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Drink Water!

Benefits for weight loss (and more!)

drink water on Tumblr

Drinking water is one of the most fundamental basics of ana and weight loss in general. Here are some of the benefits.

Kate Bosworth Hides Her Water on 'Still Alice' Set!: Photo 3069953 | Alec Baldwin, Julianne ...
  1. Water suppresses hunger.
    Your mind often mistakes thirst for hunger. When you are hungry, always drink water first! Even if you really ARE hungry, not thirsty, water will suppress your appetite further. Chugging water quickly might even make you too nauseated or full to eat.
  2. Water fills you up faster.
    Sip water between bites to fill up faster from the same food. This also helps you pause while eating, which can help if you have a history of binging or eating too fast. Also, if you do purge, sipping water between bites while binging will help make the food easier to purge later. But maybe it will slow you down enough you won’t even feel the need to purge.
  3. Water may increase calorie burn! Very limited studies show some evidence that the body burns calories immediately after drinking water. There is evidence especially that drinking cold water causes the body to expend calories to create warmth in response to the cold. It’s probably a fairly negligible amount of calories tbh, but any calorie burned is a bonus, especially with all the other benefits.
  4. Water is essential to burn fat! The process of burning fat, lipolysis, requires water. Make sure you are hydrated to maximize your fat burning. Between the lipolysis and potential increase in calorie burn, drinking water can boost your metabolism.
  5. Fluid pushes fluid. Drinking more water will help keep you from retaining water. Of course other factors influence this, especially if you are very underweight or have other ED factors like malnutrition or laxative abuse, but overall, drinking enough water will remove dehydration as a cause for retaining water weight and give you a better idea of your real weight.
  6. Water is essential for brain function. All the chemicals and electrical signals in your brain are conducted through fluid which mainly consists of water. Drinking water is absolutely necessary, especially since restriction and fasting can cause brain fog. We don’t want any unnecessary strains on our thinking.
  7. Water clears waste and purifies the body. Water is necessary to carry waste products out of your body, removing toxins and making you more pure and clean. Dehydration can contribute to constipation as well, so before you go for laxatives, make sure you are getting enough water. It is especially necessary to hydrate before, during, and after workouts. Sweating removes impurities and toxins, so you want to sweat a lot to get that crap out of your body, and replace that fluid with fresh clean water. Toxins are excreted through liquid and solid waste and the skin via sweating, all of which require water. Drink enough to facilitate that process, you don’t want toxins building up in your body. There are lots of fake “cleanses” and “detoxes” out there; all you really need is water.
  8. Water replaces higher-calorie drinks. This may be a weight loss benefit for normies who are used to chugging hundreds of calories of full-sugar soda and juice without a thought, but as anas you should already have broken the calorie-drink habit. However I thought I’d include this tip here just to be more complete. If you still crave juice, try diluting a small amount in water. Honestly though, unless you prefer to get your calories/meals in liquid form like smoothies or protein mixes (some people find this easier than eating) you really should be drinking minimal calories. If you do consume liquid calories, think of it like a food, and always make it a carefully considered choice like all your other calories.

Tips for getting enough water:

Get cute water bottles or cups. This really makes drinking water more pleasant and fun for me. You can choose the style that works best for you: an open cup, pop-up straw, spout, open mouth water bottle, cup with straw, coffee spout….whatever feels clean and makes you comfortable. Personally I love Hello Kitty water bottles!

Hello kitty emoticons

Fill multiple water bottles and cups and leave them around so there is always one within reach. When you need to refill it, remember that is an excuse to get more steps in.

Drink from your water bottle every time you see it. Sipping throughout the day is better than drinking full glasses. You absorb more and it keeps you more hydrated. So just take a sip whenever you notice your water.

Track water in your calorie/fitness tracker. To make this easier, consider getting a water bottle with measurements marked on it.

Male Thinspo — Drink water!

Make your water more interesting with water enhancers like Mio, Crystal Light, or Waterdrop; or make your own infusions with natural fruits and herbs. Some even have health benefits.

Rosseto’s Favorite Summer Infused Water Recipes

Anyway I hope this inspires you to drink more water and explains some of the reasons behind it. Most importantly, NEVER restrict water!! Always drink water when fasting!! Restricting water is extremely dangerous with no benefit. Humans can survive weeks or months without food, but only days without water. It will destroy your body and mind very quickly. If you want to be thin, water is your friend.

