|
Americans, not by the
thousands but by the millions are getting fatter each year. If you
vacationed in Florida this past summer, then you know what I'm
talking about.
Have you ever seen so
many overweight and extremely obese people at the beach? Or how
about the profiles of all those family fun-seekers who, with ice
creams in one hand and hot dogs in the other, crowd the major
theme parks? They seem to come in three sizes: fat, fatter, and
even fatter!
Oh, sure, you do see a
few lean individuals at the beach and at the theme parks. But I
guarantee you 99% of these people are 18 years of age or younger.
You have to walk, and walk, and walk some more to find a single
person in great shape, who is over the age of 40.
I'm not going to present
my lengthy philosophy about why and how Americans should decrease
their dietary calories to lose fat and intensify their exercise to
build muscle. You've probably heard it several times already.
What I want to describe
is something that is much simpler to apply than dieting and
exercising. That something is Superhydration, or the drinking of
at least one gallon of ice-cold water each day.
Superhydration, practiced
properly, can make a valuable contribution toward combating and
conquering obesity in the United States, and throughout the world.
The Origins of Superhydration
I didn't invent the
concept of drinking large amounts of cold water, but I was the
first person to popularize it by connecting it to my fat-loss
courses. Also, I was probably the first author to provide specific
directions on why, how, and when to consume the fluid.
I did have a lot of help,
however. Dr. Harold Schendel, my major nutrition professor at
Florida State University, hammered me with the value of drinking
lots of water in losing fat. Brenda Hutchins, who worked with me
on many recipes in my early fat-loss studies, made major
contributions. Connie May, who trained many research subjects at
the Nautilus headquarters in Dallas, Texas, had several great
ideas concerning water drinking. And so did Terry Duschinski, the
owner of a personal training center in DeLand, Florida.
Superhydration began to
formalize in 1985 as I supervised three large groups of subjects
through the Nautilus diet program at Joe Cirulli's large fitness
center in Gainesville, Florida. I instructed the groups to drink
64 ounces of water a day. Back then, I didn't understand fully the
ice-cold concept, so the fluid could be consumed at any
temperature. This research was published in a major book called
"The Nautilus Diet."
When Nautilus
Sports/Medical Industries relocated the headquarters in 1987 to
Dallas, I continued to research and refine these ideas. These
findings were published in three books:
-
The Six-Week
Fat-to-Muscle Makeover
-
32 Days to a 32-Inch
Waist
-
Hot Hips and Fabulous
Thighs
By now, my water
recommendations were up to 128 ounces a day and I was beginning to
explore the advantages of consuming cold water.
After three years in
Dallas, I returned to the Gainesville Health and Fitness Center,
and from 1990 through 1997, I developed four more courses of
action:
During these courses, I
proved that chilled water was a significant boon to the fat-loss
process. I actually had some of my subjects progress up to two
gallons of fluid a day. Interestingly, the individuals in my
programs who consistently drank the most cold water tended to lose
the most fat.
Over the last dozen
years, 549 women and 271 men have officially completed one of my
routines that involved Superhydration. Not a single one of these
participants ever suffered from any major medical problem as a
result of drinking at least one gallon of ice-cold water each day
for the duration of the course.
The reason I mention this
fact is because Superhydration has been criticized as problematic
or dangerous. "People can't drink that much water without getting
sick," noted a medical advisor, who vetoed a review of one of my
books from being published in a large newspaper.
"They not only can drink
that much water," I've discovered, "but they thrive on it."
Let's take a closer look
at why your body thrives on water.
Water and the Human Body
The human body is
from 50-65% water. But not all body components have the same water
percentage. Your blood, for example, is 90% water, your brain is
85%, your muscle is 72%, your skin is 71%, your bone is 30%, and
your fat is 15%.
As your body experiences
dehydration, you feel it first in those systems that contain the
most water. For example, you lose your mental alertness and you
suffer from overall muscular weakness. The last component that
dehydration affects is your fat. That's why excessive sweating
makes almost no dent in reducing your body-fat percentage.
Men have more water in
their bodies than women, primarily because men have more muscle
mass and less fat than women. A lean man with a body weight of 180
pounds may have 14 gallons of water in his system. A gallon of
water (128 ounces) weighs approximately 8 pounds, so simple
multiplication (8 x 14) reveals that 112 pounds of this man's body
is water.
You may not think of
water as food, but it's the most critical nutrient in your daily
life. You can only live a few days without it. Every process in
your body requires water. For instance, it:
-
acts as a solvent for
vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and glucose
-
carries nutrients
through the system
-
makes food digestion
possible
-
lubricates the joints
-
serves as a shock
absorber inside the eyes and spinal cord
-
maintains body
temperature
-
rids the body of waste
products through the urine
-
eliminates heat through
the skin, lungs, and urine
-
keeps the skin supple
-
assists muscular
contraction
Partial Dehydration
Water contributes to
so many functions that most people take it for granted. At the end
of a long workday, maybe you have a headache. Plus, your eyes are
irritated, your back hurts, and your entire body has a dull
numbness. You blame it on stress and lack of sleep over the
weekend.
