Does Lemon Water Help You Lose Weight? (From a Dietitian)

Lemon water may assist in weight loss, but it has no additional benefits over regular water.

Some evidence suggests that water—including lemon water—could enhance weight loss due to its positive effects on satiety, hydration, and metabolism.

Evidence in other studies shows that increasing water intake can help stimulate weight loss, regardless of diet or level of exercise.

Although these studies used regular water, individuals will most likely get the same effects with lemon water.

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People often confuse thirst with hunger. You might grab a snack when all your body really craves is water.

Scenarios like this highlight the importance of drinking enough water to stay hydrated so you can better interpret what your body needs.

Water carries nutrients to the cells, transports waste, and flushes out toxins built up in your system.

It’s also essential in regulating body temperature, providing energy for physical activity, and lubricating your joints [1].

Drinking lemon water can keep you from getting sick with the antioxidants in its high vitamin C content, which can strengthen your immune system.

Vitamin C fights free radicals that can cause illnesses and diseases as you age.

Luckily, one fruit can already provide you with 187% of your daily recommended dose of this antioxidant.

Also, researchers found that when consumers added lemon juice to their green tea, it prevented the breakdown of polyphenol—micronutrients in green tea that reduces heart disease risk.

A glass of water with fresh lemon juice is generally low in calories, as long as you don’t add any sugar to it.

Squeezing the fresh fruit juice into water will give you only about six kcal.

If you compare that with orange juice or soda—which contains crazy amounts of sugar—it’s obvious that lemon-infused water is healthier by a mile.

Swapping out just one glass of these beverages for water with the juice of one lemon can already save you plenty of calories and help with weight loss.

Drinking lemon water helps make you feel full without adding calories, which is why it’s an essential part of any effective weight loss program.

A study found that drinking water in the morning before eating breakfast food cuts the calories consumed by 13% [3].

Another study showed that drinking a glass of lemon water with food promoted satiety and decreased hunger during the meal [4].

However, these effects weren’t maintained after the meal.

Whether you add the juice or not, studies suggest that increasing your water intake leads to a boost in your metabolic rate.

Researchers found that increased hydration improves the function of the mitochondria, an organelle in cells that helps generate energy for your body [5].

This effect, in turn, leads to an increased metabolic rate, which may result in weight loss.

Drinking water has also been shown to speed up metabolism by inducing thermogenesis, a process in which your body burns calories to produce heat.

Lemon juice is acidic, but these acids are good for you.

In some cases, the acids in it can slow down your digestion, helping you absorb nutrients that go through your system while you eat.

Although a slower absorption rate sounds like something you wouldn’t want (since we associate a slowing metabolism with weight gain), it’s actually a very good thing.

The slow absorption rate helps your body send the nutrients where they need to go and helps regulate your blood sugar.