--- title: How Much Water Should I Drink for Weight Loss? description: Drink more water, lose more weight. Those who sip 16 ounces before meals lose far more weight than those who don't up their water intake canonical: https://time.com/4011532/water-weight-loss/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-26T17:29:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:03.275Z article:section: Health og:title: Can Drinking More Water Help You Lose Weight? og:description: Drink more water, lose more weight. Those who sip 16 ounces before meals lose far more weight than those who don't up their water intake og:url: https://time.com/4011532/water-weight-loss/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteca37b2585160d0c/69878467e53abaf7b54d8280/200337147-001-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=357&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 357 og:image:height: 201 og:image:alt: water-glass og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Can Drinking More Water Help You Lose Weight? twitter:description: Drink more water, lose more weight. Those who sip 16 ounces before meals lose far more weight than those who don't up their water intake twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteca37b2585160d0c/69878467e53abaf7b54d8280/200337147-001-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=357&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Drinking Water Helps You Lose More Weight, Study Finds > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Should I Drink Seltzer Water? [Watch (HLS stream): Should I Drink Seltzer Water?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SSdTN2EQ.m3u8) (1:30)  _Published 2015-02-04. Seltzer -- also known as bubbly water, carbonated water, soda water and sparkling water -- comes with as many health myths as it does names. Luckily, seltzer is one of the rare instances where something you love drinking isn’t bad for you._  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Aug 26, 2015 5:29 PM UTC  Glass of water on wood Glass of water on wood Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Aug 26, 2015 5:29 PM UTC Chug a couple glasses of water before eating a meal, and you may eat less without even trying. Those are the results from a new [study](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21167/abstract) published in the journal _Obesity_, in which researchers rounded up obese adults to see if drinking water before eating could help them shed pounds. “If you look at any sort of weight management programs, they all say drinking lots of water is a really good thing,” says study author Dr. Amanda Daley of the University of Birmingham in the UK. “We said, let’s go see what the actual evidence is for this.” Finding little in the literature, Daley and her colleagues recruited 84 adults with obesity for a 12-week experiment. Everyone was given general weight loss advice, then assigned to one of two groups. One group was told to drink 500 ml—about 16 oz—of water half an hour before their meals, while the other group was told to simply imagine their stomachs were full before meals. The researchers monitored everyone’s weight at the start, middle and end of the experiment, along with their urine to make sure the water-boosted group was indeed drinking more water. They kept track of physical activity, too, which didn’t change. The group that loaded up on water lost about three more pounds than the group that didn’t up their water intake. And the more they drank, the better the results; people who drank 16 ounces before every meal lost about 4.3 kg, or 9 pounds, over the course of the experiment. “That’s about what you get from going to Weight Watchers for 12 weeks,” Daley says. “That’s a real success.” (Weight Watchers counts [weekly weight loss of half a pound to two pounds](http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index%5Fart.aspx?tabnum=1&art%5Fid=33161&sc=3013) as on track.) Water might be so effective because, obviously, “it fills you up” and helps increase satiety, Daley says. Drinking a couple glasses of water 30 minutes before a meal gives you time to feel fuller, which can help shape decisions about what you eat, she adds. This is just a first step at getting good evidence, and more research is needed before the mechanisms are fully discovered. But Daley thinks that drinking more water before meals can help everybody with weight management, regardless of BMI status. “We all get fatter over time, so it might well work as a prevention strategy at a population level,” she says. “We want people to drink more water anyway.” ## Transcript Seltzer. Also known as bubbly water. Carbonated water. Sparkling water. Soda water. Comes with as many health myths as it does names. Luckily seltzer is one of the rare instances where something you love to drink actually isn't bad for you. We asked five experts. And all of them say bottoms up to bubbles. Seltzer is a great soda alternative since it doesn't have calories or sugar. Professor Laureen Smith of Ohio State University says it's great for getting kids to stop drinking sugary sodas. The carbonation won't leech calcium from your bones and seltzer is not associated with lower bone density in women. Men. That's according to studies by Robert Heaney of the Creighton University School of Medicine and Douglas Kiel of Harvard Medical School. Basically, drinking seltzer water is like drinking regular water, says Sarah Bleich of John's Hopkins School of Public Health. It's harmless. The bubbles might even help you feel more full and eat less fat, according to one study. Lastly, seltzer water tends to grace the glasses of the rich says Adam Drewnowski, Director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington. According to him, seltzer water is just plain tap water going upscale. 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