The Master Clense Anyone?!?!

holly3585

I am curious to hear from anyone who has tried the ‘Master Cleanse’ Essentially, from my understanding, to be a short term, liquid diet consisting of 6-12 ‘drinks’ each day containing grade B maple syrup, organic lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and water.

Please let me begin by saying that I am in NO WAY looking for any type of quick fix or miracle diet. I have successfully been dieting, and gotten down to my ultimate goal weight about 6 months ago. It is maintaining that has been quite a struggle for me. In fact, since I have hit my goal weight I feel constantly stressed, worried, failing……maintenance is def. the hard part for me. I have decided to attempt the Master Cleanse to ‘kick off’ a new phase of NOT stressing out about my diet so much. I have completed the Asylum program, and am 5 weeks into the original Insanity, so working out is absolutely something that I enjoy, it is just my eating that gets away from me.

I am really just curious if anyone that has tried the cleanse continued working out while fasting, because I just assumed that while consuming so little it would be appropriate to cut back on the super high intensity workouts for the 4-7 days I work on the cleanse. Any advise is appreciated. Thanks!

ninerbuff

They just cleanse your wallet of money.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

pastryari

They just cleanse your wallet of money.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

:laugh:

Meikmeika

I tried but just couldn't do it...

You start your morning out with a salt water flush in the morning, be sure you're close to a loo......AAAHH!!!
Then you drink the maple syrup, cayenne, lemon, water mix through out the day.....AARRR!!!
Then you end it with drinking dieter's tea/smooth move tea.....EEEKKK!!!!

I know of many people who enjoyed the taste of the drink mix, the freedom of not stressing over what to eat, and the ease of weight loss.

Good Luck!!!!!!

danasings

They just cleanse your wallet of money.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

True!!

holly3585

Hahaha Ok well if anyone can look beyond the $10 I've already spent on the Maple and the lemons....... anyone who has attempted the cleanse...... I know all the negative things that people will wnat to spout...I've read through these forums for over a year

Curious as to if anyone has made it a few days, and if they recommend sitting out on the workouts for the time that one is commited to the cleanse. THX Melkmelka.... that is EXACTLY the info I have seenn so far...... Really it just perplexes me to imagine a few days in, and having the will and/or energy to throw down a 60 min. high intensity workout... although I was wondering if I am just overthinking it, and should keep on sweating.

smantha32

I did the master cleanse. I gained weight on it. lol

Barbellerella

I know someone who did it and lost quite a few pounds... of water weight!! I watched her put it all back on and then some. I've tried silly things equivalent to this myself. It's good that your asking advice. I say do things the right way, a moderate deficit and exercise. This is the way to lose it, and keep it off!

CoderGal

I know someone who did it and lost quite a few pounds... of water weight!! I watched her put it all back on and then some. I've tried silly things equivalent to this myself. It's good that your asking advice. I say do things the right way, a moderate deficit and exercise. This is the way to lose it, and keep it off!

This. The thing about most 'cleanses' is most of them consist of starving until your body is depleted of glycogen so that weight disappears. This stuff is energy in the form of a fluid, not something you want to stay disappeared. It repairs your muscles etc. It will come back with a vengeance when you eat.

ElizabethRoad

Why is your daily goal at 1350 if you're at maintenance?

carolynmittens

most people on here hate the cleanse. personally, i love it. i have slow digestion, allergic to certain foods, get bloated and miserable if i eat the wrong thing, stuff like that, so any time i give my digestive system a break i feel SO good. light and free! i don't do the salt water flush though, that part is disgusting. i just like the feeling of controlling hunger too, you develop some nice will power while fasting. america is very anti-fasting but a ton of other countries fast regularly and have for thousands of years

magerum

They just cleanse your wallet of money.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

^ This. You liver and kidneys do your cleansing for you.

JenniferNoll

Let's see, the salt water flush WILL give you diarrhea, and will likely make you vomit. The cayenne will make the diarrhea burn. The smooth move tea will just give you more diarrhea. All the diarrhea will dehydrate you and put your electrolytes out of balance. The lemon will probably give you heart burn on an empty stomach, and the maple syrup will probably just keep you from fainting. . . .too often. That said, feel free to try it.

All that is based on my own experience a few years ago.

mcarter99

I tried it for a few days just to experience it. It was enlightening to feel hunger that strong. I didn't get diarrhea and I did the salt water flush part. There was no 'Smooth Move Tea' component when I did it. It was maybe 8 years ago.

It's not one that cleanses your wallet. It's all a concoction you make at home with a few basic ingredients.

jfan175

I know all the negative things that people will wnat to spout...I've read through these forums for over a year

And you're still considering doing it? :noway:

Scrimples

I did it a few years ago and made it about a week before I became too ill to continue. The salt water flush made me puke, the lemonade concoction often made me puke causing bad burn from the cayenne, the tea gave me terrible cramps and the diarrhea sets your bum on fire. When I started feeling ill it came on with shaking, body aches, nausea, and a furry white tongue. It proceeded to full on flu type symptoms and weird rashes and other skin abnormalities. All these are possible side effects of the cleanse.

