Of the many myths that I have seen being propagated in India, the one that makes me curious is the one on the warm water, honey and lemon combination to reduce fat. I have seen this grow in my family even in childhood as one of my aunts used to religiously drink it each morning. I was too young to understand what she was trying to achieve, but I suspect she was try to lose weight.

Later as I grew, I saw my sister take to this regimen along with my dad was had been asked to reduce weight. Even i joined the band wagon for a while in my late twenties but soon realized it was pointless. Recently my wife was planning to start this regimen, but I stopped her. I think this is the biggest myth propagated in the wellness/nutrition world.

Why do I think its a myth ?

Well for starters name one person who has lost weight just drinking this combo ?

The other point is that for weight loss, which in medical terms means loss of adipose tissue, for that to happen the body has to lose more energy than it can gain from the daily meals. This lack of energy can be fulfilled from burning adipose or weight loss.

But this system is to complex that there are many factors that come into play and these factors lead to the myths.

So I have read articles that say that this combination is good to cleanse the body, heals the liver, speeds up metabolism and removes toxins. But no one cares to tell you how. A typical example is this article in Times of India., which is total mumbo-jumbo. No scientific rationale at all.

So if we break down this concoction, Warm water obviously cannot do anything on its own, water re hydrates and helps flush out toxins. Also warm water may create a vasodilation (increase in size of blood vessels) and that might result in some blood vessels expanding and speeding up some absorption but how much we are not sure.

Honey, the lesser said better. It is full of sugar and anyone who has been to school would know that sugar has carbohydrates that would lead to weight gain not loss. If you are fat or obese that means you have more fat that you require. That means you are consuming more than you can spend. Which in turn tells you that you have a lifestyle that does not require that much energy.  Adding more carbohydrates to your diet, will make it worse.

Now Lemon is Ascorbic acid and I think the rationale here is that Acid will clean the system and remove the dead cells, like how a cleaning liquid does to dirty vessels or how you would clean a copper vessel. So unless your gut is made of copper its a bad idea. Also even after the cleaning I am unsure how it will help in weight loss.

In my opinion there is only one way to lose weight and that is to spend more energy than you consume. So hitting the road maybe the best option for you. So get up shut the computer and off you go.