Anyone doing/thinking of doing a juice detox/cleanse?

[louiespence]

I have just started a 3-day juice fast and wondered if anyone else was doing similar and wanted a bit of support? Or was thinking of doing similar and wondered what it was like?

My regime consists of 3 days of eating nothing, and drinking 6 juices per day (plus lots of water too!). The detox is supposed to cleanse the system, giving you more energy and giving your metabolism a kick-start, shedding a few pounds in the process! Worth a go I think, as I have a holiday to the Canaries coming up in February and am still carrying extra Christmas weight.

I gave up caffeine a couple of weeks ago so I wouldn't have caffeine withdrawal on top of the hunger, and haven't had any alcohol since new years eve either, so I am feeling pretty virtuous and ready to completely cleanse!

So day 1 is here and it is 6pm and I feel surprisingly good! I was expecting to feel a bit faint or headachey but I'm full of energy and didn't have my mid-afternoon energy slump, like I usually do at about 2/3pm. I've had 4 of my 6 juices so far, and so that's 2 to eat later as my 'dinner' substitute. I do feel a bit hungry if I think about it, but the juices have been surprisingly filling, and I am keeping regularly topped up with water to fill my stomach!

I will keep checking in to update on how I'm feeling/doing!

louie- you'll find some support on here- but, tbh, I'd ask -Why?

What do you plan to do after 3 days? Do you have weight to lose or is this just a 'detox'? I'd imagine you have otherwise you'd be on a 'health' topic, not here.

By all means, go for it, if you feel it's of use to you but if I was being absolutely frank, I'd say I have two perfectly good means of 'detox' available to me, 24/7/365, called my liver and kidneys. All I have to do is keep them hydrated and not sling too many toxins at them at once.

It's true that the psychological effect of 'drawing a line in the sand' when you need to rethink your lifestyle can be of use, usually manifesting itself in most 'diets' first week of hell to get you to actually see weight loss in order to spur you on, and I get that some diets may recommend fasting or whatever at the start to achieve this but then follows a looong process of realigning your WOE for long term change.

You'd be feeling sharp as a tack right now. You body is going 'hang on, no food' and heightening your awareness because it fears famine- and will attempt to 'protect' you from it.

Anyway, genuinely hope all goes well and that you achieve what you've set out to do.

Hi Erebus , thanks for replying. I'm doing this to kickstart a bit of weight loss and healthy eating. I would like to cut out sugar and other processed foods and eat a bit less in general, so this seemed like a good way for me to start and hopefully shift a few pounds to give me the boost to continue.

I've been trying to eat more healthily since January, and have been exercising regularly but haven't lost anything, so I felt I needed something a bit more drastic!

I searched for threads when I was considering doing this and couldn't find any, so thought I would share my experiences for anyone else considering it.

9pm now and having my final juice of the day. Still feeling pretty good, though my stomach does feel on the empty side.

I am quite pleased that I have made it through the first day without being tempted to waver (I am rubbish at diets usually!!). Just hope I can keep it up, I am expecting tomorrow to be quite tough!

I'd be ravenous by now! Well done for sticking at it.

What sort of WOE are you planning on after these 3 days?

I'm not sure what a WOE is?

Well day 2 is here and I'm still feeling reasonably good and determined to carry on! Woke up fairly easily this morning, instead of having to drag myself out of bed, which makes a change!

Couldn't resist getting on the scales this morning, and have lost just over half a kilo, which is very motivating! I am certainly getting a buzz from the achievement of keeping to it (I have never kept to a diet before!), and its giving me the confidence to think that I could stick to something longer term!

Way Of Eating

On juice 3 of day 2 and feeling okay, but a little bit hungry now with a slight headache! Still keeping going!

No adverse side effects to report yet either, as I was a bit worried when I started about possible wind/ excess bowel movements, but everything seems normal! Phew!

Erebus I am considering the intermittent fasting plan afterwards. It sounds workable, and after this, I think I can cope with the fasting. Reading the Michael Moseley web chat with interest!

5pm on day 2 and feeling really hungry now!

Just had juice no. 4, which has staved off the hunger a little bit, but stomach still feeling really empty. Despite the hunger, I still have plenty of energy and don't feel faint or lethargic. Just towed my sons home from school/nursery on their sledge (they weigh 35 kgs between them!), and I was fine doing that. Cooking and then watching them eat their tea was much tougher!

Made it through day 2, though it was a lot tougher than day 1! I was very hungry in the early evening, but it seems to have worn off a bit now.

Just one more day to go now.......

Considering 7 lb in 7 days juice detox

Wow Rusmum 7 days sounds pretty hardcore! Have you done anything like this before?

Day 3 is here for me and I'm feeling pretty good! Felt alert and wide awake when the alarm went off this morning! The hunger that I felt for most of yesterday seems to have abated too, which is a relief as I found yesterday evening really tough!

Still no side effects to report as such, although I do have a funny taste in my mouth.

Just going to order the Michael Mosley book, with a view to doing the 5:2 diet next week! Quite excited by the prospect!!!

Glad you're soping louie- and have part 2 of the plan (5:2?) in place.

Rusman- um- that way lies madness. You absolutely won't keep those 7lbs off. I am not doubting your willpower to do it, just the simple facts of body physiology means you can't possibly 'burn off' 7lbs of long term fat and keep it off long term if you lose it by starving yourself, effectively, for 7 days.

As already stated, in a normally healthy person, albeit overweight, 'detox' is a myth. Your kidneys and liver do that for you all along as long as you keep yourself properly hydrated and don't throw too many toxins at them in one go. So with 7 days' worth of juice dieting, you aren't 'detoxing', you're forcing your body to work differently in order to function, one which could be counter-productive if you go into starvation mode..

coping, louie! Can't even blame autocorrect!

Half way through day 3 and feel amazing! The hunger seems to have passed and I'm full of energy! No mid-afternoon slump yet again, it's great!

Thanks for your input Erebus , it's good to hear all viewpoints. To clarify about my juice plan, the juices I am having should add up to 1200 calories a day, so I don't think it's all that drastic, considering the Fast Diet only allows 500 cals on your fast days.

And I've found it a good kickstart, and its really made me think differently about food. I now realise that most of the time I eat out of habit or boredom, rather than because I am actually hungry.

Well it's the end of day 3 and my juice fast is nearly finished. I still feel great with loads of energy! Haven't really felt hungry at all today, day 2 was definitely the hardest.

Don't really want to start eating properly tomorrow as I'll miss feeling so energetic! But I am sort of looking forward to chewing something for breakfast!!

Will update on how I'm feeling tomorrow, weight loss etc, but at the moment I definitely plan to do this again!

Still feeling good today, although I did really enjoy my bagel for breakfast, feels good to have some real food inside my stomach!

The scales revealed a massive 2.6kg weight loss since Monday, which I am frankly amazed at! Will try to update after the weekend to report whether the weight has stayed off and if I manage to change my eating habits!