Juicing...The Fastlane to Weightloss?

[princesslane]

I have been reading up on juice feasting. It is when you go a period of 7 days or more on only fruit and vegetable juices.
I know juicing is good because it promotes cleansing and detoxing, but most importantly it breaks some bad habits and food adictions.

Of course you loose weight because your calories are restricted, but you are also telling your body that you are going to be healthier.

Any thoughts?

 

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[Amail]

Hey! That's 10 posts! Go make a blog entry!

Oh yeah, thoughts - I make changes in my habits slowly, methodically, and permanently. Any time you radically change what you give your body, it reacts radically. Seems to me you're starting on the back foot.

 

[FionaS]

Juicing has some good aspects, but I'd much rather have a healthy all around diet than have to rely on juicing to 'reset' myself. Juice has a lot of sugar (natural sugar, but sugar nonetheless) and it simply doesn't have all your body needs to sustain it for a long period of time.

The lack of calories also worries me. I feel like it's just a 'lose weight easy' method - you lose weight at first, but it simply can't be great for you. Your body needs a certain amount of nutrients to work effectively, and juicing just doesn't promote that, IMO.

I see nothing wrong with doing it for a couple days, but in the end, just a healthy, unprocessed, natural diet will probably do much better for you.

 

[Mike39]

Juice alone will not give you all the nutrients you need alone, plus not getting enough calories (for your build/lifestyle) in a day is not healthy despite what many are led to believe, you should incorporate fruits & vegetables into your diet if your not already (this could be through juicing) over time and stick with that habit. Do not drink/eat only fruits and veggies, your body needs a certain amount of protein, carbs, and yes even fats to be healthy. Eating the adequate amount of (the right) food for your body combined with regular exercise will achieve whatever weight loss or health goal you may have unless it is somewhat extreme. It's easy to interpret any weight loss as healthy when in all actuality you may very well be damaging your body more than being heavier was, or you are may be programming your body/metabolism to gain weight once you stop your diet/fast/whatever.

On a side note, I thought you were talking about steroids from the title of the thread haha

 

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[Vigilante]

just bought a vitamix blender... I think I am in love. Beats the hell out of my Jack Lelane power juicer.

 

[Felix II]

Juicing for weight loss? Maybe.

Juicing to get a nice body? NO WAY.

Is your goal to lose weight or is your goal to have a nice, healthy body?

If it is the later then eating less (and juicing) is not the answer.

 

[PatrickP]

Juicing has some good aspects, but I'd much rather have a healthy all around diet than have to rely on juicing to 'reset' myself. Juice has a lot of sugar (natural sugar, but sugar nonetheless) and it simply doesn't have all your body needs to sustain it for a long period of time.

The lack of calories also worries me. I feel like it's just a 'lose weight easy' method - you lose weight at first, but it simply can't be great for you. Your body needs a certain amount of nutrients to work effectively, and juicing just doesn't promote that, IMO.

I see nothing wrong with doing it for a couple days, but in the end, just a healthy, unprocessed, natural diet will probably do much better for you.

I am LOVING this post. Great info. Agreed 100%

 

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[princesslane]

Thanks Amail, I'm on it!

 

[samjohn]

Just eat the fruit and veg. Juicing means you take in way more sugar in a short period of time.

 

[craig1928]

Was expecting to see a thread on steroids when I saw the title.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Beats the hell out of my Jack Lelane power juicer.

OMG, I had mine for 3 days and returned it ... took an hour to clean.

Now I have a Breville and love it.

There's a decent documentary on juicing called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. I recommend watching it as it shows what happens when you take a grossly out-of-shape and obese person and throw him on such a "diet".

I think juicing has some benefits for those needing a "reset" but definitely agree, real change occurs by LIVING a healthy lifestyle. LIVING = LIFESTYLE = PROCESS. 10 day juice fast = EVENT.

