Have you always wondered what drinks to consume to maximize weight loss on a day to day basis? These are the top drinks that have been tested and proven by health and fitness experts worldwide to be the most effective for losing weight.
This post is all about weight loss drinks.
Losing weight is extremely difficult for everyone, including people that have been in the health and fitness industry for years. It takes a long time and many years of trial and error for people to start seeing real results with weight loss. If you are anything like me, regardless if you are new or a veteran to the losing weight train, you are drinking as much water as possible to try and promote weight loss. As someone who has a very busy life and is constantly running around, it can be hard to carry a gallon water jug with you at all times in social settings or meetings and keeping track of water. After years of research as well as trial and error with myself and my clients, I have compiled a list of other amazing beverages that have not only been proven to help significantly increase weight loss, but contain numerous health benefits as well.
You will become educated on all the beverages the top health and fitness experts in the world use to lose weight and achieve their optimal health and body weight. These drinks will not only help you start losing weight but they will also be the key in long-term health and confidence with your body.
Once you’ve read through these healthy weight loss drinks, you are no longer going to wonder what other drinks you can consume aside from water that will boost your health and promote weight loss in your journey.
This post is all about the top weight loss drinks everyone needs to have in their life.
THE TOP WEIGHT LOSS DRINKS OF ALL TIME:
Green Tea (especially Matcha Green Tea)
First and foremost, we all knew that green tea is seen literally everywhere. If you haven’t tried it, it’s probably because you’re wondering how in the hell a drink that is green could possibly taste good at all, right? Same here. One day, I decided to take the leap and try such an interesting drink, and I have never been so shocked in my life. My first experience with a green tea was actually in the form of an iced matcha latte from Dunkin’. I know, not the healthiest of ways to drink green tea, but it was absolutely delicious, and it made me feel better knowing that I stepped out of my comfort zone, tried something new despite my hesitations and put something more healthy in my body than the usual iced coffee with the crazy amounts of cream and sugar.
Green tea has been proven to help increase alertness, promote weight loss and even relieve digestive symptoms and headaches. Green tea does contain caffeine, which can be harmful in exorbitant amounts, but there have been no significant harmful effects of caffeine from green tea in studies to date.
You may be wondering, what is the difference between regular green tea and matcha? While they both stem from the same plant, the Camellia sinensis plant, they are cultivated and processed differently. Matcha is made when the leaf is grounded and turned into a powder so the entire leaf is being used in matcha, giving it a more intense, rich flavor. Regular green tea is processed through either artisanal methods including sun-drying, basket-firing or pan-firing. It can also be processed with more modern methods including oven-drying, tumbling and steaming. These methods get rid of any bitter components and preserve the tea’s natural flavors, but it is extracted from the plant and does not involve turning the entire leaf into a powder like matcha.
Regardless if you prefer regular or matcha green tea, this beverage is packed with health-promoting compounds and can help you lose weight and reduce your risk of several diseases like diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Studies have shown that drinking three to five cups per day will allow you to reap the most of the health benefits, but simply adding this into your morning routine can lead you on the right path to a healthier life.
Lemon and Ginger Water
We are going to cover two drinks in one here. While we all know water is the key to everything, from weight loss to better skin, sleep, improved bodily function and improved happiness levels, lemon and ginger water may not be as common. Lemon is popular to add to water for the taste in restaurants, but does anyone know what lemon or ginger in water actually does to the body?
Lemon in water helps aid in digestion, helps with hydration, supports healthy Vitamin C levels, provides a boost of potassium and can even help prevent kidney stones. Lemon also contains pectin, which helps reduce hunger and therefore helps with reducing caloric intake. Not to mention, lemon helps add a little boost of flavor to regular water to make drinking water easier if you are someone who is trying to drink a lot of water on a regular basis.
Ginger in water has several amazing health benefits. Ginger is full antioxidants which helps aid the body in handling free radicals. This in turn will help lower your risk of heart disease, cancer and even diabetes. Ginger also has anti-inflammatory properties, helps relieve oxidative stress and helps aid in digestion. For the ladies, ginger can be great for reducing PMS symptoms like period pains and helps promote immunity. All in all, ginger in water is great if you are sick or it’s that time of the month and you are not feeling your best.
Coffee
The big debate: is coffee healthy for you? Well, if it didn’t have healthy components, it would not be in this post then, would it? Ultimately, it depends on how you take your coffee and how much you consume. Obviously, coffee is one of the most popular drinks consumed by people globally, so the fact that it has some positive health effects is a bonus! Coffee is oftentimes a staple for bikini competitors, body builders, athletes, models, or anyone with a busy schedule that needs to maintain a stricter diet while still having enough energy to perform their daily activities. In fact, even the most strict of diets oftentimes allow for coffee, which should tell you that it is for a good reason. Let’s dive further into the benefits of coffee.
Coffee can do wonderful things for your health, including reduced internal inflammation, increased antioxidant levels and even helps protect against disease. Recent studies from John Hopkins University School of Medicine has proven that women who drink coffee are less likely to die from the leading causes of death in women: coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. Coffee allows you to process sugar better, which is what makes you less likely to develop type two diabetes. Not to mention you are less likely to develop Parkinson’s, heart failure, Alzheimer’s disease, and reduce your chances of getting colon cancer. A common concern for women who take birth control is increased risk of stroke, while drinking coffee helps to reduce that risk.
