Water With Lemon for Weight Loss?

There have been many claims about the effectiveness of warm water with lemon for weight loss. At first glance it seems just another nonsensical myth, but the abundance of empiric evidence merit some analysis before dismissing it.

It is generally believed that warm water produces gastric relaxation (and therefore hastens digestion), which would supposedly lead to substantial weight loss.

Obviously, this is completely illogical because fast gastric emptying means that you will get hungry sooner, so you will eat more, which is the opposite of want you need for losing weight – this shows just what kind of garbage information one can find on the internet. 

Contrary to popular belief, both cold and warm drinks have essentially the same effect on gastric motility. It's important to note that thermal stimuli are sensed by a myriad of gastrointestinal receptors (which are silent at body temperature) involved in reflex regulation and gut function.

“Warm and cold drinks cause suppression of antral pressure waves, alterations in the organization of antral pressure waves and stimulation of pressure waves localized to the pylorus. These changes are likely to contribute to the retardation of gastric emptying produced by warm and cold drinks.”

Consequently, this will cause an alteration of secretion of hormones associated with hunger or satiety.

“Cold receptors start to respond at temperatures below 36°C, peaking at 10-12°C; warm receptors respond most intensely at 46-49°C; and mixed thermoreceptors respond to both warming and cooling of the mucosal surface.” (Sun, 1995)

It's worth mentioning that the rate of heat transfer to the thermoreceptors in the gastric wall is dependent on both intragastric volume and the temperature gradient, which means that sipping slowly from a beverage with a temperature close to 37°C doesn't have any effect on digestion.

It seems that cool stimuli cause an increased inhibition of gastric emptying, so drinking cold water may be a better choice for reducing appetite.

Furthermore, unless you are an Ayurveda guru, chances are that you don't enjoy plain hot water anyway, so why would you force yourself pretending that you are purifying your body?

It's important to note that the most important benefit of water during dieting is that it makes your stomach feel fuller, and cooler water is more palatable. So you'll drink more of it.

Furthermore, when you exercise, especially in the heat, forget about warm water. Although we don't have conclusive data that cold fluids improve performance, we do know that they decrease body temperature, which may be important from a safety perspective.

What about water with lemon for weight loss? Most freelance writers copy paste the same crap about the lemon polyphenols that may help you to burn fat or other related nonsense.

In reality, squeezing some lemon in your water may further inhibit your appetite, and hence make you eat less. Ghrelin, which is probably the main appetite regulator (at least in the short term), is found not only in the oxyntic glands of the stomach and intestines, but also within the taste buds of the tongue.

Sour (citric acid) taste is interpreted as a prediction of further ingestion of rancid or noxious food, so the hypothalamus is informed that food intake is not desirable.

Another debate was about drinking ice cold water to burn more calories. Water induced thermogenesis is not a new concept, and Ellington Darden is arguably the most ardent proponent of this method (his method, according to him).

I bet he was very delighted when a study done in 2003 found that “drinking 500ml of water increased metabolic rate by 30%. The increase occurred within 10 minutes and reached a maximum after 30-40 minutes. The total thermogenic response was about 100kJ. Thus, drinking 2 liters of water per day would augment energy expenditure by approximately 400 kJ (which is about 96 calories). Therefore, the thermogenic effect of water should be considered when estimating energy expenditure, particularly during weight loss programs.”

However, subsequent studies found that the increase in energy expenditure induced by water is relatively small, and unless you really enjoy ice cold water, thermogenesis is not an effective way to lose weight.

Water With Lemon for Weight Loss: Putting It All Together

Drinking more cool water (from the fridge) when dieting, keeps your stomach fuller, which alleviates hunger perception.

For this purpose, sparkling water may be a better choice, especially when calories are severely reduced (Frank Zane used to drink lots of sparkling water when he was dieting). Also, you may want to add some lemon to further inhibit appetite.

So the myth about water with lemon for weight loss has a grain of truth after all.

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