 

[wade1mil]

I'm sure Patrick has some good advice on diets and worksouts, etc. My experience over the past few months look like this. I was 15-20 pounds over my normal weight, and made one change to lose it all within 30 days. I ate less food. I showed my dad how to count calories and he was amazed how much food he was eating. This was about 9 weeks ago and he has gone from 226 to 193. He hasn't worked out the entire time, and never did a low carb or juicing diet. An interesting diet book to read is The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. It's easier to lose weight than most people think, but just like anything, you have to be serious about it.

 

[Kak]

I used to weigh 220-230 in college, I graduated, and here I am at 202 a few months later. I have been working out every day (different things each day) and eating what I want, seriously, burgers, steaks, Chinese food, you name it, and I ate out pretty much every day. This week I am eating only super healthy and trying to break into the 190s for the first time in 5 years!

I think my new work out habit combines with some leaner and healthier food choices I will start to look amazing. For my size frame 190 would probably be perfect.

Oh yeah, when I let a rip, I am hitting the golf ball in the 300s now too!

Point is, do it right. It is easy once you get started.

 

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[oddball]

Juice alone will not give you all the nutrients you need alone, plus not getting enough calories (for your build/lifestyle) in a day is not healthy despite what many are led to believe, you should incorporate fruits & vegetables into your diet if your not already (this could be through juicing) over time and stick with that habit. Do not drink/eat only fruits and veggies, your body needs a certain amount of protein, carbs, and yes even fats to be healthy. Eating the adequate amount of (the right) food for your body combined with regular exercise will achieve whatever weight loss or health goal you may have unless it is somewhat extreme. It's easy to interpret any weight loss as healthy when in all actuality you may very well be damaging your body more than being heavier was, or you are may be programming your body/metabolism to gain weight once you stop your diet/fast/whatever.

On a side note, I thought you were talking about steroids from the title of the thread haha

So I'm not the only one! haha
To me, people wanting these lose weight fast diets are lazy. Working out and going to the gym is the other half, the harder half.

 

[awkwardgenius]

Having a great body is 80% diet, 20% exercise...that ratio swings even more toward diet if you're just talking about dropping pounds.

If you're interested in losing weight effectively, check out a ketogenic diet (such as old-school Atkins, not this frankenfood crap they push now), or a low-carb paleo approach...both of which you could learn more about through some quick googling. Actually, some of the best resources on those approaches are the online community, Reddit (where I happened to discover TMF ). You should check out reddit.com/r/keto and reddit.com/r/paleo if you're looking to lose weight and get healthy. Sugar is your enemy. Juicing is counterproductive, even if you manage to starve off a few lbs via calorie restriction.

 

[TheTruth]

I have been reading up on juice feasting. It is when you go a period of 7 days or more on only fruit and vegetable juices.
I know juicing is good because it promotes cleansing and detoxing, but most importantly it breaks some bad habits and food adictions.

Of course you loose weight because your calories are restricted, but you are also telling your body that you are going to be healthier.

Any thoughts?

Yeah a lot has been said on the topic of juice fasts, but to tell you the truth, it's not something that helps break bad habits, nor are you telling your body you are going to treat it better.

If you do this promptly because you want to "change your lifestyle/diet/way of eating etc" ... you will feel like a crack addict who has been put into solitary confinement for 7 days without drugs.

You will have headaches, huge cravings, dizziness, nausea, weakness etc etc.

The proper way of doing such fasts is after you already have implemented a healthy lifestyle. NOW, the fast becomes and addition to that lifestyle (which people utilize maybe once or twice a year).


The whole point of the fast is to feed your body the essential nutrients and minerals it needs but not to make your gi tract and the rest of your body work. Essentially you are giving your body a break from having to constantly digest foods.

Of course if someone tries this as a "get lean fast" scheme, they could put themselves into a hospital easily.


The Juice has too much sugar controversy:

A lot of people tend to associate juice with something sugary and full of fruit. The thing is the juice fasts that OP is reading about (at least I assume from the info you have provided) probably don't contain that many fruits, or at least they shouldn't.

The fruit is put in to taste good and you don't need that much of it, but of course people can go overboard (if you have more than 2 fruits you are probably going overboard) -> but this could depend on the fruit also. These juices are also interlinked with smoothies and vice versa.

