Boiling Lemons for Weight Loss

Exercising and eating right are proven effective at speeding up weight loss and helping you to  achieve your goals. But working out and eating right can be a difficult and long process. 

There’s no magic pill that can help you lose weight overnight, but there are some ways that you can try to expedite the process. And believe it or not, one of them might be as simple as boiling some of your favorite yellow citrus fruits.

Lemons are a great tool for helping to lose weight, and they might be the key to help you towards the body of your dreams.

Here’s how boiling lemons can help with weight loss:

When Life Hands You Lemons...

There’s no better way to spruce up a home-cooked salmon than by adding some lemon zest. The acidity of lemon makes it a great element for cooking, and it can help to expand the flavor profile without adding on any calories.

In fact, incorporating more lemons into your life will only serve to improve it.

Acid aids in digestion, and the high acidity in lemons can help to supplement the existing stomach acid in your gut to help break down food better and faster. This is especially important for older individuals who lose some of that stomach acid with age. This property of lemons is one of the main reasons why it might be helpful for weight loss.

Furthermore, lemon juice is a powerful antioxidant that can help fight against diseases and cell death. One study found that lemon juice helped to protect against injury in the testicular tissue of mice. We don’t know about you, but that sounds like it’s some pretty effective stuff.

On top of that, lemons are loaded with nutrients, especially in the lemon peel. Vitamin C, stress-relieving limonene, pectin, antimicrobial compounds, and more are all loaded into each individual fruit. 

So squeezing a lemon slice into your water or adding some to your chicken definitely won’t hurt. But you can maximize their effectiveness by bringing them to a boil.

You Make Boiled Lemon Water

Everyone has probably had a sip of lemon water at some point in their lives. And while this will reap some of the positive benefits of the citrus, it doesn’t include all of the great stuff that you can find inside the peel.

By boiling lemons, you can extract the nutrients and vitamins from the most important part. In fact, boiled lemon water’s main benefits come from the peel itself.

Here’s how you can make it yourself:

1. Remove the peel of a lemon. Place into a pot of about 30 oz of water.
2. Bring the water to a boil, allowing it to boil for five minutes.
3. Turn heat to low.
4. Squeeze in the juices from the rest of the lemon. If desired, you can throw in some chunks of the lemon as well.
5. Let the water steep for 30 minutes—no need to stir.
6. Use a strainer to remove the lemon chunks, seeds, or other solid items.
7. Let cool. Serve over ice, and enjoy!

You can also enjoy boiled lemon water as a hot beverage if you’d prefer. Additionally, feel free to throw in some other fruits like cranberries, strawberries, or raspberries to balance out some of the acidity or bring in a new flavor profile.

Lemon water has a number of profound benefits for your health, and it can help with weight loss because this flavored water’s acidity can help break down food more quickly in your stomach. But on top of that, it makes water more flavorful and desirable to drink. Increased water intake may be able to facilitate weight loss on its own.

Replacing your morning cup of sugary orange juice or your cream-filled coffee with a glass of lemon water can have some indirect effects on weight loss as well. Instead of filling your body with sugar first thing, you’re loading up on vitamins and other important nutrients.

Load Up on Lemons

Since lemons are an easy and effective way to kickstart weight loss and provide your body with essential nutrients, why not try to incorporate them as often as you can!

One of our favorite ways to bring the zest of lemon into your life is by adding to your meals. The acidity and citrus flavor of lemons brings a really appealing flavor to lean meats like chicken or seafood such as shrimp and fish. Pan-seared salmon with lemon zest makes for a delicious, and healthy, and high protein post-workout meal.

You can also incorporate lemon into many other beverages that you enjoy: not just water. Adding some lemon to hot tea is both delicious and relaxing. Lemons contain a compound called limonene, and it’s been found to be a natural stress reliever. 

And if you’ve already hit your calorie count for the day, but you’ve got too many lemons to handle, you can still find more household uses for them:

Soak discolored utensils in lemon juice to remove stains or combine a mixture of water and lemon juice to clean your glass windows. Making sure your home is clean will make you feel even more comfortable doing an intense Gorilla Bow workout inside.

More Weight Loss Tips

If you’re looking to lose weight, you’ll need to do a little bit more than drink some hot lemon water. And while it will certainly help you along the way, there are some things you need to make sure you’re doing to lose weight and keep it off.

Emphasize the Exercise

As important as it is to eat right, it’s equally important to remain active. If you’re trying to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit where you’re burning more calories than you’re consuming. This can only be done through mindful eating and physical activity.

Cardio is one of the best ways to accelerate your heart rate and burn fat. By increasing your heart rate, you’ll burn calories fast and jumpstart your journey towards the perfect body. Things like running, rowing, HIIT routines, or hiking are great ways to elevate your heart rate and maximize your routine.

But don’t forget about the strength training. While cardio and eating right will make you lose weight, that alone can lead to less desirable physical characteristics. Incorporating strength training helps to tone or bulk up your muscles to give you a more balanced physique overall. 

Don’t know where to start? The options are endless with your Gorilla Bow.

Don’t Stress

If you’re like pretty much every single person in the world, you probably feel a great deal of stress every single day. And while some stress is good, having too much of it can negatively affect your health. 

In addition to things like hypertension risk, stress has a complicated relationship to your weight. For one, stress can cause you to overeat, leading to weight gain, and weight gain can make you feel stressed out.

Try to lessen your stressin’ by taking some time for self-care. Watch some episodes of your favorite Netflix series, spend some time with friends after a long day of work. Better yet, turn your stress into muscle gains by getting in a high-intensity workout.

Small Changes Equal Big Results

Losing weight can take some time and effort, but you can sneak in some progress by making some simple, small changes to your routine.

Try taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Switch to a protein fruit smoothie every morning instead of a bowl of cereal. Add five more minutes to your typical workout.

These small changes will have a huge impact on your results, even though you’ll hardly need to try.

A Well Boiled Machine

Boiling lemons might not sound like the ticket to weight loss, but something as simple as citrus-filled H2O can have an immense impact on your health. Lemons, and their peels, are filled with antioxidants and other vitamins that are great for your body. But on top of that, the acidity in lemons can help your stomach break down food faster.

Boiled lemon water lets you incorporate all parts of the lemon rather than just the inside. However, squeezing some lemon into your iced water or incorporating the juices in your next chicken and fish dish will be just as beneficial.

For more fitness tips and nutrition tricks, the Gorilla Bow All-Access Membership is your one-way ticket to the body of your dreams. From live and on-demand classes to nutrition tips and wellness instructions, it’s everything you need in the palm of your hands.

Sources:

7 Reasons to Start Your Day with Lemon Water | The Cleveland Clinic

Evaluation of lemon fruit extract as an antioxidant agent against histopathological changes induced by cyclophosphamide in the testes of albino mice | NCBI

Yes, drinking more water may help you lose weight | John Hopkins University

Anti-stress effects of d-limonene and its metabolite perillyl alcohol | National Library of Medicine