How To Lose More Body Fat With Water, Protein and Squats

Want an easy way to lose more body fat? Drink more water at specific times. Add protein to one glass and squats. Here’s how…

Pre-load Your Meals with Water

LAST WEEK I read about a new study published in the journal Obesity that demonstrated how drinking 500 ml (17 ounces) of water before each of three meals per day reduced the body weight of participants by 4.3 kg (9.5 lbs.) over 12 weeks, whereas the control group who just visualized being full before eating lost only 0.8 kg (less than 2 lbs.).

I guess that puts a thorn in the side of that adage, “Whatever you can visualize you can actualize”.

The weight loss difference between the imagining being full and drinking about two eight ounce glasses of H2O was…

3.5 kg, or about 8 lbs.

I love water. I find it exceedingly useful for things such as not dying from dehydration, not to mention showering, an occasional dalliance. And yet, drinking the eight glasses of fresh, pure water a day that I believe is important to do for hale health continues to elude me.

Now, however, there’s a specific reason to do so that speaks to my vanity. Perhaps pre-loading with, say, two eight ounce glasses of water before each meal will finally help me get lose more weight and rid me of last five pounds so tenaciously griping to my belly.

How about you? Do you want to lose more weight?

If you do, how hard can it be to go straight to the faucet (connected to which there’s a water purifier, of course) as soon as you get those rumblings that shout,

“It’s time to eat!”

Fill up two glasses… gulp, gulp, gulp… then go prepare your meal.

But wait… don’t stop with the water… there’s more to do, and more weight to lose!

I have two other fat carving, pre-meal actions that you can do:

  • Protein pre-load, and
  • Muscle load.

There’s no scientific study to underscore my sentiment that the combination of pre-loading meals with a glass of water, plus a glass of protein powder mixed with water, plus loading multiple muscle groups with fast, furious and quick exercise will have a compounding effect on body fat lose.  However, once you read the rest of this blog post, I bet you’ll agree with me that it doing all three will lighten that scale fast.

 

Protein Pre-load

As long as you’re going to make a habit of drinking two glasses of water before your meals, why not put some high quality protein powder in one of them?

Not only does protein satiate, but also it helps repair the body and maintain lean body mass, or build it if you’re doing resistance training, such as lifting weights or doing calisthenics.

When it comes to making yourself full with good stuff, few things can beat water and protein. According to the European Food Information Counsel, the highest satiating power was found with high levels of protein, dietary fiber and water, and low satiating power was related to higher fat foods.

(I don’t want to cross the scientists who determined this to be true, but there should be an asterisk by “higher fat foods” that says, “avocados not included”, because they can really feel you up, and are a wonderful, high quality source of fat.)

I use four different types of protein powder. I’ll describe them and link to the brands I use.

(1) Pea Protein

Yes, peas have protein. As I wrote in The 4 Food Solution to the 100 Trillion Reasons You’re Fat, Sick and Depressed:

The peas go through a hydrolysate process that reduces their peptide structures into a size more useable by our bodies. The result is an easily digestible powder that is about 80% protein, as compared to the 15% that whole peas provide, and it contains lots of the fiber that beneficial bacteria love.

I use Growing Naturals Protein Powder, but you’ll be well-served by any reputable brand using organic peas and a water extraction process.

Pea Protein

Typically, I consume the pea protein powder, and all the others except whey protein, before the first two meals of the day, or as substitutes for them, the reason for which I’ll comment upon in number (4) below.

(2) Hemp Protein

I often mix the pea protein with hemp protein, or alternate between them. Love the gritty taste, the high quality omega-3 fatty acids and the gritty taste.

Nutiva Organic Hemp Protein Hi Fiber is the brand I use, and again, there are others that will serve you well.  Just make sure that the brand is reputable and uses organic hemp seeds.

hemp protein powder

(3) Raw Sprout Protein

Garden of Life Raw Organic Protein is a gem. The protein powder is made from raw organic sprouted protein, live probiotics and enzymes.  Chocolate is my favorite. If you need a fast meal, just blend up some raw veggies with it, such as basil, kale and spinach, a small amount of fruit such as blue/black berries, and you get to feel righteous for the rest of the day.

 

(4) Whey Protein

ImmunPlex is ProHealth’s brand name for its whey protein powder. This is like mother’s milk for me. I use this whey-based protein powder liberally, as well as one made by Naked Whey.

After resistance training type workouts — or any that cause micro tears in muscle tissue — it makes a lot of sense to use a form of protein that’s quickly absorbed, and whey fits the bill.

 

Remember: When you exercise with intensity, you’re breaking down muscle tissue, referred to as the catabolic state.  Technically speaking, catabolism is when biochemical reactions break down molecules in metabolism to gain their energy or to prepare them for disposal from the body.

