Juicing - Weight Loss?

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Carolyn8505
Carolyn8505 Posts: 18 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I bought a juicer and have decided to try it out and replace Breakfast and Lunch with juice during the weekdays. Any tips? Or has anyone seen results by doing this?
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Replies

  • bpetrosky
    bpetrosky Posts: 3,911 Member
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    In general, there's no great benefit to juicing over other means. The one benefit a juicer does provide is that you can get a large serving's worth of vegetables and fruit in one glass, but that also can mean high calories depending on what you pulp. If you don't like eating vegetables, it can be a benefit, but there's also downsides there.

    Juicing machines often remove the fiber from the vegetables and fruits you pulp. Fiber is something your body needs for good digestion.

    It's easy to get more calories you need by juicing a lot of fruit and veggies into a glass.

    Drinking your meals can make it hard to feel satiated enough to keep with this process for a long time. This leads to eating more than planned, and actually gaining weight when you get more calories than you burn.

    Companies that make juicing machines make a lot of claims about "releasing nutrients", etc. Most of it is misleading at best.


  • DemoraFairy
    DemoraFairy Posts: 1,806 Member
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    bpetrosky wrote: »
    In general, there's no great benefit to juicing over other means. The one benefit a juicer does provide is that you can get a large serving's worth of vegetables and fruit in one glass, but that also can mean high calories depending on what you pulp. If you don't like eating vegetables, it can be a benefit, but there's also downsides there.

    Juicing machines often remove the fiber from the vegetables and fruits you pulp. Fiber is something your body needs for good digestion.

    It's easy to get more calories you need by juicing a lot of fruit and veggies into a glass.

    Drinking your meals can make it hard to feel satiated enough to keep with this process for a long time. This leads to eating more than planned, and actually gaining weight when you get more calories than you burn.

    Companies that make juicing machines make a lot of claims about "releasing nutrients", etc. Most of it is misleading at best.

    All of this. Juicing is great if you love juice, but I wouldn't recommend replacing 2 meals 5 days a week with just juice.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    Carolyn8505 wrote: »
    I bought a juicer and have decided to try it out and replace Breakfast and Lunch with juice during the weekdays. Any tips? Or has anyone seen results by doing this?

    You can juice all you want, but you will not lose weight unless you consume less calories than you burn. Juicing is not a quick fix, or magic, plus it's better to just learn portion control and eat real food.

    Also, juicing takes the fiber out of foods. You need fiber to poop.

    I have a juicer and I love it, but I have never replaced a meal with homemade juice. I will sometimes make juice to have as a snack, or to have with a meal or snack. Other than this, I eat my food.

    Remember: it's calories in/calories out for weight loss. Learn portion control and stay away from quick fixes.
  • benzieboxx
    benzieboxx Posts: 253 Member
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    My dad has a juicer and when I visit I like to use it. Because I like juice. That's about it. I don't use it for any sort of meal replacement because I just prefer to eat actual food and not substitute with juice. It's not something I could keep doing for the rest of my life and I could see myself regaining any weight that was lost.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    bpetrosky wrote: »
    In general, there's no great benefit to juicing over other means. The one benefit a juicer does provide is that you can get a large serving's worth of vegetables and fruit in one glass, but that also can mean high calories depending on what you pulp. If you don't like eating vegetables, it can be a benefit, but there's also downsides there.

    Juicing machines often remove the fiber from the vegetables and fruits you pulp. Fiber is something your body needs for good digestion.

    It's easy to get more calories you need by juicing a lot of fruit and veggies into a glass.

    Drinking your meals can make it hard to feel satiated enough to keep with this process for a long time. This leads to eating more than planned, and actually gaining weight when you get more calories than you burn.

    Companies that make juicing machines make a lot of claims about "releasing nutrients", etc. Most of it is misleading at best.

    All of this. Juicing is great if you love juice, but I wouldn't recommend replacing 2 meals 5 days a week with just juice.

    This.

    I also wouldn't replace meals with it.
  • Equus5374
    Equus5374 Posts: 462 Member
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    Juicing can be a good part of your diet but at some point you are probably going to miss chewing your food and may go on a binge because you feel deprived. Making homemade juices can be fun and tasty but using them as a meal replacement will probably make you hangry, and you may regret it later! Eat at a calorie deficit consistently and you'll lose weight.
  • Elle_Bronwyn15
    Elle_Bronwyn15 Posts: 296 Member
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    Don't meal Replace with it. I tried it once for about a week, BIG MISTAKE! TMI...it really messed up my bowels..lol. Juicing can be healthy as long as you add it to an already healthy diet, but don't cut out eating
  • Sweet_Pandora
    Sweet_Pandora Posts: 459 Member
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    I tried juicing 2 meals a day followed by a well balanced dinner and I did lose weight. However, I gained it all back + some when I started eating food again. I also found while juicing I was tired, lethargic and hunger would lead to a binge for me.

