute champion 😅 — is less than half my size. Should he drink as much as me? Of course not!
Since individuals vary so heavily in body weight, that means that they also vary heavily in water weight. And since each individual’s physical work load and exercise intensity also vary greatly — resulting in varying levels of water depletion — it would only make sense that everyone’s water requirements are different and entirely unique to them.
By the way, this type of precision is EXACTLY what MyQuest Coaching is all about. Our entire philosophy is about identifying the exact requirements for your specific needs and then — and only then — putting together the best possible fitness program built specifically for YOUR goals and YOUR success. This is KEY!
So, how do you figure out just how much water you’re supposed to drink? You don’t. 😄
We’ve got a nifty little Macronutrient Calculator 👈 that does all the hard work for you!
Macronutrient Calculator
Want to know exactly how much water you should be drinking? We’ve got a calculator that does that and more… in 60 seconds.
Plug in your details and it’ll tell you exactly how much water you need to drink each day, right down to the decimal based on everything about you. And we’ve even included the amount to drink on your training days.
You’re welcome. 😉
How Do I Know if I’m Drinking Enough Water?
This is actually a really easy question to answer.
Pay Attention to the Signs
Here’s are a few simple indicators that you are not drinking enough water:
- If you’re not going to the bathroom to pee way more times than you’re used to — you’re not drinking enough water.
- If the colour of your pee looks like this instead of like this — you’re not drinking enough water.
- If you “feel thirsty”, this is your body’s way of letting you know that you are actually already dehydrated — or in other words — you’re not drinking enough water.
- If you’re not drinking the amount of water that was calculated using our free Macronutrient Calculator 👈 — you’re not drinking enough water.
- Lastly, if you’re not tracking your daily water intake — you’re probably not drinking enough water.
Which leads me to this…
Track Your Daily Water Intake
Everyone always thinks they’re drinking enough water, until they start tracking their water and realize that they’re not — myself included!
And the morale of that story is… track your water intake. 😅
I’m going to give you two foolproof ways for you to track how much water you drink throughout the day, but before we even get to that, you need to invest in a good water bottle.
Annnnnnndddddd this is where I insert an absolutely shameless plug:
MyQuest PRO Shaker Cup
You can visit our store to purchase one of our premium all-purpose MyQuest PRO Shaker Cups and hydrate yourself in style.
Of course, you could just as easily use whatever bottle you’d like. 😄
Seriously though, here’s a useful tip to make your life a hell of a lot easier:
Choose a relatively large water bottle that holds an easy-to-track maximum volume amount, such as 750 ml or 1 L. This seems simple enough, but I’ve seen so many water bottles that have these weird random metrics (e.g. 583 ml), which just make things… difficult.
Now, let’s get tracking! Here are two super easy methods:
- Pen and Paper – Every time you finish an entire bottle, write it down! Sticky notes work great for this too. You can even use the notes app built right into your phone. If you have to drink 4 L of water for the day and you’re using a 1 L water bottle. Then, you know you need 4 ticks on your sticky note for the day.
- Using an App – I love apps! They just make things easier and tracking your water is one of them. I highly recommend the My Water App by Viktor Sharov. It’s available for both iOS and Android and it’s absolutely free! There’s a paid version which unlocks some additional features and removes ads, but most people will be just fine with the free version. Also, if you own an Apple Watch, there is full integration with that as well, which is great.
Here’s a sneak peek at the app in case you’re interested:
Track Water Intake
The My Water app allows you to easily and effortlessly track your daily water intake on your phone, tablet, or smart watch while you're busy and on the go.
Add Various Drinks
Easily add different kinds of beverages like coffee, tea, and wine, and have the app automatically account for the varying hydration and dehydration effects.
App Integration
My Water integrates with other popular health apps such as Apple Health, H2OPal, and FitBit. It's also compatible with Siri via shortcuts and Google Assistant.
Reminder Notifications
One of the toughest parts of drinking more water is simply remembering to do it! My Water sends you reminders when you're too busy doing other things.
Track Water Intake
The My Water app allows you to easily and effortlessly track your daily water intake on your phone, tablet, or smart watch while you're busy and on the go.
Track Other Drinks
Easily add different kinds of beverages like coffee, tea, and wine, and have the app automatically account for the varying hydration and dehydration effects.
