The Master Cleanser

"Cleanses" and "detoxes" are complete hokum, the placebo effect, useless unless you're scheduled for a colonoscopy. No medical experts support them. The fact that the stuff that comes out of your colon looks gross, just means that you're flushing the crap out of your intestines all at once before it forms into stools.

Knowles also says she hated it and it caused her to binge

This idea is older than I am. When I was 15 (in 1965) I unintentionally skipped a few meals once and noticed that I had lost 5 lbs in the process. So I decided to skip eating entirely and drank water with lemon juice -- no sweetner. I dropped 40 lbs very quickly, which had everyone believing that I had cancer. I certainly looked like I did. My mother dragged me to the doctor who told me, in no uncertain terms, that I had better start eating if I didn't want to ruin my health and looks. It took two weeks of trying to eat before I could keep a small meal down.

Kitty, It's funny that you were probably less likely to get cancer after having lost the 40lbs, but you looked more like someone who does have cancer. Your post makes me want to try it! But I know better...

Fasting may actually have some very beneficial effects on overall health and longevity. The area that needs to be explored is how long a fast is needed for the benefits. It may be as short a period as 12 to 18 hours. It was no accident that it was named Break--Fast!

I would hate this master cleanse thing. Seriously, if you eat enough fiber and drink enough water, you're colon cleans itself out. It's lined with mucus and eating fiber helps clear any debris out of there. Plus, your liver/kidneys takes care of most toxins in your body. The only reason it makes you lose weight is because there's no food matter in your system. It's all psychological...there's much more to health than weight.

Spectra said:
I would hate this master cleanse thing. Seriously, if you eat enough fiber and drink enough water, you're colon cleans itself out. It's lined with mucus and eating fiber helps clear any debris out of there. Plus, your liver/kidneys takes care of most toxins in your body. The only reason it makes you lose weight is because there's no food matter in [...]

Not only that, the weight comes back with a vengeance.

A fast, or any weight-loss diet, without sufficient protein means you will lose muscle, meaning you will lose metabolism, meaning you will not be able to eat as much as you had before. Many people who had crash dieted have had to become rabbits or mice at the table, in order not to blow up again like a blubber balloon when they resumed healthy eating habits. And many more have blown up like a blubber balloon, becoming even worse off than they were before as only having lost muscle mass and replaced it with fat.

The only crash diet I would ever do is a protein-sparing modified fast. Eat a pound or two or meat a day, depending on if you weight 100 or 200 lbs, or scale the meat to your weight being somewhere between or above. Eat as many vegetables as you like (corn and potatoes are not vegetables). Meat and vegetables for two weeks... Afterwards, I slowly added foods back into my diet: first nuts, then fruit, legumes, whole grains and finally the occasional starch such as white rice. Though I still try to eat starch only in the post-workout window, when the muscles are primed to absorb nutrients rather than the fat cells.

I lost 15 lbs this way, almost all fat (some water). My arms and calves were the same size, so I know I didn't lose my hard-earned muscle mass (bodybuilder). But I'd lost 2 1/2 inches on the waist, and was never hungry, having split up the 2 lbs of meat into 6 seperate meals.

Eating more meals increases metabolism, btw, while providing a more constant influx of nutrients. Skipping meals decrease metabolism and is a horrible way to diet, if you care anything about maintaining a healthy body shape. You'll end up like a waif after the diet, and a whale a few months later if you follow the typical advice.

Do you think Weight Watchers ever wants you to graduate? No, they want you to yo-yo, becoming ever more unhealthy by losing muscle mass and then blaming yourself for getting fat afterwards. They still look good for getting your scale weight down, and making you look temporarily "improved" to those who can't properly judge health.

A waif, a whale or a wonderwoman (or man) - it's not just a matter of discipline, but also dietary education. You're on the right track.

I agree with all the comments so far. Our bodies are very efficient machines; they have properties that will properly cleanse it periodically. I do not think our bodies are meant to fast, unless it's for a brief period or religious reason. I agree that it's all psychological and instead of fasting, why not eat things that grow out of the ground for a few days?

When you did the meat and vegetables, did you put any butter on cooked veggies or salad dressing on the raw ones, or just eat them plain? Just wondering....thanks.

Kailash said:
Do you think Weight Watchers ever wants you to graduate? No, they want you to yo-yo, becoming ever more unhealthy by losing muscle mass and then blaming yourself for getting fat afterwards. They still look good for getting your scale weight down, and making you look temporarily "improved" to those who can't properly judge health[...]

Not necessarily 100% true...I did WW and I continue to loosely follow their guidelines, and I keep the weight off pretty easily. You don't have to starve...you just have to keep track of your calories and not go back to your old way of eating. My mom is a WW "yo yo" because she goes on the program and eats well for a couple months, then goes back to eating thousands of calories worth of junk and gains the weight back.

"Master cleanse video diaries can be found on YouTube..."

I would love to see them. They are probably hilarious. As for "master cleanse", it is a bona fide fad.

I think reducing sodium alone makes a huge difference, and it might actually be the main reason people lose so much weight on a fast. I've been eating low sodium for two days now after I bought the "Rice Diet Solution" book, and I lost three pounds yesterday alone. I went to the gym today after a breakfast of fruit and hot cereal (no salt). I have never been aware of the amount of sodium I have been eating!

Maybe the lemon just gets people off the sodium for a while and they shrink! In the book I bought it said you can expect to lose 20 to 30 lbs. in the first month, but some people have lost up to 80 lbs. in the first month. I'm amazed at how my hands have sort of deflated today, almost back to what they were 20 years ago! I may be able to put my wedding band back on!

I don't go for the whole detox idea, but I have to admit I always feel better if I start the day with warm water and freshly squeezed lemon juice. It's very refreshing!

The other old system is the vinegar and honey drink for health and vitality (and weight loss)

Detox is a bad idea!
If you want to lose the weight for the long term and keep it off forever, you need to convert your MIND, not just your body, into that of a thin person.
Once you believe you are thin, you will stay that way.
There's a new plan about to sweep the country and it helps you do just that!
It called The Logic Diet.
Check out www.thelogicdiet.com