A lot of people are on diets. All sorts of diets. Nearly all of them are designed to help people lose weight. Some diets have long lists of foods you can’t eat. Some diets have lists of foods you must eat. There are diets that say you can lose weight by eating meals made for you by a company. What about something simple? What about water?
What is a calorie?
Probably everyone who is trying to lose weight has heard of calories. They may have counted calories, or been told what the ideal number of calories per day is. If they exercise, they may try to estimate how many calories they burn. There’s a good reason why people who want to lose weight know about calories: They are a basic measure of food’s value. Simply put: Calories in minus calories out = you.
But what is a calorie?
A calorie is a measure of heat. Specifically, a calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree centigrade. But the calories we are familiar with are actually kilocalories, or thousands of calories. So, if some food has 1 calorie, it’s actually the amount of heat needed to raise 1000 grams of water by 1 degrees centigrade, or 1,000 grams by 1 degree centigrade.
Or, in the units used in America, 1 calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise about 1 quart of water by about 0.45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Burning calories by drinking ice water
If you drink water that is close to freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit) you’re going to have to burn calories to get it up to body temperature (98.6 degees Fahrenheit); you’re going to need to raise the temperature by 67 degrees. On the other hand, room temperature water only needs to be raised by about 25 degrees, or about 1/3 as much.
How much water do you have to drink to lose how much weight?
If you drink 1 quart of ice water, you will burn 150 calories. If you drink 1 gallon of ice water, you will burn 600 calories. A gallon a day is 3,330 calories a week. And that’s about a pound of fat.
Just by drinking ice water.