The Water Diet | How to Lose Weight in a Week

With an endless number of crash diets, pills and supplements on the market that all claim to do miracles, are there any quick fixes that actually work?

To answer that question, we decided to research the so-called water diet to see if it’s possible to lose weight in a week by following it.

As always, consult your doctor before doing any kind of radical changes to your diet!

Table of Contents

What is the Water Diet?

The water diet is not really a diet in a traditional sense. It’s more about consuming water (H2O) in a way that helps you lose weight.

The idea of the water diet is that you should drink a full glass of water before every meal, and you should also drink one glass (at least) during and one glass after every meal. And it doesn’t stop there. Between meals, you have to drink even more. In total, you are supposed to drink 64 ounces of water per day, divided into eight servings of 8 ounces each. That’s a lot!

Now you might be asking yourself, why on earth would you drink such extreme amounts of H2O? Here’s a video that explains why (along with tips on how to make is easier to consume all that water):

By filling your stomach with water prior and during meals, you will eat less food. And that’s what you want, right?

Here’s another tip for you! If you stick to cold water, your body will need to heat it until it reaches body temperature. The heating process requires energy (calories) to be burned, and you know what that means. Even more weight will be lost!

What we haven’t mentioned so far is, what should you eat? Well, NOT junk food, that’s for sure. Instead I recommend that you use common sense to eat from a balanced diet that consist of vegetables, fish, fruit and lean meat. It should be low-carb rather than high-carb.

Benefits of Drinking Lots of Water

Water is essential to all animals, humans included. Your body needs it for many reasons. Normally you should consume it in moderation, but when it comes to burning away excess fat, drinking lots of water can actually help:

By drinking really cold water, your body will start to cool off from the inside out. It will be forced to burn additional calories in order to maintain normal body temperature (37 ºC or 98.6 ºF), which of course is a good thing.
Drinking a big glass of water before each meal will make you feel full much faster. Combine that by taking smaller chews, and then chewing them slowly, and it will make you eat much less than you would otherwise do.
Replace soft drinks or any other sweetened drinks with water (preferably cold). This alone will have a huge impact on your weight and well-being, especially if you are one of those people that normally drinks lots of sugary drinks.
Drink water regularly between meals throughout the day. This will fill up your stomach and temporarily reduce some of the hunger cravings.
Having a water fast for a week. This is a radical method where water is the only thing you are allowed to consume. It will make you lose a lot of weight, mostly water weight, but also some fat and muscle. As a bonus, your body will be cleansed and your liver, kidneys and digestive organs will get a much needed break from the poisonous foods you have been consuming (like alcohol, artificial sweeteners and processed foods). This means that toxins will be flushed out by the high water consumption.

Risks of Following a Water Diet Plan

It’s hardly a surprise that when you drink huge amounts of fluids, you are going to visit the bathroom more frequently. However uncomfortable that might be, it’s not a health risk.

What is a risk, is that your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs. Now, if you only follow a water diet plan for a week, you are not going to develop any vitamin deficiencies. The risks to your health lies elsewhere.

Not eating enough fat, carbs or proteins means that your blood sugar levels are going to be very low. Especially for the first three to four days. You might – and probably will – experience dizziness and a lack of energy. It can become so serious that you could faint and hurt yourself. So please, avoid doing any tightrope walking over the Grand Canyon while doing this diet!

If you would be foolish enough to live solely on water for a long period of time, then you could be facing really harmful effects. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and a loss of muscle mass (along with loss of fat) would make you a sick and apathetic figure. Your vital organs would eventually give up, and you would die. Now, that’s some serious negative effects…

And if you drink ludicrous amounts of water, dangerous things like brain edema and water intoxication are risks you must take seriously.

How Much Weight Can You Lose in a Week Sipping Water?

If you were to follow my recommendations and drink the 64 ounces of water per day, and eating a balanced low-card diet for an entire week, what kind of water diet results could you expect?

Lose Weight in a Week Doing a Water Diet — How to Lose Weight Doing a Water Diet. Highly Rated Book!

Well, as always, it depends. The combination of how much you exercise, how many calories you eat, how well your metabolism is working, along with a few other factors, will determine how many pounds you will lose. Anywhere from 0-20 pounds is possible, but the higher end of that interval is if you work out a ton.

If you would go to the extreme and drink only water for seven days, you would probably lose even more. But be aware, that in this case, you would lose much more muscle mass which is a bad thing.

Other Ways to Lose Weight in a Week

If you are interested in other ways to lose weight in short period of time, here’s a list of relevant posts:

But in all honesty, in order to lose weight in a safe and sustainable way, you really have to give it more than a week. I strongly believe that the best way to lose weight in a week is to eat moderate amounts of food from a well-balanced diet that is rich in fish, vegetables and fruit. Add some lean meat, and you’re set.

It goes without saying that you should avoid junk food and sugary drinks.

To really supercharge your weight loss, you should start to exercise regularly. In fact, avoiding a sedentary lifestyle is just as important as eating from a healthy diet. This website will help you get started.

The combination of healthy foods and regular exercise is incredibly powerful. You will see immediate and amazing results. And that’s basically all that needs to be said, because the results will speak for themselves.

I didn’t mention weight loss surgery (and the special diet that comes with it), because it should only be considered as a last resort, as there are real risks involved in such procedures. Only go this route if you have tried everything else and if your doctor believes this is the best option for you.

Conclusion

If you have a job and lifestyle that allows you to visit the bathroom suspiciously often, then doing the water diet for seven days could be a good idea. Combine it with a healthy diet and some exercise and you could get a flying start on your weight loss journey.

I do not recommend an only-water-diet, as this is too extreme and involves too many risks for my taste.

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