Simple water diet succeeds for Texas man

[TexasStooge]

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8

With nearly 60 million Americans overweight, "eat right and exercise" isn't enough motivation to start a diet.

But Blake Sylvia of Baytown, Texas found an easy method to kickstart a weight loss program without using expensive pills or exotic techniques.

Not long ago, Sylvia was wearing size 40 pants. "Today, I wear a size 34," he said. "I found myself at 41 years of age, I weighed 270 pounds, my cholesterol was 240, I really felt like I was setting myself up for a heart attack."

He had tried all the diets. He ate low-fat foods. "The idea just came out of nowhere: The Before, During, & After program," he said.

Before, During, & After is a simple mealtime strategy.

For years, experts have recommended everyone drink eight to 10 glasses of water a day. But Sylvia structured H2O into three easy steps:

• Drink one glass of water before a meal
• Drink one glass of water during a meal
• Drink a third glass of water after eating

Each glass is about eight ounces; that's half the size of a regular water bottle.

"There are no foods that are off-limits," Sylvia said—and that includes fried foods and dessert.

Just don't forget to drink that water.

Sylvia said the no-calorie liquid made him feel full and eat less. "And that's completely turned off the mechanism that triggers hunger," he said. "When you're not hungry, it's easy not to overeat."

The simple routine worked for Blake Sylvia. "I lost 70 pounds in seven months," he said. ""My energy level is higher than it's ever been; I feel better than I ever have."

Just to make sure his success wasn't a fluke, he told a few friends about the technique.

"Before I knew it, I was down to 210, and 208," said Ray Terry, who lost 22 pounds. "It wasn't hard at all."

Greg Eppler lost 40 pounds. "These have gone from being snug to being quite loose, actually," he said, putting on some now-baggy coveralls.

Martha Doucette took off 15 pounds in time for her big day. "Actually, I lost so much that I had to stop doing it about a month before my wedding, because I didn't fit into my wedding dress," she said. "It was loose!"

Experts said Sylvia's diet is perfectly safe, though not scientifically proven to work. But water has been proven to flush out the system and to keep the body working—and burning calories—more efficiently.

For Blake Sylvia, working out would have been agony before losing 70 pounds. "Now I look forward to exercise," he said.

Sylvia said his Before, During and After program gave him the jump start he needed to finally get healthy.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... 086f1.html

[O Town]

Wow, sounds pretty logical to me. Why didn't I think of that. lol.

[Camille_2_Katrina]

I'm going to start that plan today...
I'll keep you posted.

I'm corrently 6'2" 240

[HurriCat]

Just don't drink TOO MUCH water. I was drinking a lot every day and found it to become almost habit-forming. Then I read about some of our troops in the desert getting something called water intoxication or something like that. What happens is that too much water in your system will leech salt out of your internal organs. Do a "Google" on the subject. I think that they say to not drink more than a gallon (?) a day. Sounds like a lot, but as I said, for me at least, it had become a bit of a habit.

[Janice]

I have always heard 8-10 glasses a day was safe.