Just eat the fruit and veg. Juicing means you take in way more sugar in a short period of time.

Although I did explain the sugar thing above, I wanted to mention that yes eating the actual fruits and veggies is great, but it also has limitations in some aspects.

For example, if you are on the go a lot and really busy you can get 3-5 servings of your veggies and some fruits from one drink. On top of that everything liquid is easier to digest (NOTE, even though it's easier to digest doesn't mean if you had a liquid only diet that it would be healthy), and some veggies aren't broken down properly in our bodies unless they are either cooked or blended into a liquid.

Oh yeah, when I let a rip

I read this and started lmao... then i read it again to make sure i read properly... and then i finally read the second half of the sentence and went ohhhhhhhhhhhh lol

 

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[jaywolf]

There's no need to do anything of the sorts. Weight loss is a simple equation. Simply burn more calories than you take in per day. If you count calories, you will know how much you need to eat (portion control) and burn (exercise regiment).

I will also say this though: Just like you wouldn't want to put 87 octane gasoline in a lambo, your body also requires good fuel to operate at its peak efficiency.

You don't want to use juice as your sole nutrition source, especially since it's filled with fructose (sugar). A balanced mix of fresh vegetables (especially lots of spinach, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, onions), lean meats like chicken and fish and cutting out fattening fast food or anything processed will work wonders.

I followed the simple rules above for 2 and a half months, along with 2 hours of exercise a day, and i dropped 50 pounds in those 2.5 months. I can say from personal experience it works, there's no fancy diet involved, just the cliche good foods our body REALLY craves.

If you need to taper into it, try cutting out sugary sodas (if you drink them) and "quick" types of food, in favor of water and making your own meals/snacks the night before with wholesome good ingredients.

Jaywolf

 

[Likwid24]

just bought a vitamix blender

So Jealous! I wanted to buy one so bad. Had it on my wedding registry. We returned a bunch of useless gifts to Macy's but they don't carry the Vitamixer! I bought an Omega Juicer, which I am very happy with, but I heard Vitamixers are amazing. Need to sell more Brush Covers Asap! lol

On the topic of Juicing. I started about a month ago and have been feeling great. Full of energy lately. This is also combined with a new diet I started 2 months ago, compliments of PatrickP's advice. I just got into intermittent fasting and I love it. Lost 15 lbs of body fat in a little over a month. Kept most of my size and strength. Lots of Energy. Amazing workouts during my fasting state. Looking leaner then i did when I was in my early 20's and probably in better shape now. I'm also worrying a lot less about eating all the time. It used to be every 2-3 hours. Now I eat 2 or 3 times a day.

Fiona is 100% correct though. Juice alone would never be able to power me through my days. You need to eat whole foods and get your daily intake of fat and proteins. I drink a green veggie juice early in the morning when I'm in my fasted state. If I happen to drink one later in the afternoon, I'll throw in carrots, apples and beets.

If your going to juice to lose weight, use it to replace on meal a day. You can even do one day a week in which you don't eat whole foods, but I wouldn't do any more than that. Just eat right and exercise and you will lose plenty of weight.

Also, look into intermittent fasting. There are free ebooks you can find on the web. I really enjoy it and it has done wonders for me.

 

[Jax]

You could miss out on vital fibre by not eating the skins, the sugar content is too high and you will set your body into starvation mode if you do a juice fast for a prolonged amount of time.
focus on lean protein, good fat and an abundance of vegetables to get a healthy mix. put as many different colours on your plate to give a wide variety of nutrients and too make the food look more attractive and mostly drink plenty of water.
increase your exercise as much as possible, even if its a brisk walk whilst listening to an audio book and you'llbe on your way to radiance in no time ;-)

 

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[healthstatus]

There's no need to do anything of the sorts. Weight loss is a simple equation. Simply burn more calories than you take in per day. If you count calories, you will know how much you need to eat (portion control) and burn (exercise regiment).

