Carrying excess weight on your body when you have Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) puts extra strain on already inflamed joints.If you have RA and you are overweight or obese then your doctor has probably mentioned something like the above statement to you.
Flooding my body with water is something I used to help me loose the weight.
Here is a link to an online calculator: http://nutrition.about.com/library/blwatercalculator.htm
This is my take on how it works: Take your weight in pounds (lbs)/2, this is how many ounces (oz) of water you should be drinking a day. Take the oz/ 8, this is how many cups of water you should be drinking a day.
Mathematically like this:
- Before weight loss 225 lbs looked like=(225/2)/8 =14 cups that's 3.5 ltrs a day
- Now after weight loss 140 lbs looks like =(140/2)/8 =8.75 cups, just over 2 ltrs
- You could also look at it as 1 cup/day for every 16 lbs of weight.
Before someone asks or comments, I am Canadian, I think in metric, cups and litres (ltrs) make more sense to me, if you understand ounces (oz) then you can skip dividing by 8.Just starting this I dropped 5 lbs in a week. If you are dehydrated your body cannot function properly. Our bodes are made up of almost 90% water. This is what makes you blood move, which keeps your heart beating. Your blood flows through every organ of your body. If you are dehydrated your blood/body system becomes inefficient.
Dehydration also means that the fat molecules that have built up are drying out, meaning they don't want to move. Liquifying your fat molecules helps them to move out of your body. In order for your body to start shifting the weight, you need to give it a chance to move, if you are dehydrated, there is no chance. Don't over do this though, then you are putting extra pressure on your liver, which leads to different problems.
A warning I've come across related to too much water is Hyponatremia or desalinization, meaning your body's needed salt levels have dropped to low. Livestong's article "Daily Water Intake for Weight Loss" warns about this issue. See this article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/118755-daily-water-intake-weight-loss/
Once you get down to 2 ltrs/day, you should be close or at your ideal weight for your height, at least that is what I've found, but that might have to do with being average height.
Actual sources of water intake are a source of great debate. Some say don't include coffee or juice, others say do. I believe using the above equation should take all fluid intake into account to avoid overworking your liver. Thinking like this means that I considered fluid content in food as well. Fluid content in food could be something obvious like soup, or less obvious in spaghetti sauce. You will need to be very aware of what you are taking into your body to avoid adverse affects. Please do your own research into sources of water in your diet, here's one link to get you started: http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/nutrition/water-in-diet/overview.html or google a few key search terms like sources of water in food or diet.
I strongly suggest keeping a food diary at this point. Keeping track of what you put into your body makes you more aware of "junk" food and will also remind you if you haven't had enough water to drink that day. Along with a food diary I suggest you get yourself a good BPA free water bottle. Something reusable that you can carry around with you and keep handy. Personally I also have a travel mug because I've found that drinking from the mug reminds me to drink more often. When the mug is empty I am usually surprised and try to take another drink to confirm that it is indeed empty, reach for my water bottle, refill my mug and continue my daily routine. Travel mugs are easier to fit into cup holders while driving… I just find it a useful combination.
Give water a try. But remember to take the Herxheimer Reaction into consideration. Boost your fibre intake and eat good food.
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