![\"Juice](\"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Juice-1.jpg\")
I have overheard a lot of conversations lately where people were discussing how they could rapidly lose weight by doing a juice fast.\u00a0 My immediate reaction was to think that it couldn\u2019t be healthy.\u00a0 Some people, mostly women, were talking about being able to lose 6-8 pounds in a period of two weeks.\u00a0 I mentioned that it sounded like starvation but they were convinced that it was completely healthy and actually detoxified their body.<\/p>\n
I must say that I was very skeptical about the fact that a juice fast was healthy, but I couldn\u2019t really argue my point without some evidence.\u00a0 Fasting has been a part of many religious traditions throughout history as a demonstration of self control and dedication, but is there any real health benefit?<\/p>\n
![\"starvation,](\"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Juice-2.jpg\")
First I examined the weight loss phenomenon.\u00a0 What I found is rather disturbing.\u00a0 When a person participates in a fast, their body is robbed of essential nutrients.\u00a0 Burning off fat provides some of the nutrients, but when the body goes into \u201cstarvation\u201d mode the most efficient source of nutrients can be found in muscle tissue.<\/p>\n
The women who experienced this rapid weight loss were not burning off pounds of fat, but instead they were causing muscle atrophy.\u00a0 Muscle mass is much heavier than fat, and as such they saw tremendous weight loss that could not be attributed to burning fat.\u00a0 The down side to this is that muscle is needed to help burn the fat, so when they begin eating normally again they will most likely pack on even more fat than before, and have less muscle mass to help burn it off.<\/p>\n
Next I wanted to address the idea that this juice diet \u201cdetoxifies\u201d the body of impurities, preservatives, and other things that are consumed in our normal diet.\u00a0 I was told that it flushes out your system and that you will feel wonderful after the first few days.<\/p>\n
Is this true?\u00a0 No. Contrary to the supporters of this diet will etll you, fasting doesn’t “cleanse” or “rest” the liver.\u00a0 If anything, fasting overworks the liver by saturating it with toxins produced by fasting itself.<\/p>\n
The reality of the situation is that if you want to lose weight you have to eat right and exercise\u2026period.\u00a0 There are medicines you can take to help with this goal such as Xenical<\/a> which blocks fat uptake, and also medical procedures for the extremely obese.\u00a0 However, the juice fast just like most other fad diets simply doesn\u2019t work in the long run and can be extremely dangerous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have overheard a lot of conversations lately where people were discussing how they could rapidly lose weight by doing a juice fast.\u00a0 My immediate reaction was to think that it couldn\u2019t be healthy.\u00a0 Some people, mostly women, were talking about being able to lose 6-8 pounds in a period of two weeks.\u00a0 I mentioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weight-loss"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t