Maybe you're right. But
more likely, you're simply suffering from partial dehydration.
Perhaps you had several
cups of coffee for breakfast, a high-fat lunch with more coffee or
maybe an alcoholic drink or two, and spent the rest of your time
breathing air-conditioned or heated air at work, all of which has
left your body, and most of its systems, dry and parched. Unless
you've been drinking water throughout the day, dehydration is your
problem.
If you are attuned and
sensitive enough to your body's signals, you should be able to
recognize some of the early warnings of dehydration:
-
dizziness
-
headache
-
fatigue
-
thirst
-
flushed skin
-
blurred vision
-
muscle weakness
These warning signs merit
your attention. Unfortunately, most people never realize that they
spend most days in a state of partial dehydration.
Although thirst is an
important warning sign, many people seem to be desensitized to the
signal. Some people, especially adults over 40, may actually have
a decreased sensation of thirst.
Water and Fat Loss
Large amounts of
water facilitate the fat-loss process in a number of ways:
Kidney-liver function
Your kidneys require
abundant water to function properly. If your kidneys do not get
enough water, your liver takes over and assumes some of the
functions of the kidneys. This diverts your liver from its primary
duty, to metabolize stored fat into usable energy.
If your liver is
preoccupied with performing the chores of your water-depleted
kidneys, it doesn't efficiently convert the stored materials into
usable chemicals. Thus, your fat loss stops, or at least plateaus.
Superhydration accelerates the metabolism of fat.
Appetite control
Lots of water flowing
over your tongue keeps your taste buds cleansed of flavors that
might otherwise trigger a craving. Furthermore, water keeps your
stomach feeling full between meals, which can help take the edge
off your appetite.
Urine production
Here's a
little-understood fact: As much as 85% of your daily heat loss
emerges from your skin. Heat emerging from your skin is important
because another word for heat is calories, and another word for
calories is fat. That's right, most of your fat is lost through
your skin in the form of heat. Anyway, the remaining 15% of that
heat loss is divided between warm air coming from your lungs and
warm fluid being passed out through the normal urination process.
Superhydration can
double, triple, or even quadruple your urine production. As a
result, you'll be able to eliminate more heat. Remember, inside
your body, fat loss means heat loss. So get used to going to the
bathroom more frequently than normal.
Cold-water connection
Have you ever wished
for a food that supplies negative calories? Let's say such a food
exists and it contains a minus 100 calories per serving. Any time
you feel like a piece of chocolate cake or a donut, all you have
to do to compensate is simply follow the sweet with two servings
of the negative-calorie food. Prestoplus 200 calories and minus
200 calories yields 0 calories. While no negative-calorie food
exists in science, ice-cold water has a similar, but smaller,
effect inside your body.
When you drink chilled
water, which is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, your system has to
heat the fluid to a core body temperature of 98.6. This process
requires almost 1 calorie to warm each ounce of cold water to body
temperature. Thus, an 8-ounce glass of cold water burns
approximately 8 calories, or 7.69 to be exact. Extend that over 16
glasses, 128 ounces, or one gallon, and you've generated 123
calories of heat energy, which is significant.
There's real
calorie-burning power in cold water. A professor of biology from
the University of Florida added to my understanding of the
cold-water connection when he pointed out that melting ice and a
burning candle both require the transfer of heat. They simply
modify their forms. The ice changes from solid to liquid, and the
candle from solid to gas. Both transfers, or changes, involve
heat.
Constipation help
When deprived of
water, your system pulls cellular fluid from your lower intestines
and bowel creating hard, dry stools. One of the big roles of water
is to flush waste from the body. This is a substantial task during
fat metabolism because waste tends to accumulate quickly.
Superhydration tends to make people more regular and consistent
with their bowel movements, which is helpful to the overall
fat-loss process.
Water-Drinking Guidelines
How do you drink a
gallon of ice-cold water a day? "With great difficulty," you may
reply. Although such a recommendation may sound difficult, in
fact, it only presents a few minor problems, such as how, when,
and where. Each of these problems can be solved with some
intelligent planning.
How
One secret is to
not drink the water, but to sip it. Get yourself one of those
32-ounce plastic bottles, the kind that has a long straw in the
top. I've found that most people can consume water easier with a
straw than trying to gulp it down the standard way with a glass.
Also, while you're checking out various bottles, select one that
is insulated. The insulation will keep your fluid colder for a
longer time.
When
Another tip is to
spread your water drinking throughout the day. Here's a useful
guide that I worked out for more than 100 men who went though my
six-week, fat-loss plan in "Living Longer Stronger."
|
