An Easy Weight Loss Strategy

It seems almost too easy to be true: New research shows drinking two glasses of water before meals can help you lose more weight.

Struggling to lose weight? Dropping a few extra pounds just got as easy as chugging two cups of water before you eat. Drinking water before every meal can help you feel full sooner, so you’ll consume fewer calories.

The research, presented at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, showed that people who are middle-aged or older and who drank two glasses of water before every meal ate 75 to 90 fewer calories at each sit-down. For some reason, this intervention did not work in younger adults. Surprisingly, no one compensated by eating more calories between meals. Over the course of 12 weeks, those who drank water before their meals lost almost 30 percent more weight than dieters who didn’t drink water before they ate. After one year, preliminary data shows that those who continued to drink water before meals not only kept those pounds off, but have even continued to lose a bit more — about 1.5 pounds on average.