The overall health of a person is partly determined by the general state of his weight.  Being overweight or obese can be a precipitating factor in the development of several life-altering conditions such as atherosclerosis, cardiovascular and respiratory problems as well as arthritis.  It is important therefore, to practice healthy habits – proper diet, health-promoting lifestyle and regular exercise.

Two of the most recommended ways in order for one to lose weight are: balanced calorie intake and exercise. To have a healthy body, these two techniques should be a part of a person’s daily routine and should be closely followed according to one’s metabolic rate.  Majority of us knows that exercises, if properly identified and executed, burns the extra calories in the body.  But not everyone knows that there are certain foods that can increase the body’s metabolism.  When the body metabolizes, or burns calories, to be used as energy, the body will, in time, decrease body mass, especially if what is burned are the extra body fat.   However, losing weight does not anymore depend on what we, or what we do not eat per se – we can also carefully choose what to drink to help promote weight loss. As it turns out, some drinks, which are actually considered as food, can actually increase metabolism, which will eventually help in losing one’s weight.  Below are some of the helpful drinks:

Water

So we heard about drinking eight glasses of water per day. What is the wisdom behind this advice? Many people argue that drinking lots of water actually decreases their appetite. A study conducted by a group of researchers had proven that this is actually true.  Presented to the American Chemical Society in Boston, Brenda Davy, a nutrition researcher of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, has asserted that drinking more water will actually help one lose weight. 

In a study conducted and reported in 2008, adults with ages 55 to 75 who drank two cups of water approximately 30 minutes before meals are eating fewer calories compared to those who do not. By fewer, it means 13 percent less than the usual calorie intake.  To further evaluate this result, Davy made another study of the same age group of overweight and obese adults.  They were asked to eat meals consisting between 1200 to 1500 calories/day.  Those who drank 16 oz. of water before meals actually lost an average of 15.5 pounds after 3 months, compared to those who did not, who only lost an average of 11 pounds.  The experiment has shown that water may indeed have a long lasting feeling of fullness to people.  Further experiments are yet to be conducted to prove this result since there are newer studies showing that water increases metabolism. Additionally, some suspects that the reason might be that people consume less sugar-loaded beverage when they consume more water.  At any rate, there is actually no harm in drinking water to lose one’s weight.

Vegetable Juice

According to Dr. Carl L. Keen of the University of California-Davis, drinking at least an 8 oz. cup of vegetable juice per day will aid in reducing weight, since there will be a reduction of appetite.  In the study he conducted, those who followed a certain calorie controlled diet and drank a cup of vegetable juice daily lost four pounds after 12 weeks, compared to those who followed the diet yet did not drink the recommended vegetable juice; they only lost one pound within the same time period.  For a longer time, there is a belief that those who consume more vegetables and fruits have lesser weights, and this has been proven by the said study.  However, not only will the person lose weight, they will also gain necessary nutrients from the vegetables. The best vegetable juices which provide greater weight loss are carrots, celery, cucumber, Chinese cabbage and tomato.

Black Coffee

Some studies have shown that drinking coffee, black without sugar, can actually increase the body’s ability to lose weight.  Although, increasing caffeine has not shown that it will result to permanent weight loss, theories on why caffeine has this effect are abundant.  The most common theory is that caffeine suppresses appetite.  Many diet pills have caffeine as a major ingredient for the intention of reducing one’s desire to eat.  Another reason is that the caffeine in coffee stimulates the sympathetic nervous system which will eventually increase the calories burned by the body, resulting to losing of weight.

Green Tea

According to a report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, drinking green tea extract resulted to a boost in metabolism; that is, there is an increase use of energy by the body.  Green tea has a high concentration of catechin polyphenols, which has shown to increase the metabolic rate of a person by four percent.  Additionally, rats which were injected with enough amounts of green tea lost weight by 21 percent due to loss in appetite.  They ate only 60 percent of their food. 

Home-made Smoothie

Smoothies are blended and chilled fresh fruits and vegetables, together with yogurt.  In the right amounts of ingredients, smoothies can help in increasing metabolism through its carbohydrates, protein and fats.  There are hundreds of smoothie recipes available everywhere that can be a meal substitute, especially for breakfast.  Not only will smoothies help in reducing weight, it also gives high amounts of antioxidants helpful for the body to fight off the damaging effects of oxidations brought about by free radicals.

100% Fruit Juice

The US Department of Agriculture recommended that an average person should consume 5-9 servings of fruits daily.  However, it is shown that consuming fresh fruits are difficult to fulfill considering that some have aversion towards eating fruits.  However, by juicing them up, one can achieve the recommended amounts of fruit servings far more quicker than by simply eating and munching on the fruit.  By juicing and squeezing the fruit, all the necessary nutrients are included in the juice, unlike processed juices which have reduced the important enzymes due to heating process. A 100% fruit juice can help in promoting weight loss by up to three pounds during the first week of juice fasting, according to some dieters. 

Sources
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