While we have just talked about how beneficial coffee can be, it is also important to note that excessive amounts of caffeine can lead to raised blood pressure, anxiety, increased heart rate and can create problems with falling asleep, leading to insomnia and having an overall lack of sleep.
Apple Cider Vinegar Drinks
One question you might be wondering, what the hell even IS apple cider vinegar? ACV is mostly apple juice with added yeast that turns the sugar in the juice to alcohol through fermentation. Apple cider vinegar has been all over the news and in a lot of promotions for healthier diets by celebrities and fitness professionals. But is this actually true, or just a bunch of bs? Let’s find out.
Apple cider vinegar has been proven to help fight obesity. In some recent studies, acv has helped improve blood sugar and insulin levels in groups of people with type 2 diabetes. Vinegar contains polyphenols that help stop cell damage that leads to various diseases like cancer. However, there have only been very few studies that show people actually losing weight by adding acv into their diet, and it has extremely high acidity, causing damage on your teeth, throat and stomach. Not to mention, it may cause your potassium levels to drop significantly, causing your muscles and nerves to potentially not function properly. It may be worth trying, but the small benefits that have been proven are almost not worth adding to your diet, so I recommend trying it for a couple of weeks and take detailed notes of any changes to see if it’s worth taking long term.
High-Protein Drinks
While it is no secret that protein shakes and mass gainers are ESSENTIAL to a body builder lifestyle, or for those who are trying to gain as much muscle and size as possible, is it beneficial for everyone to drink? Let’s take a look.
Protein shakes are fantastic for several reasons: they provide a significant amount of protein, so for those who find it hard to eat their daily protein intake, this can be a great option. Protein shakes help boost metabolism, reduce hunger and keep you feeling fuller for longer. Protein shakes promote muscle growth, so if you are trying to gain muscle mass this will be a fantastic way to do so in addition to weight training.
While protein shakes can be fantastic, it is very important to read the labels of everything. Many protein shakes bought as pre-made drinks in boxes for convenience oftentimes contain high amounts of sugar. Even several forms of protein in the tub that you scoop into your choice of water, milk, etc., contain high amounts of sugar. It is extremely important to read the label to make sure you are not drinking something that will actually help you gain more fat than anything else. Also, if you are someone who is not working out regularly, adding in additional protein to a person with a sedentary lifestyle may just be added to the body as fat and not as lean muscle. It is extremely important to incorporate protein on a daily basis, but this may be too much depending on your health and fitness goals. Not to mention that some forms of protein may be digested in the body better than others. For example, you may have an intolerance to whey protein, so drinking a whey protein shake will do nothing but cause inflammation, gastrointestinal issues and weight gain. In this case, substituting whey protein for egg white, pea or another vegan protein may be the way to go, just consult with a doctor to get the proper nutritional testing done first. If you do not have the access to a health professional or testing at this time, then use the trial and error method (which is actually the most effective in my experience) and figure out what protein is best for your body type.
Vegetable Juice
Now that we’ve talked about a lot of the most common healthy drinks like water, green tea, coffee and protein drinks, let’s dive into a more controversial drink: vegetable juice. In recent years, there has been a spike in juice places where people can get juices instead of smoothies, coffee drinks, milkshakes, etc. It has also been widely popular amongst celebrity and model platforms, in fad diets, etc. If you’ve never had a juice, it has been said they are very nutritious for the body and provide many health benefits. However, there are just as much if not more critics that say juices are a scam for companies to charge crazy prices to throw some fruits and veggies in a blender. So who is right? You’re about to find out the truth right now.
Commonly referred to as “juicing,” it can provide a lot of health benefits, in some circumstances. Just like any other drink, it is extremely important to read the nutrition labels because many “juices” and juice places can claim to have healthy beverages, and actually contain extremely high amounts of sugar. There is a certain amount of healthy sugar that comes with fruit naturally, but when companies add so much additional sugar on top of that, it completely defeats the purpose of the drink. This is oftentimes how companies hook you to keep coming back and buying their product: they develop and market a drink to make it seem like it’s really good for you and tastes good too when it’s actually not. So in your mind, you’re thinking it’s a no brainer to pay for something that is extremely nutritious for you, right? Wrong. All people would have to do is request for the nutritional value of their drinks or read the label on the bottle, but you’d be surprised how most people do not.
When there is no additional sugars added, juices can be extremely healthy for you. These benefits include increased hydration, detoxifies the body, helps improve nutrient uptake, protects the heart, prevents hair loss and strengthens the immune system to name a few. While one of the myths of juicing is that it “allows your body to absorb the nutrients better from the fruits and vegetables than if you were actually eating a whole fruit,” with the reasoning being your body is not having to break down the whole food, but this is not the case. Your body extracts the same amount of nutrients if you’re eating the veggies versus drinking them. In fact, there are healthy fibers from fruits and vegetables that are lost in the juicing process. The one true benefit that juicing has is that it makes the process of eating fruits and vegetables so much easier. Think about it, would it be faster to eat two cups of fruits and veggies in a small cup or try and eat a plate full of vegetables to get the same amount of nutritional value? The truth is, most people will not take the time to sit down and actually eat that much, so it is much more beneficial for those with busy lifestyles to throw those things into a blender and take them on the go so they know they are getting all of the vitamins and minerals they need each day.
This post was all about weight loss drinks.
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7 Simple Steps To Achieve A Perfectly Healthy Life
10 Life-Changing Nutrient Dense Foods You Need To Start Eating Now
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