Juicing Diet

brudius

Greetings All,

I would like to get everyone's opinions on juicing diets. I had done just juice for 10 days and lost 12 pounds previously no solid food at all. Which came back slowly, but did come back when i went to solid foods.

I am on day 2 of the juicing diet and all is going well. This time i am throwing in a few other things in, maybe a hard boiled egg for a snack, or a solid apple.

I am using the recipe from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.
Apples - 2 medium
Celery - 4 stalk, large
Cucumber - 1 cucumber
Ginger Root - 1 thumb
Kale - 6 leaf
Lemon - 1/2 fruit

Depending how i feel that day i may add another cucumber or apple for sweetness. I also do usually a whole lemon. I was debating on trying to mix it up a little and toss in some brewed decaf green tea.

Has anyone done one of this or similar. Any advice on how to continue strong? Any tips?

Bob314159

If you use a juicer like a vitamix than includes all the fiber, then its not a problem. Regular juicers are a no from my view - no fiber.

Strawblackcat

Personally, I like to chew my food. It makes me feel fuller.

Juicing also makes you miss out on a lot of important nutrients. Juices are pretty much devoid of fiber, beneficial fats, and protein. A couple of days shouldn't hurt you, but juicing isn't something that I would reccomend you stick with for a long time.

queenliz99

Let me throw this out here for you!!
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/does-the-movie-fed-up-make-sense/

robertw486

Watch the second Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead movie and take note of what the professionals in the film say. They had the same problems you did. Rather than figure out a way to sustain weight loss long term, they started themselves to lose weight, then gained most of it right back after they got tired of starving.

Advice on how to continue strong? Eat something. Seriously, look at the total calorie count of the suggested juicing mix.... it's low to an unhealthy level. That's the entire "secret" to it. You could probably take a multi vitamin or two and eat equal calories in Twinkies. But you'll still lose weight, still be hungry, and you won't have a juicer to clean up.

OR, you could lose weight at a healthy rate while eating real food. Learn more about nutrition, play with what foods keep you the most full, and transition to a long term healthier way of eating and a better understanding of your relationship with food.

kay86w

I'm about to try a 5 day juice fast soon. Mostly for "reboot" purposes though not to lose weight

rankinsect

My opinion: as long as you're getting nutrition it's not actively harmful. If it works for you, great, but I wouldn't do it nor would I recommend it, and I've lost almost 60 lb so far.

Why I don't do this: one of the tenets of my diet plan is that I won't give up anything for a diet that I won't give up forever. I have no intention of giving up solid food forever, so I won't give it up for a diet, either. The reason here is simple - losing weight is actually the easy part. Keeping it off is harder. The time I spend losing weight needs to be "practice" for the time I will spend maintaining, and to practice, I need to be as close to my actual final habits as I can be. That means I eat all of the foods I plan to eat when I am maintaining, but I just eat them in portions appropriate for weight loss.

UltraHealthSeeker

Thanks for your post asking for opinions! I love reading all the differing views on juice diets. When I hear the words "Juice Diet" I can't help but remember the scene in the movie "So I Married an Axe Murderer" with his Mom going on the "Garth Brooks Juice Diet." It's a great flick!

Regarding juice diets in general, you won't be doing yourself any harm provided it is very short-term, and you make sure to take a daily multi-vitamin and some EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids). If you are doing it to kick-start yourself into a longer-term program/routine that provides at least a 500 calorie deficit from the calorie range you usually maintain on, and is sensible, balanced, healthy, and provides all of your necessary nutrients then I think it is a great thing to do!

Having that low of a calorie intake won't do you any favors over the long-term, however. In fact, you run the risk of lowering your metabolism and losing quite a bit of lean body mass in the process. Unless you are on a type of Dr. Supervised Program, you really need to consume no less than 1200 calories per day, as a man. Women can do 1000-1200 but men really need to stay at or above 1200 per day.

