Two articles made headlines today about the benefits of drinking water. New York Times health writer Andrew Carroll cites studies suggesting drinking water doesn't help with weight loss the way the public is told, while a recently-published University of Birmingham study found that people who drank water before meals lost a significant amount of weight. So is drinking water for weight loss really effective?

"If there is one health myth that will not die, it is this: You should drink eight glasses of water a day. It's just not true. There is no science behind it," Carroll writes.

Carroll argues that though it's true most people need about 2.5 liters of water a day, most of this water is present in foods that we eat, such as fruits, vegetables, juice, beer, tea, and coffee.

Carroll writes that science has failed to show that drinking more water keeps skin hydrated, healthier, and wrinkle-free. He claims that it is very rare to be clinically dehydrated throughout the day, and that our body will signal for us to drink water far beyond we get to a dangerous point of dehydration.

On the other hand, Birmingham researchers found that when obese adults drank 500ml of water half an hour before eating main meals, they reported an average loss of 4.3kg (9.48lbs) over a 12-week period, Birmingham Mail reports.

Dr Helen Parretti, National Institute for Health Research clinical lecturer at the University of Birmingham, said: "The beauty of these findings is in the simplicity.

"Just drinking a pint of water, three times a day, before your main meals may help reduce your weight.

"When combined with brief instructions on how to increase your amount of physical activity and on a healthy diet, this seems to help people to achieve some extra weight loss - at a moderate and healthy rate.

"It's something that doesn't take much work to integrate into our busy everyday lives."

The research is published in the journal Obesity.

So what are us mere mortals supposed to believe? Drinking water before meals can't hurt when it comes to weight loss, but don't expect miracle results if you're sipping on your CamelBak and waiting for the pounds to just slide right off.