So, when for instance you’re lifting weights, you’re not building muscle right then, but breaking it down via numerous micro tears that happen in response to the work load placed upon them. Muscles are in the catabolic state when vigorously exercised.

The muscle building (growing and strengthening) happens in the anabolic state.  Anabolic hormones are the anabolic steroids, which stimulate protein synthesis, muscle growth, and insulin. This is why it’s very important to properly feed your body after exercise that causes catabolism, and a really good food to do that is whey protein.

The other types of protein mentioned above are more slowly absorbed than whey, and work well to get satiated before meals (or as a meal replacement) when exercise is not in the picture.

Speaking of exercise…

 

Muscle Load

So far we’ve delved into pre-loading before meals with water and protein. Now let’s talk about loading some muscles with a good dose of “hunger” before eating any of the three major daily meals.

Tim Ferriss of The 4 Hour Workweek fame (among other books) wrote about this in The 4 Hour Body. I took that principle and applied it to a Thanksgiving dinner scenario where gluttony was unavoidable and the only question was how to reduce its weight gain effect.

I called my article, This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight!, and in it I described Tim Ferriss’ technique; to wit:

Working your large muscles, even briefly, “brings glucose transporter type 4 (“GLUT-4”) to the surface of muscle cells, opening more gates for the calories to flow into…

Here’s what to do: 60 to 90 seconds of squats (no weight but you), push-ups (on your knees if regular ones are too hard) and wall presses (feet three feet or so away from the wall, face it, hands on it, press chest to and from it).

Do the exercises a few minutes prior to and 90 minutes after the binging. If you binge both at lunch and dinner, do this twice.

In that article, we were examining three ways to avoid all those extra holiday calories from making you fat, but the principles apply to less caloric-robust meals as well.

So, here’s what you do once your stomach growls:

  • Start doing some squats, or if you’re capable of it, burpees, until you’re winded.
  • Pour yourself an eight-ounce glass of pure water and down it.
  • Pour yourself an eight-once glass of pure water and some protein powder, stir, blend or shake it and down it.
  • Go prepare your meal, and eat it s_ l_ o_ w_ l_ y.

Congratulations, you’re going to lose some body fat!

Burpees Are Great For Women

These are the four positions of one burpee.

 

Extra Credit – Go Brush Your Teeth!

This is a tricky technique.

It combines the Japanese practice of Hara hachi bun me — eat till you’re 80% full — with the taste modulator that is toothpaste.

“Taste modulator”?

Yeah, go brush your teeth with some highly pungent flavor like peppermint and then tell me how much you want to eat.  Not only would you now have a flavor in your mouth that would overwhelm most others, but eating right after brushing your teeth feels like you’ve just wasted the effort of brushing your teeth.

So, there you are sitting at the table slowly eating, thus giving the “satiety hormone” leptin enough time to act on receptors in the hypothalamus to inhibit hunger and stimulate satiety.  You’re looking for the moment when you feel full enough to stop eating without feeling like you’re going to starve before the next meal.

Push yourself away from the table with conviction and go straightaway to the bathroom and brush your teeth. Use a toothpaste without fluoride. (Here’s why.)  Tom’s or Dr. Bronner brands will do the trick.

 

 

Your Takeaway

If you want a relatively easy way to lose body fat that doesn’t involve counting calories, starving yourself or selecting specific foods, do these 5 things prior to your meals:

  1. Perform as many squats or burpees as you can.
  2. Drink an eight-once glass of pure water.
  3. Drink another eight-once glass of pure water mixed with protein powder.
  4. Stop eating when about 80% full.
  5. Go brush your teeth with strongly flavored toothpaste.

That’s it folks… now go lose more weight!

 

P.S. Before you go, read This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight! and A Simple Recipe To Stop Holiday Binge Eating. They’ll get you ready for the food onslaught that’s right around corner.

 

Last Updated on March 1, 2022 by Joe Garma

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Joe Garma
 

I help people live with more vitality and strength. I'm a big believer in sustainability, and am a bit nutty about optimizing my diet, supplements, hormones and exercise. To get exclusive Updates, tips and be on your way to a stronger, more youthful body, join my weekly Newsletter. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 2 comments
Dan - September 13, 2015

Joe, Really interesting info in this post. Presently working on losing a few and having typical trouble for a 59 year old guy. What used to work pretty good now doesn’t so much. Not sure if I’ll do the toothpaste part of it, but the others I think I could do. Thanks for the research.

Reply
    Joe Garma - September 14, 2015

    Yeah, we sure do miss the good ole days. But, really, when you think on it there are several reasons why we were trimmer yesteryear, among them, these:

    – We moved more… for me it was constant pick-up basketball games, group runs and mountain biking
    – Our hormones were better optimized, particularly testosterone and human growth hormone
    – There were less estrogen-producing chemicals, such as BPA found in most plastic water bottles

    Good luck with the water pre-load, Dan!

    Reply

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