Can more water consumption help us lose weight?

If you've ever tried to lose extra pounds, you've probably received this advice: drink more water. Or maybe it was more specific: drink a full glass of water before every meal. The second suggestion seems like a reasonable idea, doesn't it? If you fill your stomach with water before eating, you will feel fuller and stop eating sooner. But did it work for you? Would drinking more water during the day work?

As mentioned, drinking water before a meal has its reasons. Your stomach has nerves that sense stretching and send signals to your brain that it's time to stop eating. It is hypothesized that drinking water before a meal could send similar signals.

Evidence: Some small, short-term studies support this idea. For example, older subjects who drank a full glass of water before a meal tended to eat less than those who did not. Another study found that people who followed a low-calorie diet and drank more water before meals had less appetite and greater weight loss over 12 weeks than those on a similar diet without extra water. But no studies have evaluated the impact of drinking extra water on long-term weight loss.

Burning calories. The water we drink has to be heated to body temperature, which is a process that requires our body to spend a certain amount of energy. The energy expended in this process - called thermogenesis - could contribute to calorie loss.