Drinking a warm glass of water with lemon for weight loss first thing in the morning combined with healthy eating and exercise provides a successful recipe to lose those unwanted pounds. In a the book, The Lemon Juice Diet, author and health writer Theresa Cheung attributes the struggle with weight loss that many people face to a sluggish digestive system. To compound the problem conventional dieting tends to make it even worse. Adding lemons to your diet, including the juice and peel, boosts digestion and aids in losing those unwanted pounds.
Benefits of Drinking Water with Lemon for Weight Loss
Adding lemon juice to your drinking water helps the digestive system and elimination process. With that, it aids in preventing constipation and diarrhea. Some of the other benefits include:
- Lemon is rich in vitamin C
- Helps to lose weight faster naturally
- Flushes toxins from the body
- Promotes a stronger immune system
- Helps to purify the blood
- Natural antiseptic
- Increases the acidity of the digestive system
- Helps the body absorb calcium
If you plan to drink water with lemon for weight loss, you'll need to drink 8-10 eight-ounce glasses daily, and once you've lost the weight continue to drink at least one eight-ounce glass of water with lemon each day.
Lemon Juice Diet
The Lemon Juice Diet is not complicated. Here are the basics:
1. Add juice of one lemon to a 8 oz. glass of warm water and drink first thing in the morning.
2. Eat at least five servings of fruits and veggies daily
3. Eat protein with each meal
4. Eat five or six small meals (helps to fight cravings)
5. Cut back on sugary foods
6. Cut back on refined foods like:
- white bread
- white rice
- instant potatoes
- white pasta
7. Eat the right fats - Unsaturated fats actually help you to lose weight because they help delay carbohydrates from entering your bloodstream. Be sure to take in omega and omega 6 which can be found in:
- nuts
- seeds
- oily fish
8. Take in plenty of fresh whole foods like:
- whole-grain pasta
- wholegrain bread
- wholegrain cereals
- vegetables
- fruit
- fresh soups
- smoothies
- salad with every meal
Other items to note:
- Limit alcohol to one small glass of wine per day
- Limit consumption of coffee and tea
- Avoid carbonated beverages
- Avoid sweetened fruit juices
- When eating fruit also eat a handful of nuts or seeds to help slow the impact of the natural sugars in your system.
- Avoid artificial sweeteners (known to increase sugar cravings)
- Avoid saturated fats (red meat, cakes and pastries, and trans-fatty acids in processed foods).
The Role of Pectin
You may crinkle your nose at the thought of adding lemon peel to your recipes, but the pectin found in lemon peel is a great source of fiber and works like a weight loss aid as it turns into a sticky gel when digested. This gel substance stops the stomach from absorbing sugar too fast. In fact, the American College of Nutrition published a study that says pectin is able to do away with the urge to eat for up to four hours.
Other Key Factors to Help Lose Weight
Chew Your Food
Another key to a healthy digestive system and losing weight is to slow down as you eat. Today in our hurry-scurry society with more to do than time to do it, we tend to gulp down our meals so fast we don't remember tasting them. Slow down. Take the time to chew properly, as the process of chewing serves more than one purpose. It relaxes the lower stomach muscle and sends nerve messages to activate the digestive process. If you don't take the time to chew your food thoroughly nutrients remain undigested.
Moderate Portions
Portion control is another key to losing weight. Keep your portions moderate, and if you think you want more, make yourself wait 20 minutes. This gives your brain time to catch up with your stomach to know whether or not you are really still hungry or just want more because you like the taste.
If you're drinking water with lemon for weight loss, and following the other guidelines of the lemon juice diet, you don't have to worry about counting calories. You can eat as much as you want of the right foods (but remember to wait 20 minutes to be sure you're really hungry), and be sure to drink your lemon with water and include lemon in at least one of your meals each day. Combine this with 30 minutes of exercise a day at least five days a week, and you'll see those pounds fall off.
