So you want to do a cleanse and detox your body right? I’m sure you’ve heard someone at one point in your life blabbing on and on about all the dangerous toxins floating around in your body. They probably even told you that doing a cleanse would help you lose 10-20lbs. You heard this and immediately anticipated your body was filled with dangerous toxins and that doing a cleanse would not only eliminate these toxins but also help you lose fat. Sounds great right? NO it’s NOT great it’s actually fucking awful and is nothing more than another way for people like Dr. Oz to make money.
Did you know that your body is constructed to detox itself? Your lungs, kidneys, liver, immune system, and gastrointestinal tract are very effective at eliminating waste and toxic substances within a few hours of ingestion. Did you also know that there is ZERO, yes zero evidence whatsoever that supports the theory of detox diets and cleanses. So you might be saying, “well how did all those people lose 10-20lbs doing a cleanse” umm it’s pretty simple. A cleanse requires you to drink a combination of fresh lemon, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and “pure water” six to twelve times a day. So you’re thinking that these ingredients have some magical fat burning toxin murdering power, right? That must be the reason people have lost 20lbs in a few weeks. Actually no, no that’s not the reason people lost weight at all. It’s because they were consuming 200 calories a day. If I gave you 200 calories a day of any foods or drink you’d lose the exact same amount of weight. I could literally feed you 1 pop tart a day which has 200 calories exactly and you would have lost the same exact weight as drinking the “magical potion”. No this does not mean that pop tarts are also magical. It purely means that 200 calories is 200 calories and consuming so little for a week at a time is not only dangerous but destructive to your metabolism. The minute you begin to eat food again you’ll quickly climb higher than 200 calories and your body will put back whatever weight you lost and maybe even a little extra if you aren’t careful. Why put yourself in this situation to begin with? The short term weight loss you would experience from a detox or cleanse has absolutely nothing to do with the elimination of toxins. Detoxing and cleanses do NOT remove toxins from your body.
So what can I do?
If you really feel your body is jam packed with toxins it’s probably because you’ve been living a pretty unhealthy lifestyle. You might be a drinker or a big supporter of fast food and got anxious when you believed your body could be filled with hazardous toxins. It’s a good thing you were nervous, it only shows you care about yourself. Instead of wasting more time on a cleanse why don’t you try cleaning up your act. Learn how to eat more healthfully and make better conscious decisions about what you put in your mouth. Learn what macronutrients and micronutrients are, track your food on a calorie tracking app, do resistance training, and educate yourself before making any drastic conclusions.