So let us know how you do! But don't do it for long! That is my opinion.

zoeysasha37

kay86w wrote: »

I'm about to try a 5 day juice fast soon. Mostly for "reboot" purposes though not to lose weight

Please explain what your rebooting .

MKEgal

What you're doing is essentially a VLCD, which promotion is disallowed here on MFP.

What are you doing differently this time to reform your normal-food eating habits, so that water weight you lose
while you're essentially fasting won't come back once you start eating regular food again?
Or are you planning to stay on this VLCD juice thing the rest of your life (which will be short)?

@kay86w ... what exactly are you "rebooting"???

wizzybeth

brudius wrote: »

Greetings All,

I would like to get everyone's opinions on juicing diets. I had done just juice for 10 days and lost 12 pounds previously no solid food at all. Which came back slowly, but did come back when i went to solid foods.

I am on day 2 of the juicing diet and all is going well. This time i am throwing in a few other things in, maybe a hard boiled egg for a snack, or a solid apple.

I am using the recipe from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.
Apples - 2 medium
Celery - 4 stalk, large
Cucumber - 1 cucumber
Ginger Root - 1 thumb
Kale - 6 leaf
Lemon - 1/2 fruit

Depending how i feel that day i may add another cucumber or apple for sweetness. I also do usually a whole lemon. I was debating on trying to mix it up a little and toss in some brewed decaf green tea.

Has anyone done one of this or similar. Any advice on how to continue strong? Any tips?

Are you sure you want everyone's opinions? My experience has been when people come here and ask for opinions, most of the opinions they get make them mad.

MKEgal

This topic of 'juicing' comes up so often here, usually with newbies who haven't learned better yet, that I did a
blog post on it, quoted below.

Why Juicing Won't Help You Lose Weight

Even if you use the whole fruit/vegetable in your juice, drinking calories results in feeling less full than eating them.
And juicing takes electricity ($), water for cleanup ($), etc.
But as always, don't take my word for it.
Here are some studies.
Feel free to browse PubMed yourselves.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19110020
The effect of fruit in different forms on energy intake and satiety at a meal
"whole apple increased satiety more than applesauce or apple juice... results suggest that solid fruit affects satiety more than pureed fruit or juice, and that eating fruit at the start of a meal can reduce energy intake."
The abstract has a link to the full article, for free.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6259919
The role of dietary fiber in satiety, glucose, and insulin: studies with fruit and fruit juice
"Satiety, assessed by two subjective scoring systems, was greater after whole fruit than after juice and the return of appetite was delayed. With oranges, as previously reported with apples, there was a significantly smaller insulin response to fruit than to juice and less postabsorptive fall in plasma glucose."


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17579632
Effects of food form on appetite and energy intake in lean and obese young adults
"total daily energy intake was significantly higher ... on days the beverage forms of the high-carbohydrate, -fat and -protein foods were ingested, respectively. This was due more to a weak effect on satiety"
(IOW, solid foods are more satisfying, even if the liquid form has the same # of calories.)

MKEgal

brudius wrote:

I am using the recipe from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.
Apples - 2 medium
Celery - 4 stalk, large
Cucumber - 1 cucumber
Ginger Root - 1 thumb
Kale - 6 leaf
Lemon - 1/2 fruit

Depending how i feel that day i may add another cucumber or apple for sweetness. I also do usually a whole lemon. I was debating on trying to mix it up a little and toss in some brewed decaf green tea.

I put this into the MFP food diary.
200g apple = 104 calories
200g celery = 32 calories
300g cucumber = 45 calories
1T ginger = 5 calories
100g kale = 38 calories
100g whole lemon = 29 calories
Total = 253 calories for about 1.5 lb of food.
Adding tea will do nothing but dilute it & fill you up more.

It's very low fat (2g), very low protein (7g), high carb, high fiber.
So you're going to be malnourished.
Adding 1 large egg is 78 calories, 5g fat, 6g protein.

Calliope610

IMHO, this is really, really, really NOT necessary for weight loss. Making some educated deductions based on the info you provided in your profile (29yo male, height 5'10"ish, weight 375ish) you should be able to successfully lose weight eating 2000-2200 calories a day of real food. Meat, dairy, fruit, vegetables, grain, fat.

