Drinking 500ml Water Half an Hour before a Meal Can Help In Weight Loss

A recently conducted study has suggested that drinking almost 500ml of water almost half an hour before eating main meals can be an efficient way for those people who want to reduce their weight.

The study, published in the journal Obesity, showed positive initial results for the trial. The team also hopes that their findings will surely inform further research into the benefits of water preloading before meals.

According to a release from the University of Birmingham, the researchers during their study recruited obese adult participants from general practices, and monitored them for over a period of 12-week.

Every participant with obesity was given a weight management consultation where they were advised on how to adapt their lifestyle and improve their diet and levels of physical activity.

Among the total participants, 41 were asked to preload with water, while 43 were advised to imagine that they had a full stomach before eating. Participants in the group, who were instructed to ‘preload’ with water, lost on average 1.3 kg more than those in the control group.

Those, who reported preloading before all three main meals in the day, reported a loss of 4.3 kg over 12 weeks, whereas those who only preloaded once, or not at all, only lost an average of 0.8 kg, researchers noted.

“The beauty of these findings is in the simplicity. Just drinking a pint of water, three times a day, before your main meals may help reduce your weight”, said Dr. Helen Parretti, of the University of Birmingham in the UK.

Some previously conducted studies have also shown some other benefits of water consumption. In 2013, Medical News Today reported in a study that drinking water before a mental task can boost brain performance.