[Music] in my video series starting with how to get the weight loss benefits of a fedra without the risks I noted how drinking water affects the release of the adrenal hormone noradrenaline making it the safest metabolic booster for weight loss and recommended drinking two cups of cold water on an empty stomach a few times a day ideally before meals is a form of that negative calorie pre-loading as I discuss in my video evidence-based weight loss but what about just staying hydrated in general in a national survey one of the weight control practices most associated with
successful weight loss was drink plenty of water but it was also associated with unsuccessful attempts at weight loss it's just one of the most popular weight loss tips across the board both in the mainstream media and a common recommendation given to patients by their positions but does it work can we just Add Water about a dozen Studies have been published on the matter and overall there does appear to be a weight reducing benefit to increased water consumption what's the obvious confounder though uh confounding factors also known as lurking variables are some third element that ends
up being the true explanation for a supposed length between two things here's a textbook example there may be a tight correlation between ice cream sails and drowning deaths but that doesn't mean ice cream causes drowning a more likely explanations that there's a lurking third variable like hot weather summertime that explains why drowning deaths are highest when ice cream consumption is at its peak so what might be a confounding factor that offers an alternate explanation of why those who drink more tend to lose more weight maybe it's because those who drink more water tend to drink
less soda so maybe the reason more water is associated to more weight loss is because there's the third variable a confounding variable like less soda consumption connected to both and that's the real cause the primary reason that the CDC USDA American Medical Association American Diabetes Association American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend drinking water for weight management is as a replacement of beverages with calories even replacing one sugary beverage or beer with water per day is associated with a lower incidence of obesity over time American Children and adolescents drink so much soda
that replacing all sugary beverages with water could result in an average reduction of 235 calories a day and what about exercise that's another obvious confounder candidate after all who drinks a lots of water those who spend hours working out so no wonder water drinkers might be slimmer a study of dieting overweight women took both soda and exercise into account and still however found a benefit associated with increased water consumption over a year those who drink at least a liter a day of water lost about five more pounds on average than those who didn't the researchers
were able to control for physical activity and intake of other beverages but what about other Foods it turns out that those who drink more water also tend to eat more fruits and vegetables Greens and Beans and whole grains and total sugar and less fast food no wonder they're healthier weight to control for dietary factors the scientific world had to bring out the big guns Harvard's big cohort studies that follow the diets and health have more than 100,000 doctors and nurses for decades they were able to control not just for other Beverages and lifestyle factors such
as exercise smoking sleeping and TV watching but a wide range of healthy and unhealthy food intakes from fruits and vegetables to meat candy consumption they were the first to show that increasing water intake per se was independently and significantly associated with less weight gain over the long term consumption patterns in these studies were by self-report though prents were just asked to fill out detailed questionnaires about their diet for more of an objective measure researchers directly assess people's hydration status by assessing their blood and urine concentrations in both adults and children the more hydrated people were
the less likely they were to be obese spot checking urine from nearly 10,000 men and women research found that nearly half of obese individuals were walking around under hydrated compared to fewer than one and three individuals who were normal weight or lighter uh the problem with snapshot in time studies is you don't know which came first did underhydration lead to obesity or did obesity lead to under hydration at a heavier weight you actually need more water the daily water requirements of a man of average height weighing 210 lb may actually be four cups more than
the same man at 160 lb and who's more hydrated those who eat more water-rich foods like fruits and vegetables there's that Spectre of confounding again the only way to prove cause and effect is to put it to the test in an inter conventional trial which I'll cover next [Music]