MKEgal

UltraHealthSeeker wrote:

Unless you are on a type of Dr. Supervised Program (sic), you really need to consume no less than 1200 calories
per day, as a man. Women can do 1000-1200 but men really need to stay at or above 1200 per day.

Um, no.
1200 is the minimum for women of average height.
For men, it's 1500.

wizzybeth

brudius wrote: »

Greetings All,

I would like to get everyone's opinions on juicing diets. I had done just juice for 10 days and lost 12 pounds previously no solid food at all. Which came back slowly, but did come back when i went to solid foods.

I am on day 2 of the juicing diet and all is going well. This time i am throwing in a few other things in, maybe a hard boiled egg for a snack, or a solid apple.

I am using the recipe from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.
Apples - 2 medium
Celery - 4 stalk, large
Cucumber - 1 cucumber
Ginger Root - 1 thumb
Kale - 6 leaf
Lemon - 1/2 fruit

Depending how i feel that day i may add another cucumber or apple for sweetness. I also do usually a whole lemon. I was debating on trying to mix it up a little and toss in some brewed decaf green tea.

Has anyone done one of this or similar. Any advice on how to continue strong? Any tips?

This is all you consume for the whole day? Wow. When I did juicing, I did juice or a smoothie for 2 meals, and a normal 3rd meal (sometimes it was lunch, sometimes dinner.)

dewd2

Why so many folks make their first post about juicing? Are the regulars are bored and want to troll? Or is there really that many out there that think juicing is a good idea? Just curious....

WinoGelato

OP if it didn't work for you before, why would you want to do it again? As others have said, juicing is a VLCD, is missing essential nutrients (fat, protein, and fiber among them), leaves you hungry and usually provides temporary water weight loss (usually resulting from lots of time in the bathroom) which comes back when you start eating normal food again, just what you experienced the first time around.

Or you could set a reasonable calorie goal, eat a variety of foods maintaining a deficit, and work toward long term, sustainable results.

I know which one I would choose....

kk_inprogress

Unfortunately, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" is less of a documentary and more of a money maker for the producers.

I highly recommend taking the advice above and reevaluating your plan. This juice diet you're talking about is way under calories for you and will leave you malnourished, susceptible to feeling like crap and getting sick and overall leave you with a quick water weight loss that will always come back.

Stick to eating food, drinking juices for pleasure and counting your calories to maintain the deficit that MFP gave you. It's been proven successful by many people here.

brudius

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

dewd2

brudius wrote: »

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

That many calories for losing? Double check your data and make sure you have it entered correctly. Did you tell MFP that your lifestyle is sedentary? How did you answer the workout question? And how much did you tell it you want to lose per week? Plus, if you height and weight are not correct MFP will not be accurate.

Honestly, the trick to losing excess weight and keeping it off is to train yourself to eat better. This happens gradually. If you try to "jumpstart" anything, you won't really learn how to eat properly and will most likely fail long term.

Good luck. I sincerely hope you succeed.

Calliope610

Your body uses food as fuel even if you are in a coma. Again, making some educated assumptions based on your profile info (weight loss goal of 225lbs), your BMR - basal metabolic rate - is around 2400-3000. That means your body requires that much fuel to provide for the basic body functions of breathing, pumping blood thru your body, digestion and elimination processes, cell regeneration, etc.

Only providing 800 calories for your body to function is a recipe for disaster.

Please read the following links for a better understanding of successful weight loss.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1235566/so-youre-new-here/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/974889/in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet#latest
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/974888

brudius

dewd2 wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

That many calories for losing? Double check your data and make sure you have it entered correctly. Did you tell MFP that your lifestyle is sedentary? How did you answer the workout question? And how much did you tell it you want to lose per week? Plus, if you height and weight are not correct MFP will not be accurate.

