Trying to lose weight? Here’s a simple trick that might help: Drink two glasses of water a half hour before every meal.

That’s the upshot of new research by the University of Birmingham that found obese individuals who drink 500 ml (about two cups) of water before eating lose more weight than others engaging in more complicated diet plans.

"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," said Helen Parretti, who helped conduct the study.

"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.

For the study, published in the journal Obesity, researchers asked 41 obese individuals to drink two cups of water before every meal for a three-month period. They also asked a second group 43 individuals to simply imagine they had a full stomach before eating.

After 12 weeks, those who drank water before eating lost an average of about eight pounds more than those who didn’t engage in the water diet.

"Losing a few extra pounds over the course of a year can be significant to an individual, and this could be an easy way to help with that weight loss,” said Parretti. It's a simple message that has the potential to make a real contribution to public health."