App Integration
My Water integrates with other popular health apps such as Apple Health, H2OPal, and FitBit. It's also compatible with Siri via shortcuts and Google Assistant.
Reminder Notifications
One of the toughest parts of drinking more water is simply remembering to do it! My Water sends you reminders when you're too busy doing other things.
App Integration
My Water integrates with other popular health apps such as Apple Health, H2OPal, and FitBit. It's also compatible with Siri via shortcuts and Google Assistant.
Reminder Notifications
One of the toughest parts of drinking more water is simply remembering to do it! My Water sends you reminders when you're too busy doing other things.
P.S. I don’t get paid any commissions for recommending this app. I just genuinely think it’s really useful! If you want to start drinking more water, go download it!
Which Drinks Count as Water?
This is a common question among (mostly) beginners — and a valid one. Firstly, it goes without saying that plain old-fashioned water is by far the best form of liquid you can put into your body.
Even I’ll admit — and I’m an avid lover and drinker of water — that it does get boring at times drinking liters and liters of it, but you definitely get used to it. Personally, it’s an easy choice for me simply because of how beneficial it is for my body.
Luckily though, plain water isn’t the only thing that “technically” counts as water. I’ll make it easy for you and give you two common lists of beverages — a sort of dos and don’ts if you will.
Something to Note:
It’s not that the drinks on the “don’t” list below don’t hydrate you. They’re just full of calories and shouldn’t be your go-to source of liquid fuel for the day. For that reason, I personally never count them towards my water target and you probably shouldn’t either.
Do Drink:
- Plain Water (flat, carbonated, etc.)
- Flavoured Water (zero-calorie)
- Coffee / Tea (low-calorie)
- Milk (skim, low-fat)
- Almond/Soy Milk (low-sugar)
- Diet Soda (zero calorie)
- Sports Beverages (low-calorie)*
- Plain Broth (low-sodium)
Don’t Drink:
- Fruit Juice (concentrated, natural)
- Fresh-Pressed Juice (fruit, vegetable)
- Sugary Sodas
- Chocolate Milk
- Smoothies
- Fancy Coffees / Hot Chocolate
- Wine / Sparkling Wine
- Beer
Something Else to Note:
Sports Beverages are specially formulated to replenish the electrolytes (sodium and potassium) that are lost during intense physical activity. Therefore, these types of drinks should only be consumed during exercise.
6 Simple Hacks to Drink More Water
There’s nothing better than a few tips and tricks to make a good habit stick fast. Here are all of the strategies I’ve personally deployed in the past and still use to this day to keep my water intake high:
Learn and Understand the Benefits
When aiming to start drinking more water, it really helps to first understand just how beneficial it is and exactly how much of it you need to drink to meet your specific needs.
Thankfully, we’ve already covered every single aspect of that in this article. But if you skipped ahead, head back over here to learn all of the benefits.
Knowledge is power. And you don’t know what you don’t know. Unfortunately, most people obliviously avoid drinking water, until they’re diagnosed with something terrible like kidney stones. That news will surely boost your water intake fast!
Here’s another great example: One of my clients, before training with me, was having constant headaches on a weekly basis. After reviewing his assessment, I enlightened him that these were likely dehydration headaches since his water intake was painfully low.
Long story short, we increased his water intake when we started his new program and — voila! — he hasn’t had a headache since! Water for the win, baby! 💧
Drink a HUGE Glass of Water in the Morning
One of the first things I do every single morning — and I encourage you to do the same — is drink a HUGE glass of water upon waking up. When I first started doing this I struggled downing 500 ml. Now I can easily drink 1 L plus in one go.
It’s so satisfying! For one, you’re extremely dehydrated when you first wake up because you’ve been sweating (and maybe even peeing) all night. Secondly, there’s something about hydrating first thing in the morning that just primes the body. I instantly feel more alive and energetic.
If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that I’m not big on all the “science” behind most things. However, I’m a huge advocate of paying attention to your own body and learning exactly how it works and responds. Not everything has the same effect on everyone.
Personally, this one trick alone does so many things for me:
- It gets my body primed for the day
- It suppresses my morning appetite, which is very helpful when intermittent fasting
- It covers 25% of my daily water quota within 15 seconds
- It’s a quick win for me on my morning win list
Invest in a Good Water Bottle
We talked about this one a bit earlier, but it’s worth mentioning again. It’s simple really: If you get in the habit of travelling with a water bottle, then you’ll always have access to water! Therefore, you’ll never have an excuse not to drink.
