We have been told that drinking water on an empty stomach helps you lose weight. Scientific evidence says otherwise

The Internet and social networks are full of supposedly easy tricks that promise almost miraculous results with a minimum effort for our body. One of these tricks is a habit that many people do as if it were a ritual: drinking a large glass of water, “yes or yes”, as soon as we get out of bed in the morning. This simple gesture promises to ‘wake up’ the intestines, activate the metabolism and promote weight loss.

It’s a myth. What we hear on social networks is not always true, since we must face a large number of myths that have no scientific support behind them. And right now the best scientific evidence does not support this idea, Although it is true that drinking water increases our energy production.

Thermogenesis. To understand where this widespread myth comes from, we must analyze the term “water-induced thermogenesis”, that is, the ability of our body to begin producing energy after drinking a glass of water.

Here is a classic study In the medical literature it was observed that the consumption of 500 ml of water managed to increase the metabolic rate by around 30% during a period of 30 to 40 minutes. But although this percentage may seem incredible, the reality is that the acceleration of the metabolism translated into a total expenditure of 24 kilocalories. That is to say, its effect was so small that short-term weight loss was hardly going to be noticed due to this.

It has been verified. Subsequent research in the fields of endocrinology and nutrition has attempted to replicate these data in different contexts. We have one of the examples in a clinical trial that evaluated the physiological effects in overweight or obese people, where an increase in energy expenditure of 24% was found for 60 minutes after ingesting 500 ml of water.

But again it was seen that this slight temporary metabolic rebound does not imply a fat loss that is relevant in itself.

On the scale. If now, instead of staying in the laboratory, we go to the real effect that this habit has on patients, we find that the narrative of water on an empty stomach as a slimming remedy loses much of its support, since the scientific evidence on weight loss attributable to water consumption is, in general terms, limited and of low to moderate quality.

And the studies that have been done, despite pointing to weight loss, have a follow-up that is too short and a methodology that prevents giving a firm conclusion about applying this recommendation.

The power of water. That dismantling the myth of a glass of water on an empty stomach is anticlimactic does not mean that hydration has no value in a weight control strategy. And the evidence suggests that drinking water helps to lose weight indirectly, since the mere fact of modifying the diet to go from a high consumption of sugary soft drinks or industrial juices to drinking water eliminates hundreds of calories a day with little effort.

In addition, various trials suggest that drinking water before meals makes us feel full much sooner, which will reduce the amount of calories that we end up eating and, therefore, advancing a little further in the diet.

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