Day 33 - Hot n Cold

Apparently, the temperature of the water you drink can make a difference to your diet. Seriously. In the main I have been drinking chilled water during my project, either from the fridge at home or the water cooler at work. Once or twice a day, I will have a hot water with a slice of lemon. But a colleague informed me weeks ago that drinking cold water is more beneficial because your body burns calories as it heats the water to your body temperature. Rubbish. Or so I thought.

I decided to do a bit of research on this and, amazingly, it turns out he was right. Well, that's according to http://health.howstuffworks.com/question447.htm This seems to be the general consensus on the articles I've looked at, which say you can burn an extra 70cals a day by drinking 8 small glasses of ice cold water. It seems reasonable to assume that your body is working that little bit harder to warm up your freezing tummy. But 0 degrees celcius? Come on. That's like drinking a snowball and, in the depths of a Northern winter, it's not something I'm prepared to do.

And there is an argument for drinking warm liquids while on a diet. While reading http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5343296_drink-green-tea-diet.html?cr=1 - an article on drinking green tea to suppress appetitie - I was surprised to read the iced drinks theory only works in the summer while a hot drinks approach works best in winter. Presumably this is because you are trying to get your body to be the opposite of how it feels, temperature-wise (cool in summer, warm in winter). And this requires energy.

Either way, I'm not sure how much difference 70 cals a day will make to my weight loss programme. After all, there are 79 cals in a Lindt Lindor truffle ball. And I've had 5 already tonight...

Day 8 (Third Post)

Well, after sticking to my water-only diet for a full seven days, no cheating, I took myself off to the gym for my weekly weigh-in. I was amazed to find that I have lost 2lbs - the first time in weeks that I have actually manged to lose any weight at all.

Now, considering the amount of calories I have saved by shunning soft drinks, alcohol and tea and coffee (with milk), I shouldn't really have been surprised. Having totted up the calories in a bottle of wine (600) five glasses of fresh orange juice (550), and three pints of milk (750), I have saved at least 1,900 calories. And that's before the extras like the odd smoothie and extra alcohol on nights out. I did always drink diet fizzy drinks and low-cal squash, but for people who don't, they could save around 140cals per 330ml can of pop and about 30cals for a glass of squash.

What really surprised me about my weight loss this week was that my diet included quite a few high-fat treats. With it being my fiance's birthday, there were several boxes of chocolates hanging around. So a couple of nights were spent devouring Maltesers and Miniature Heroes. And two scones just happened to end up on my plate yesterday when I was feeling down at one point and need a pick-me-up. Oops...

So I have by no means been an angel on the diet front, and I think this proves just what a big difference the water has made to my diet. I feel much fresher and hydrated than I did before I started and my skin is really clear, which is a relief after getting some whopping zits in the past few weeks.

Spurred on by today's weigh-in, I have no qualms about continuing my water diet and hope that some of you will join me! I've already heard from some women who have ditched drinks, except water, and have seen massive weight losses. Please feel free to leave your comments and let me know if this has worked for you or if you think it's a waste of time!