Water cure for over-50 fat

With 98 million views and counting, TikTok has gone crazy for water 'recipes' that use sugar-free mixes and syrups to make ordinary H₂O really exciting. There's fancy lemonade, Skittles punch, even pink wedding cake, banana split and unicorn cotton candy flavors.

The drinks are a lot of fun-and also much more than that. "This trend can be a game-changer for millions of women who don't like or simply forget to drink enough plain water," notes Denver-based nutrition expert Stephanie Coburn, MS, RD. "That's because cutting sugar and increasing hydration are both powerful tools for weight loss and overall health." Sip TikTok's water for a month or two, "and you can see and feel some big changes." Women tell us the impact is often immediate, and fans of kicked-up water report soaring energy and losses of up to 16 pounds in just 72 hours!

We can thank Oklahoma grandmother Tonya Spanglo for the flavored-water craze, which she started basically by accident. After years of failed diets, she hit 430 pounds and worried she wouldn’t be able to care for herself or her ailing mom. So Tonya had gastric-sleeve surgery; afterward, she followed her doctor’s guidelines to the letter. “I had to cut out my daily 2 liters of Coke and drink 64 oz. of water,” she recalls. “But I couldn’t stand plain water. It just didn’t sit well in my new stomach.” She discovered Jordan’s Skinny Syrups at a discount store, with flavors like ‘birthday cake’ and ‘mermaid’ that turned water into a treat. She began sharing recipes on TikTok. One after another went viral.