Failing to drink enough water? This might be the reason you aren’t meeting your weight loss goals. Express.co.uk spoke exclusively to Personal Trainer Alexandra Fitai to find out why.
Alexandra’s top piece of advice for slimmers was not to book a gym membership or overhaul your supermarket shop.
Instead, she urged those on their weight loss journey to scrap the sugary drinks.
The expert explained: “Carbonated drinks and sodas are a big NO when starting your journey towards weight loss, or even as a general health improvement.
“Firstly, because it has no nutritional value, and we drink them only because they taste good.”
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She continued: “Sugar is an addiction! Even when they are labelled as ‘Low Sugar’, ‘Zero Sugar’ or ‘Diet’ the healthiest choice would be to try and avoid them as much as possible.”
According to Health Line, one issue with fizzy – but diet – drinks is that they may increase appetite by stimulating hunger hormones, altering sweet taste receptors and triggering dopamine responses in the brain.
Big fans of diet soda may find themselves reaching for unnecessary snacks later in the day, more so than if they had just been drinking water.
Alexandra continued: “Some of those drinks also have additional vitamins, minerals and nutrients artificially added, making us feel like we went for a healthy beverage. But nothing will ever compete with good old water!”
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Thinking they’re hungry rather than thirsty, many people reach for the cupboard when they should be reaching for the tap.
But while water is great for slimmers, it’s important to note that glugging down the H20 cannot be a replacement for eating a healthy, balanced diet as well.
According to NHS guidelines, an adult’s nutritious diet should be paired with 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week.
Examples of this include brisk walking, water aerobics, cycling, dancing or mowing the lawn.
Alternatively, you can push yourself with 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week, such as running, swimming, skipping, walking up the stairs, or sports like football or netball.
Alexandra Fitai is a personal trainer from Motivate PT.