How will it affect my weight?
Avoiding solid foods for a while and opting for pressed fruits and vegetables will trigger some quick weight loss. However, there is no magic here. Weight quickly lost can be quickly gained back. This means that a juice cleanse can be a good way to jumpstart your weight loss but you’ll still have to back it up with a proper diet and exercise.
Why not live on juice?
While fruits and vegetables are jam-packed with vitamins and nutrients, they aren’t enough for the long run. The body can survive on juices for a few days, detoxify, and restart some systems, but it will need its solid food calories eventually. This is why you should never cleanse for more than five days.
When we eat less solid calories we have less energy, so a person on a juice cleanse might experience weakness, headaches, or mood swings. This is why you should never exert yourself until the cleanse is done. Solid foods also contain proteins, carbs, and fats, which are essential to our bodies no matter what your favorite Insta-fitness instructor tells you. Eliminating those components from your diet altogether is harmful, especially if you have any other medical issues to handle (like diabetes or celiac). Fruits also contain a lot of sugar. It’s better than processed sugar but it’s still sugar. When you consume too much of it, it’s still harmful like its processed counterpart.
If you do it, do it right
You will need more than just motivation for a successful juice cleanse. Preparing for a juice cleanse requires some planning of the food you eat before and after the process. First, you don’t stock up on calories beforehand. It will only make things more difficult. Instead, try eating healthy, natural food that is as unprocessed as possible. This will help you ease into the liquids and crave fewer solids once you start.
When the cleanse is done, don’t go running for the nearest burger available. You need to ease out of it just as you eased into it, to not upset your stomach.