Rule 4: Drink a Glass of Water Before Every Meal

This is one of the five simple rules that are the basis of the Stop Hunger Diet. Stick to these and you are well on your way to losing weight and keeping it off, and helping people too. See the other rules.

Why water with evey meal?

Just a simple glass of water prior to every main meal will help to give you a fuller feeling and will take up some of the room in your stomach that will otherwise be taken up by food. So this will lead to the consumption of less food volume, and hopefully kilojoules if you're eating low fat foods. Tap water is the best if it is potable (depending on where in the world you live). This is an environmentally better choice by the reduction of water bottles in landfill, and it also reduces the costly nature of buying bottled water.
There is recent research also to suggest that having soup as an entree before a meal can help reduce the volume and kilojoules of the total meal consumed.

Research to Back this up

A new study supports the rule of having a glass of water before evey meal as in this diet. Scientists at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in in Boston in 2010 were told by the study author Brenda Davy that over the course of 12 weeks, dieters who drank water before meals, three times per day, lost about 5 pounds (2.3kg) more than dieters who did not increase their water intake. Having water is most likely effective because it fills the stomach up with a zero-calorie substance. And it is not just any drink. People should drink more water and less sugary, high-calorie drinks.

The research team divided 48 adults aged 55-75 into two groups - one which drank two glasses of water before their meals and one which didn't. Both undertook a low-calorie diet during the test period. After 12 weeks, they found the group that drank water lost an average of seven kilograms (15.5 pounds), while the group that didn't lost an average of five kilograms (15.5 pounds).

It is pretty simple. People who drink water before their meal feel fuller as a result, and eat less calorie-containing food during the meal. Increased water consumption may also help people lose weight if they drink it in place of sweetened calorie-containing beverages.

So go on, drink more water!

SOURCE: News release from the American Chemical Society. The study was funded by the charity, The Institute for Public Health and Water Research. As this study was presented at a medical conference, the findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the 'peer review' process.

Have you tried this diet? Do you have a comment or feedback? we would love to hear from you.