Honestly, the trick to losing excess weight and keeping it off is to train yourself to eat better. This happens gradually. If you try to "jumpstart" anything, you won't really learn how to eat properly and will most likely fail long term.

Good luck. I sincerely hope you succeed.

I double checked, and adjusted a few things now it is saying 1,843 per day to lose 2 pounds per week.

dewd2

Assuming you are a very big dude I suppose that makes sense (the more mass you have the higher your metabolism). As you lose this number will come down.

Have you tried following MFP's advice? How long did you stick with it and how certain are you that you logged accurately? There's no magic here. You eat less than you burn and you will lose.

kk_inprogress

brudius wrote: »

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

I'm glad to see you're reading along. Unfortunately, I think you missed a big point.
There is no "jump starting" losing weight. What you're referring to is a fast loss of water weight and it will always come back unfortunately. Your calories out includes not only your exercise, but what your body burns by being alive. If MFP says 1800 or so, GO WITH THAT. I promise, it works- I've done it and I'm in maintenance. 800 calories is far too little and is going to leave you with no energy and malnourished.

brudius

dewd2 wrote: »

Assuming you are a very big dude I suppose that makes sense (the more mass you have the higher your metabolism). As you lose this number will come down.

Have you tried following MFP's advice? How long did you stick with it and how certain are you that you logged accurately? There's no magic here. You eat less than you burn and you will lose.

I weigh 285. Everything is logged accurately, i just don't burn enough. Which i am trying to change.

brudius

kkenseth wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

I'm glad to see you're reading along. Unfortunately, I think you missed a big point.
There is no "jump starting" losing weight. What you're referring to is a fast loss of water weight and it will always come back unfortunately. Your calories out includes not only your exercise, but what your body burns by being alive. If MFP says 1800 or so, GO WITH THAT. I promise, it works- I've done it and I'm in maintenance. 800 calories is far too little and is going to leave you with no energy and malnourished.

I am doing more than 800, closer to 1000-1200 with throwing in a solid food items. I am not doing 100% juice, but it is a majority of my intake in the day though.

Last time i did the juicing i did 100% juice. This time i am doing it a bit different. Taking in some solid fruit, some lean white meat, eggs, etc. I am trying to keep everything completely accurate with food scales to weigh food as well.

kk_inprogress

brudius wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

I'm glad to see you're reading along. Unfortunately, I think you missed a big point.
There is no "jump starting" losing weight. What you're referring to is a fast loss of water weight and it will always come back unfortunately. Your calories out includes not only your exercise, but what your body burns by being alive. If MFP says 1800 or so, GO WITH THAT. I promise, it works- I've done it and I'm in maintenance. 800 calories is far too little and is going to leave you with no energy and malnourished.

I am doing more than 800, closer to 1000-1200 with throwing in a solid food items. I am not doing 100% juice, but it is a majority of my intake in the day though.

Last time i did the juicing i did 100% juice. This time i am doing it a bit different. Taking in some solid fruit, some lean white meat, eggs, etc. I am trying to keep everything completely accurate with food scales to weigh food as well.

You're still well below the recommended minimum for men, which is 1500. If MFP says you will lose at 1800, why would you deprive yourself of 800+ calories?

brudius

kkenseth wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

I'm glad to see you're reading along. Unfortunately, I think you missed a big point.
There is no "jump starting" losing weight. What you're referring to is a fast loss of water weight and it will always come back unfortunately. Your calories out includes not only your exercise, but what your body burns by being alive. If MFP says 1800 or so, GO WITH THAT. I promise, it works- I've done it and I'm in maintenance. 800 calories is far too little and is going to leave you with no energy and malnourished.

I am doing more than 800, closer to 1000-1200 with throwing in a solid food items. I am not doing 100% juice, but it is a majority of my intake in the day though.

Last time i did the juicing i did 100% juice. This time i am doing it a bit different. Taking in some solid fruit, some lean white meat, eggs, etc. I am trying to keep everything completely accurate with food scales to weigh food as well.

