Warmer weather is just around the corner, and we won't need much encouragement when the intense summer heat rolls around to '"wet our whistles" with cool and frosty beverages.   

The expression, "wet your whistle" is an idiom.  Whistle is a reference to your mouth or throat referring to the fact that it's not easy to whistle with a dry mouth. It’s a very ancient expression: its first recorded appearance is in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales at the end of the fourteenth century, and could possibly be even older.

We are told after weight loss surgery not to wet our "whistles" while eating. We further understand that drinking fluids washes food from your pouch, leaving you hungry sooner. 

Even so, getting your fluid intake is extremely important to good health and maintaining weight loss no matter what the season, and requires a little co-ordination for weight loss surgery patients. But did you know that drinking water between meals may actually be one of the keys to successful weight loss and keeping it off? That's enough incentive  to wet your whistle!

Not drinking with meals was perhaps the hardest transition piece for me after surgery.  So after meals I was waiting the recommended 30 minutes, and sometimes an hour before drinking again.  But recently, after doing a little research, I have been waiting at least an hour to an hour and a half, then resuming fluids.  Some studies recommend even waiting up to 2 hours.

Note that this information on drinking water in the "water loading" manner is for patients with a mature pouch.  New patients will be sipping water all during the day, still leaving time (30 minutes before meals, 30 minutes during the meal, and 30 minutes after the meal) before returning to drinking.  Water loading is for those who have lost their weight and have a mature enough pouch to hydrate sufficiently between meals.  This "water loading" is for satiety after hunger returns.   

Here's what Dr. Latham Flanagan states in a study on the subject.  Dr. Flanagan is a leader in the field of Bariatrics.  "Following the meal, take no liquids for one and a half hours, or even two hours if satiety is lost too soon before the next meal. Then, after that one and a half to two hours is up, begin drinking low or no calorie fluids somewhat slowly (in order to avoid over load symptoms if there is still considerable food in the pouch) and then progressively accelerate drinking up to fifteen minutes before the next meal. The patient should be urged to drink a lot of water in the two hours or so before the following meal. This period of re-hydration ends with a "fluid load" fifteen minutes before the next meal."

Drinking water is about hydration, and also about remaining satisfied between meals.  This seems to play a major role in maintaining weight loss. For more on this subject, look for an upcoming blog post on satiety. 

Dr. Flanagan continues, "However, a single pre-meal fluid load can never adequately re-hydrate an individual who has not already been drinking a lot of fluid. Fluid loading can be done any time in the two to three hours preceding the meal if hunger is experienced. This use of the fluid load can substitute for taking in unwanted calories through snacking." Latham Flanagan, Jr., M.D., FACS, Weight Loss Surgery Information Center  

Fluid loading or water loading is the rapid drinking of a non-calorie or low-calorie liquid on an empty stomach in order to achieve a maximal intake of water at that time and/or achieve immediate satiety which lasts for fifteen to twenty-five minutes. About 80% of the estimated maximum capacity at any given time should be drunk rapidly over fifteen to thirty seconds and then topped off with swallows until full satiety is reached.

During the first six months, gastric bypass patients are very frequently drinking water throughout the day to meet minimal fluid requirements. The return of appetite in patients at about six months.  As the pouch stretches out, due to the normal healing process, the patient can ordinarily drink six to eight ounces at a time.

So grab a frosty mug, maybe ice cold sugar free lemonade, or that southern summer favorite, iced tea, unsweetened that is, or just water, if you please, and wet your whistle...you'll be glad you did.