What Drinks Should You Drink to Help Lose Belly Fat?

The only way to burn belly fat fast is to eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. What you drink is part of your diet, and it makes a big difference in how well you control your calorie intake. Calorie-free water is the best source of hydration when your goal is fat loss.

Maybe you were hoping that there's a special belly fat burner drink that could magically burn fat overnight. Sorry, but that's about as realistic as a drink that makes unicorns appear.

The only way to lose belly fat fast is to create a calorie deficit by reducing your calorie intake below your daily calorie needs. When you do that, your body has to mobilize stored sources of energy — one of those being fat.

Your diet is arguably the most important part of fat loss. Eating nutrient-packed, lean protein and fiber-rich foods and staying beneath your calorie budget each day — with the addition of exercise — will help you lose total body fat, some of which will eventually come from your belly.

When you're choosing the best drink for burning fat, calorie-free water is a no-brainer. But if you're like most people, you don't drink as much water as you should.

Perhaps you drink juice for breakfast, or a coffee drink from your local cafe, or a glass of milk. At lunch, you might have a soda or some sweetened iced tea. You may have the same for dinner, or a beer or glass of wine. All of those drinks have one thing in common: They all contain calories.

For example, an 8-ounce glass of orange juice has 110 calories, a glass of lowfat milk also has 110 calories, a can of cola has 155 calories and a pint of beer has 204 calories, according to USDA data. If you have all four of those in a day, you've consumed 579 calories just from drinks.

Most people need to eat between 2,000 and 2,500 calories per day, depending on their gender and activity level, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. If you're on the bottom end of that range, just these drinks would make up more than a quarter of your daily calories.

While some drinks, such as milk and orange juice, supply important nutrients, others, like beer and soda, don't. These are considered empty calories, and they're typically eaten in addition to one's daily calorie needs, creating the calorie surplus that leads to weight gain.

Sugar-sweetened beverages, including soda and sweet tea, are by far the worst. A review of research, conducted by the European Association for the Study of Obesity, concluded that regular consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with being overweight and obesity. Fruit juice has also been shown to negatively impact weight, according to a European Commission review of research published in May 2018.

Read more: The 12 Best Moves to Bust Fat Under the Belly Button

Have you ever noticed that if you chug a bunch of water, you feel bloated? That's because the water you just drank is filling up your stomach. The good news is, that kind of belly bloating goes away. The other good news is that filling up your belly with water may help control your appetite.

Try it — next time you get the afternoon munchies and you feel like you're not going to make it to dinnertime, down 16 ounces of water. Wait 15 minutes and see if you're still hungry. You might be surprised to find that all that liquid in your belly does the trick.

Drinking water before a meal may also help you control your calorie intake. A small study published in Obesity in August 2015 divided 84 adults with obesity into two groups. One group drank 16 ounces of water at each of their main meals, and the other group was instructed to visualize their stomachs being full. After 12 weeks, the group that drank water had lost 2.6 pounds more than the visualization group.

Read more: 10 Skinny Smoothies That Will Help You Bust Belly Fat

You don't have to live with plain, old lukewarm tap water day in and day out. You have options! Any type of tea or coffee without sweetener or creamer is calorie-free and can contribute to hydration. There are also endless ways to make water more interesting.

First, start with water that tastes clean and fresh, so invest in a good water filter. Chilled water also tends to be more palatable than room temperature water, so keep a jug in the fridge at all times. To that jug, you can add fresh mint, cucumbers, lemon or orange slices, fresh raspberries, ginger or any other type of herb or fruit. Try different combinations to tantalize your taste buds.