You're still well below the recommended minimum for men, which is 1500. If MFP says you will lose at 1800, why would you deprive yourself of 800+ calories?

I guess it is the mentality that eating more means i will lose less. It is hard for me to change that. Since i have never been successful it is something i need to try to break through. I just turned 29 also and i don't want to weigh what i do when i hit 30.

nutmegoreo

brudius wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

I'm glad to see you're reading along. Unfortunately, I think you missed a big point.
There is no "jump starting" losing weight. What you're referring to is a fast loss of water weight and it will always come back unfortunately. Your calories out includes not only your exercise, but what your body burns by being alive. If MFP says 1800 or so, GO WITH THAT. I promise, it works- I've done it and I'm in maintenance. 800 calories is far too little and is going to leave you with no energy and malnourished.

I am doing more than 800, closer to 1000-1200 with throwing in a solid food items. I am not doing 100% juice, but it is a majority of my intake in the day though.

Last time i did the juicing i did 100% juice. This time i am doing it a bit different. Taking in some solid fruit, some lean white meat, eggs, etc. I am trying to keep everything completely accurate with food scales to weigh food as well.

You're still well below the recommended minimum for men, which is 1500. If MFP says you will lose at 1800, why would you deprive yourself of 800+ calories?

I guess it is the mentality that eating more means i will lose less. It is hard for me to change that. Since i have never been successful it is something i need to try to break through. I just turned 29 also and i don't want to weigh what i do when i hit 30.

If you make it to hard/restrictive for yourself, you are likely to give up and you will do exactly what you are saying you don't want to do. Do you have an activity tracker? Are you using a kitchen scale to weigh all solid/semi-solid food items (peanut butter, and prepackaged goods like protein bars)?

kk_inprogress

brudius wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

brudius wrote: »

First, let me say thank you for all of the opinions. It is good to hear what people think and different prospectives.

That being said MFP said i should be eating 2340 a day. Even when i am not dieting i don't consume 2340 calories a day. My main problem is that i have a very sedentary lifestyle. I sit in a cubicle and answer phone calls for 9 hours a day.

I mainly want to do this because it will at least give me a jump start to losing weight. On my 15 minute breaks and my 1 hour lunche i try to walk around our large parking lot to burn as many calories as i can. During an average day, it feels impossible to have calories out be more than calories in, unless i only have like 800 calories in.

I'm glad to see you're reading along. Unfortunately, I think you missed a big point.
There is no "jump starting" losing weight. What you're referring to is a fast loss of water weight and it will always come back unfortunately. Your calories out includes not only your exercise, but what your body burns by being alive. If MFP says 1800 or so, GO WITH THAT. I promise, it works- I've done it and I'm in maintenance. 800 calories is far too little and is going to leave you with no energy and malnourished.

I am doing more than 800, closer to 1000-1200 with throwing in a solid food items. I am not doing 100% juice, but it is a majority of my intake in the day though.

Last time i did the juicing i did 100% juice. This time i am doing it a bit different. Taking in some solid fruit, some lean white meat, eggs, etc. I am trying to keep everything completely accurate with food scales to weigh food as well.

You're still well below the recommended minimum for men, which is 1500. If MFP says you will lose at 1800, why would you deprive yourself of 800+ calories?

I guess it is the mentality that eating more means i will lose less. It is hard for me to change that. Since i have never been successful it is something i need to try to break through. I just turned 29 also and i don't want to weigh what i do when i hit 30.

Losing more than 2 lbs per week is unsafe and can hurt you in the long run. You don't want to lose lean body mass or suffer the consequences of malnutrition. I am turning 30 in a few weeks and I get it- I started MFP when I turned 29 for the same reason.

But there are a LOT of people here that will back me up in saying slow and steady is the way to go because it keeps you healthy and better off in the long run. At 2lbs a week, you're looking at 96 lbs in a year. Weight loss isn't linear and as you reach your goal weight, you're not likely to sustain such a high rate of loss, but I'm trying to put it into perspective for you. 2lbs a week is a great place to start.