My website can provide the following calculations for you:
Ideal Weight - Ideal Body Weight
The Most Accurate Calories Burned Calculator,
How Many Calories to Lose Weight
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Lose Weight Calculator - Lose 10 pounds, lose 20 pounds!

all free! enjoy, post to facebook, tweet, digg, stumble.....

 

[Skys]

EVENT EVENT EVENT EVENT

You don't want to lose weight, you want to lose bodyfat. Calorie in, calorie out. Calorie in has to be less then the calories out. EXCERSISE, high intensity + a good combination of the right nutrions (fats, carbs and protein).

Juice, can be a part of that... a part of the PROCESS. you are changing your lifestyle, not just your bodyfat. Go for the event, for the quickfix and I garantee you will have back everything + more when you are done 'juicing'.

 

[Milkanic]

My diet plan:

1.) Eat dead animals
2.) Shut up
3.) Squat

 

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[Flaag]

A juice diet is for detoxification, not weight loss.

 

[krueger75]

I honestly don't know a whole lot about juicing, but I've been using Tim Ferriss' "Slow Carb Diet" to very positive effects. The basics: eat lean proteins (fish, chicken, lean beef, beans), and vegetables for most meals while completely cutting out bread, fruit and dairy based products. i know this sounds extreme, but I've found changing radically allows me to stick more to a regimen than slowly changing over time. This is just a personal opinion however. If your interested in this diet plan, definitely read up on it before trying it as there are other things involved. Best of luck!!!

 

[CommonCents]

A great read is marksdailyapple, you can get emails/fb updates as well. Good info on paleo/primal lifestyle.

 

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[FastNAwesome]

I tried multiple of these extreme diets.

Also tried a healthy, custom calculated diet from a certified fitness trainer.

Don't like neither. It all works, but craving for FOOD is huge, and it's easy to cause Yo-Yo effect.
You lose some weight, but then are so starved that you overeat and get back to beginning.

So my system now, that works great for me is:

1) I just reverted to my normal diet, eating what I want
2) When I feel I'm done, I stop. Even if there's more left in plate.
3) I introduce healthy food into my diet, but very, very slowly, so that it doesn't bothers me and change my good feeling. So I'm slowly getting used to eat less bread. Or to occasionally take a fruit instead of chocolate bar. This way healthy foods actually became pleasant for me.

4) I workout. Fit is better than skinny

 

[Goosey]

I did a 2-week juice fast a few years ago. I liked the discipline of it. I didn't notice any significant change in my energy throughout the day, and I was working out daily at the time. I felt lighter, though, and came to see my habitual patterns towards food (e.g. snacking when not hungry, checking out the fridge if I am walking by). I did some research before, though, to plan my intake. My average regimen was something like this:

Lemon/Apple juice in morning
Fruit juices til 4PM
Vege juices 4PM onwards
Lots of water throughout the day
Soy milk with berry juice as supplement if I got hungry

 

[St.Alpine]

I tryied the slow carb diet and hated it. I think there are a lot of very good tips in Tim Ferrisses book, but also a lot of things you should take with a grain of salt. There's an interesting thread in the forum about the disadvantages of working from home, btw.

IMO every diet, concentrating on one specific food source is doomed to failure. Your body needs all nutritions. If you just stick to fruits or one kind f food like vegetables, your body doesn't get all the nutrition it needs.

The key is to have a balanced diet, allowing your body to get carbs, natural fats (very important to lose body fat) and protein.
With every meal, there should be all 3 parts available.

There are five things I can recommend for loosing fat:

1) Green tea
2) Grass fed beef
3) Berries (all natural)
4) Dairy Products (skim milk/low fat cottage cheese)
5) Enough water (at least 3 liters a day)

When trying to lose fat, it is important to look for:

Natural food. Whole food. Unprocessed food.

The farmer market should become a regular place to visit. Especially at the beginning of the week.

 

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[PatrickP]

Thanks for the tips.

How much fat did you lose when you changed to eating those things?

Do you find it tough to limit yourself to only those few food items?

 

[Vic]

Personally, if I don't eat some sort of protein everyday I feel like I really haven't eaten.