Also, as previously mentioned, it’s much easier to track your intake. If you’ve got a bottle that holds 1 L of water and your target is 3 L, then you can gamify your water intake. All you have to do is finish 3 bottles per day to win the game. And if you don’t — well — you’re a loser. 😝
Finally, if you want to get really fancy, you can even purchase a fruit infuser water bottle and start getting super creative, which actually leads me into my 4th tip…
Spice Up Your Water
Not literally! Unless, of course, you’re part of that whole cayenne pepper water bandwagon we talked about earlier. 😄 But you can definitely add flavour to your water to make it a bit more interesting!
As mentioned previously in this article, the majority of people don’t drink water simply because it’s boring and repetitive — and I agree.
They’ve got all sorts of non-caloric powders you can sprinkle in your water now. And though I personally try to stay away from those as much as I can, since they’re loaded with unnatural flavours and sweeteners, I’m pretty sure there’s no harm in indulging in a few every now and then.
If you want to err on the safe side and stay au naturel, then grab a fruit infuser water bottle and you can start putting all sorts of stuff into your water! Lemons, cucumber, mint, berries, pineapple, orange, lime — you name it! This is all I drink while I’m on vacation! Love this stuff!
Set Alarms and Reminders to Drink
Just because you want to drink more water, it doesn’t mean it’s just going to happen on its own. When your habit is not drinking water throughout the day, you’ve gotta do something to trigger the initial change for the new habit to stick.
As previously mentioned, you can use an app like My Water App, which will send you notifications at various intervals throughout the day reminding you to drink up! If that’s too much trouble, then you can manually set up a bunch of alarms on your phone instead.
Another great “reminder” is just to keep your newly purchased water bottle in sight. If your water bottle is sitting right in front of you on your desk at work, you’ll drink more water. If your desk is empty and you have to fill up a cup at the water cooler instead, you’ll likely forget about drinking water altogether.
Eat Some of Your Water Intake
Yup! You read that right! 😄 This final hack is kind of a cop-out since you’re not actually “drinking” anything, but it’s still a great tool to have under your belt.
This may not be so obvious to some, but we’re actually able to replenish the water in our bodies in two ways:
- the liquids we drink
- the foods we eat
If you tailor your diet around water-dense fruits and vegetables, you can help squeeze some water into your quota without even having to actually drink water. Here are some fruits and vegetables that are extremely high in water — some are super obvious and some aren’t.
Quick Note:
The only downside to this tip is it’s virtually impossible to track the water amount!
Fruits:
- Watermelons
- Strawberries
- Melons
- Peaches
- Oranges
- Grapefruits
- Coconut Water
Vegetables:
- Cucumbers
- Cabbage
- Lettuce
- Zucchini
- Tomatoes
- Sweet Peppers
- Celery
Risks Associated With Not Drinking Enough Water
By now you should know just how important water is for optimal bodily function. Much like when you decide not to regularly change or top up the engine oil on your car, when you don’t drink enough water things can start to go seriously wrong.
Chronic dehydration has been directly linked to:
- urinary tract infections
- decrease in overall kidney function
- kidney stones, which I’ve heard are painful as f%#$ (you pee ‘em out) 😳
- chronic kidney disease
- intestinal failure
- dementia
Look, I don’t know about you, but I don’t even want to experience the most minor thing on that list, which is reason #100 why I keep my water intake so high on an everyday basis. Of course, I’d encourage you to do the same.
The Bottom Line:
Besides just helping you reach your fitness goals and burn more fat, drinking more water also helps prevent extremely serious health issues.
Risks Associated With Drinking More Water
Drinking more water is good, but there are a few things to watch out for. There can be some serious consequences for going overboard and drinking TOO MUCH water — especially within an extremely short period of time — which is an entirely different thing.
In an effort to have you finish this article feeling like an absolute expert on water, there are definitely a few things worth mentioning.
Water Poisoning Is a Real Thing
I’m sure you’ve heard at least one person say something along the lines of, “Hey! Be careful! Drinking too much water can kill you!” And although this is actually a fact, we need to understand the real truth behind it.