I do know others who have done the cleanse successfully with few discomforts or illness. A few people I know do it almost every year. These people do it less for weight loss and more for the feeling of accomplishment and the way that it cleans your GI track out. Some people say that it clears their mind. Some say it makes them better appreciate a new clean diet that is healthy and nutrition and they no longer want to eat junk.

My experience was probably on the more extreme negative end of things and I didn't really lose any weight for my trouble. You never know for sure how every person will react to such changes. If you end up not liking the cleanse you can stop at any time and those ingredients can be used in other ways. I had leftover lemons, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and salt when I stopped, but that can easily be used. Cooking with sea salt tastes better than table salt. My kids enjoyed a lot of waffles with that maple syrup. The cayenne pepper went into the spice cabinet for use in recipes later. The lemons rinds were used in making homemade Limoncello and the juice was made into homemade lemonade.

holly3585

Thanks to everyone that had advice!!!...... aaaand your welcome to everone that made a funny on my question!

*Not doing it to lose weight-- just trying to do something different. I have an odd relationship with food, and while I have seen vast improvments in all aspects of food and health in my life, somehow my crazy workouts over the last few months have let me ease into 'I can eat whatever I want if I work out like this....' and that is a DUMB idea, that I am struggeling to break free from.

*Calories are currently set at 1350 because I have progressively been overeating, and over the last few months have scaled them back, because I was going over everyday. Still go over, but the lower inital daily goal keeps me from consuming QUITE so much.

I am not saying that I am proud of these behaviors, or that it even seems ok to me that I have somewhat lost control of my own will power, just actively working on jumping in and shaking things up before I seriously undermind all the effort I have put in until now.

Ccd1977

It is pretty intense. It is not gentle. I would do the Garden of Life digestion cleanse for 7 days then the other cleanse they have for 10 days. They are nice and mild and do thier job. I did them and I no longer am addicted to sweets or coffee. That was gone on day 1.

Ccd1977

It is pretty intense. It is not gentle. I would do the Garden of Life digestion cleanse for 7 days then the other cleanse they have for 10 days. They are nice and mild and do thier job. I did them and I no longer am addicted to sweets or coffee. That was gone on day 1.

Also, go on a Paleo diet and live free. Never count calories and eat only when hungry.

http://robbwolf.com/what-is-the-paleo-diet/

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-beginners-guide-to-the-paleo-diet/

Superchikanthem

I've only ever done it for up to 6 days when I really want to break free from bad eating habits and my husband has gone as long as 16 days. I feel good while doing it and don't feel faintness or sick. I've never thrown up the salt bath but yes it does go right through you. I do believe that a form of a cleanse should be done 1-2 times a year based on all the crap that is in or on our foods that was not even there 50+ years ago. I also like the wildrose cleanse which is basically eating clean ever strictly for 12 days.

That is my 2 cents...

BuccaneersFan

I know this post is very old, but I thought I would leave a comment anyway in case someone is searching for this topic in the future.

I did the master cleanse for 14 days. Is it hard, YES! Is it worth it, in my opinion YES! For me it was not about losing weight (I only lost about 6-8lbs and probably half was water weight) it's about flushing your system and removing toxins from your body. It is fairly expensive if you purchase the correct Grade "B" maple syrup and not the cheap Grade "A" crap from the grocery store, but probably less than you would spend on food in that same time period.

It's a little tough to drink the salt water flush, but honestly it wasn't bad at all coming out and I never felt burning from the cayenne pepper. The only issue that a lot of people would have with it is when to find time to do it. The best time is in the morning because you have a empty stomach. You don't want to do it after drinking the lemon, maple syrup and cayenne mixture because that is going to impede the process. When I did the cleanse I was working and I had to be at work at 6:00, so I actually got up at about 4:30 and drank it then went back to bed and I would wake up maybe 30 minutes later and have to go, and then again and again after that for maybe another 30 minutes. A bit of advice, use warm water when doing the flush. It doesn't have to be hot, but definitely warm. Because you're drinking a quart of water and you are doing it on an empty stomach and you're not eating any solid food, I found that if I drank even semi-cold water it would make feel like I was freezing to death! It brought my core temperature down and I would be shivering.

As far as working out, I was a avid runner at the time and I thought I was going to be too weak to do anything, but it turned out that I had plenty of energy. You do get a lot of sugar and carbs from the maple syrup so it's plenty of fuel for your body, albeit not the best. While I was cleansing I ran at least every other day. I'm not sure if lifting weights would be a good idea since you won't have any protein to help repair your muscles. Also, I wouldn't do any type of exercise for the first 3-4 days as this is when you feel the worst because most of the toxins are released in this time period. You will probably get headaches during this period.

I saw many people mentioned getting headaches, feeling like crap, feeling like they had the flu or having a white tongue... these are all symptoms of toxins leaving your body. The worse the symptoms are, the more toxic your body is and the more you REALLY NEED TO CLEANSE. It's going to be worse for older people who have never cleansed before. I was about 25 at the time and I had spent the previous 10 years before that eating pretty healthy and exercising so my level of toxins was probably less than others. I also grew up from birth drinking purified water. Off subject, but I highly recommend purchasing a reverse osmosis water purification system and installing it in your home. The worst thing you can do is drink little to no water and the second would be drinking chlorinated tap water.

Hope this helps anyone who reads it. Best of luck if you do try the cleanse!!