Kuolemansynnit: Thinspiration lähteitä
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Tips

TDEE, BMR, and RMR

Numbers you need to know

BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate – This is the number of calories your body burns just keeping itself alive. So things like your heartbeat, breathing, all the ongoing internal repairs, your organs carrying out their functions…basically what you would burn if you were in a coma.

RMR: Resting Metabolic Rate – this is very similar to BMR but I prefer BMR because it is slightly more conservative and therefore less likely to be overestimated, or at least not by as much. RMR is what the body burns at rest, like sitting or laying around. There is such a thing as REE (Resting Energy Expenditure) which is a small amount of extra energy expended by your body at rest. RMR would include things like keeping your posture, getting up to go to the bathroom, moving at all like reaching for a glass of water or even turning over in bed. So BMR is a better calculation because RMR is still including activity, even a small amount, and BMR calculators are already at risk of overestimating. Unfortunately, to know your REAL BMR you would have to pay to be tested in a clinic. But the more you know about your body composition (fat % vs muscle %) the more accurate your calculations will be.

Here’s the basic equation (Harris-Benedict)

Women:

BMR = 655 + (9.6 × weight in kg) + (1.8 × height in cm) – (4.7 × age in years)

Men:

BMR = 66 + (13.7 × weight in kg) + (5 × height in cm) – (6.8 × age in years)

Another formula which is thought to be more accurate is the Mifflin St. Jeor

Men – 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5
Women – 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) – 161

If you know your lean body mass or body fat %, you can use the Katch McArdle formula

BMR = 370 + (21.6 x Lean Body Mass(kg) )

Lean Body Mass = (Weight(kg) x (100-(Body Fat)))/100

A calculator that includes your body composition is more likely to be closer to accurate, since having a higher body fat % means burning less calories at rest, because muscle burns more calories than fat. All the more reason not to skip those weights in your workout. 😉

Knowing your approximate BMR (or exact, if you’re able to shell out the cash for a clinical test) is important in choosing your calorie total. Personally, I don’t like to eat more than my BMR because I think mine is a bit lower than average, I’m concerned about overestimation, and I just don’t trust measures of calories burned with exercise. I like to keep track of them, but if my Fitbit or online calculator says I burned exactly 276 calories doing whatever exercise, I’m not going to assume that’s true and actually plan my food around it. Besides, I don’t exercise to make caloric “room” for more food. However, a lot of people say they have been able to eat just a few hundred cals under their TDEE (explained below) and lose weight so they must fit exactly into the statistical average these equations were made for, or maybe be underestimating. It’s not something I bank on. But it works for some and it is good to know anyway, whether or not you use it to determine your daily limit. I would expect it would be more accurate for extremely active people vs sedentary, who might have a lower BMR due to body comp anyway.

TDEE: Total Daily Energy Expenditure – this is the total amount of calories you burn each day, consisting of your calories burned through activity and/or exercise on top of your BMR. Calculators will usually use a BMR calculation, and then ask you to rate your activity level on some kind of qualitative scale (for example, “sedentary, light activity, moderate activity, strenuous activity” or similar.) I like to always use “sedentary” or maybe “light activity” just to counteract any tendency to overestimate. It’s helpful to try a few settings, to compare and get an idea of how many more you might burn by increasing exercise. As an alternative to a calculator, you could track your exercise calories during an average week or month, take an average, and add this to your BMR.

Here is a popular TDEE calculator that accounts for a lot of factors: https://tdeecalculator.org

There are calculators for BMR and RMR also, just look it up online.

I hope this helps you set your calorie goals and better estimate your projected weight loss. To estimate your projected weight loss, you can use these calculators

https://www.precisionnutrition.com/weight-loss-calculator

https://www.losertown.org/eats/cal.php

Honestly, a lot of the time I just choose my calorie limit based on a number that sounds good to me. 600 just seems like an almost perfect number, and is sustainable for a decent period of time. I also like 800. If I have a lot to accomplish and am exercising a lot I can do 1000 or even 1200 as a top limit. A lot of people in ED/weight loss community swear by the “TDEE minus 500” thing though. That reminds me, 3500 calories in a pound of fat. Use that to calculate projected loss based on your deficit. So 500 cal deficit times 7 days would be a pound a week. Whatever works for you. The important thing is that you stay in a calorie deficit, whether this is daily, or an average trend, for example people who allow a day over TDEE every week or some days every month. As long as the average is a deficit trend. It really depends on how quickly you want your weightloss, how low an intake you can maintain, what will satisfy your own personal ana or mia needs, and what your health concerns may be, if any.

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