Drinking too much water within a very short span of time can lead to a condition called hyponatremia — also known as water intoxication or water poisoning — which causes your blood to become so diluted that you essentially deplete every single electrolyte in your body.
In extremely severe cases, this condition can affect your heart and muscle functions, leaving you in a coma. The worst-case scenario is obviously death. 😱
It’s Not That Serious Though
That sounds like pretty scary stuff, right? Except for the fact that I haven’t heard of a single person that’s died from hyponatremia in my entire life. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, I’m sure it has and if you googled it you’d have proof of that.
What I am saying is, this is extremely rare and not a risk you should be concerned with at all, especially since the majority of people will only be drinking between 2–6 L of water per day on average.
Believe it or not, your kidneys are actually powerful enough to eliminate upwards of 24–28 L or more of water per day; that’s roughly 1 L every hour. Water poisoning is brought on when you begin introducing an overwhelming amount of water within an extremely short period of time; such as consuming 4 L of water within a single hour.
The fact is that nobody I know — some of which are professional athletes — drinks 1 L of water per hour every single hour constantly throughout the day. And if you’re one of them, understand that you’re pretty much pushing the limit of what your body is able to handle.
Other Health-Related Risks
There are many other risks associated with drinking a lot of water, especially if you have certain health conditions associated with your thyroid, kidneys, liver, or heart; or if you’re taking any prescribed medications that cause you to retain an excessive amount of water.
If you’re taking any of these medications, surely your doctor has indicated the health-related risks and has advised you accordingly. If not, find a new doctor. 😄
The Bottom Line:
It is incredibly unlikely that you will ever be hospitalized due to drinking too much water or die of water poisoning. You have a better chance of winning the lottery.
Other Considerations
Drinking More Water Makes You Look Leaner
The total amount of water you drink affects how much water your body retains. How do you ask? Let me explain:
When you drink lots of water on a regular basis, your body interprets this as you having an abundance of water available to you; therefore, it has no reason to hold on to it and flushes it out of your system very quickly.
On the other hand, when you’re under-hydrated, your body recognizes this as you having LIMITED access to water. In an effort to increase your chances for survival, it holds on to additional water — as an emergency backup supply — that it can use for later in the event that you have no drinking water available to you.
When your body is retaining excess water, it causes you to look “puffy”, which hides some of your muscle definition. On the flip side, when you drink lots of water, your body retains less water (especially under the skin) and the leaner your body and muscles appear; this is particularly true at lower body fat levels.
Please Don’t Wet Your Bed
If you don’t want to be getting up to pee all night, it’s a good idea to stop drinking water about 3 hours before you go to bed. Sure, you want to hit your daily water target, but you definitely don’t want to cram 1 L of water in right before bed just to get it done. Try to hit your target earlier than later.
Need Some Help With Your Nutrition Plan?
Drinking more water is a great start to improving your health, but there’s so much more involved when it comes to nutrition and building the body of your dreams.
Not sure where to begin? Let us help you discover your path to better health.
In our MyQuest Coaching program we perform a comprehensive needs assessment and then build you a fully-customized fitness program tailored to your every need.
This also includes the implementation of a completely flexible diet which includes drinking an optimal amount of water for your goals we discussed here today.
If this sounds interesting to you, click one of the buttons below to get started:
Apply for Coaching TODAY!
Because yesterday you said tomorrow.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this article has given you a different spin on water and the effects it can have on your health and fitness program.
And really truthfully, if I were to sum this up in one statement, I think the key takeaway should be that water is pretty damn important — so drink more of it.
If you’ve read this article through and through, you’ve hopefully learned the following:
- Water is absolutely vital to life
- Water helps you lose weight and burn fat
- The exact amount of water you need for your specific goals
- You replenish your water levels by eating too
- There are very few risks to drinking water and countless benefits
- Exactly what you can drink (and eat) to increase your water intake
- It’s really not that hard to start drinking more water
At the beginning of this article, I explained that my aim was to better your understanding of water and hopefully convince you to start drinking more of it. So… what’s the verdict?
I’m interested: What are your thoughts? How much water do you usually drink per day? What do you like drinking most? Sparkling water or flat water? Coffee, tea, or something else entirely? How important is water to you in your overall approach to diet and nutrition? Leave a comment down below and let me know!
