What Is The Water Diet — And The Truth About Why It Makes You Lose So Much Weight
Everything you need to know about the trendy diet that requires you to ONLY drink water.
getty What is the water diet? And does the water diet work help you lose weight? If you have any interest in losing weight, I’m sure you’ve heard of plenty of methods to help you meet your goal. The question is: Which ones are worth your time? Even more importantly, which ones will actually help you lose weight and which ones will hurt you?
As any knowledgeable person will tell you, when it comes to weight loss, there is no overnight method. Like anything else in life that’s worth getting results from, it takes time. So once you accept that you won’t lose the weight overnight, you can start the process of making it actually happen.
That's why fads like the water diet can be so dangerous. What is the water diet? It’s a trendy diet that requires you to only drink water.
You heard that right: No food whatsoever until you start losing weight. Then you can squeeze in an occasional banana or pear here and there. If you’re like me, you probably just shed a tear at the thought of not being able to take a bite out of anything over the course of multiple hours, let alone a whole day.
“It’s just another name for fasting,” says registered dietician, Julie Upton.
The main problem with this water diet is that when you take food out of your meals altogether, you’re also taking out essential nutrients that your body needs to maintain its health.
According to Upton, the water diet's not even worth it because the weight the average person loses as a result of fasting, they usually gain back. For some people, they gain back even more!
There are other effects that this type of diet can have on you, too. Says Upton, “You lose more muscle compared to people losing weight from a recommended calorie reduction of 500-800 calories per day from their normal intake. What this means is that [once off the water diet] you’ll have to eat much less [to maintain weight loss] because your metabolic rate will have dropped significantly.”
Therefore, you might want to ask yourself if the water diet is worth the struggle. The water diet might actually do more harm because once you begin to drink other beverages (that aren’t water), you’ll naturally become thirstier due to the sugar within the beverages. Plus, in the absence of water you won’t feel full as much, so you’ll be inclined to eat more frequently throughout the day.
There are just too many "what ifs" to take the chance of not meeting your goals. You may lose weight initially on the water diet — but you'll have a greater likelihood of gaining everything back. You may also harm your body by taking away important nutrients, which could have lifelong effects. You never know.
With that being said, it should be more enticing now than ever to lose weight the old natural way rather then a by a quick fix: by eating cleaner, getting active, and being consistent. Losing weight is never an overnight process, no matter what the water diet promotes.
Eric Webb is a writer living in New Jersey. He has his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Penn State. He's passionate about sports and encouraging people to be themselves.