    I still juice occasionally and have it with my lunch. I enjoy the taste and it's an easy way to get in your vegetables but is not a meal replacement.

  • ckspores1018
    ckspores1018 Posts: 168 Member
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    I usually consume more calories and get less benefits from food when juicing than eating the whole food. Juicing removes some of the good stuff.

    But, I've never used it as meal replacement because I'm pretty sure I'd starve.
  • blink1021
    blink1021 Posts: 1,118 Member
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    the documentary fat sick and nearly dead is all about juicing. This guy drank nothing but juice for crazy amount of time. It worked for him but I like to chew my food. I use a meal replacement shake to replace my breakfast because I am not a big fan of breakfast unless its waffles dripping in syrup (which kind of defeats weightloss) and sometimes I use it for a snack. I would approach juicing that way and it can be a great way to get a lot of vegetables and fruits at one time, but I have heard that it strips away a lot of the fiber and nutrients because in some of the fruits and vegetables you get that from the skin.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,196 Member
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    My tip is don't do it.

    Juicing is expensive, messy, too high in carbs and too low in fiber/protein. It's not worth it.
  • bpetrosky
    bpetrosky Posts: 3,911 Member
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    If you have to clean out a mass of pulped gunk out of the juicer, that represents the fiber and a portion of the mineral and vitamin contents of the vegetables.
  • PeachyPlum
    PeachyPlum Posts: 1,243 Member
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    For me, juice is like 450 calories of Dammit I'm Still Hungry.

    It's like popping a multivitamin with a glass of Kool-Aid and calling it a meal.
  • bpetrosky
    bpetrosky Posts: 3,911 Member
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    PeachyPlum wrote: »
    For me, juice is like 450 calories of Dammit I'm Still Hungry.

    It's like popping a multivitamin with a glass of Kool-Aid and calling it a meal.

    Off topic slightly:

    What gets me is how the big commercial smoothie chains can bill themselves as "health food". I had a coworker a while back who would down two of those things a day then complain how hard it was to lose weight. But it had protein!
  • PeachyPlum
    PeachyPlum Posts: 1,243 Member
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    bpetrosky wrote: »
    PeachyPlum wrote: »
    For me, juice is like 450 calories of Dammit I'm Still Hungry.

    It's like popping a multivitamin with a glass of Kool-Aid and calling it a meal.

    Off topic slightly:

    What gets me is how the big commercial smoothie chains can bill themselves as "health food". I had a coworker a while back who would down two of those things a day then complain how hard it was to lose weight. But it had protein!

    My husband went to pick me up some craft beer and grabbed a smoothie from the joint next to the beer shop. He came home saying it was really good and "only 670 calories!"

    Ummm.... do you know you could have had a McDonald's double cheeseburger with fries for fewer calories?

  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    edited June 2015
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    Ninkyou wrote: »
    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    bpetrosky wrote: »
    In general, there's no great benefit to juicing over other means. The one benefit a juicer does provide is that you can get a large serving's worth of vegetables and fruit in one glass, but that also can mean high calories depending on what you pulp. If you don't like eating vegetables, it can be a benefit, but there's also downsides there.

    Juicing machines often remove the fiber from the vegetables and fruits you pulp. Fiber is something your body needs for good digestion.

    It's easy to get more calories you need by juicing a lot of fruit and veggies into a glass.

    Drinking your meals can make it hard to feel satiated enough to keep with this process for a long time. This leads to eating more than planned, and actually gaining weight when you get more calories than you burn.

    Companies that make juicing machines make a lot of claims about "releasing nutrients", etc. Most of it is misleading at best.

    All of this. Juicing is great if you love juice, but I wouldn't recommend replacing 2 meals 5 days a week with just juice.

    This.

    I also wouldn't replace meals with it.

    Cosign.

    You'll be STARVING.

    fwiw, I prefer smoothies. All of the fiber and nutrients remain, and you can add fats and protein to your vegetable and fruit smoothies, making them more "meal" like.
  • jcurrie17
    jcurrie17 Posts: 36 Member
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    Juicing can be great. Aim for juices that have more veggies than fruits (it will keep the carb count lower and less sugar). I prolly wouldn't replace an entire meal with juicing but added as part of breakfast or lunch or as a snack is a great way to get an abundance of nutrition.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,196 Member
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    PeachyPlum wrote: »
    For me, juice is like 450 calories of Dammit I'm Still Hungry.

    Exactly!
  • shrinkingletters
    shrinkingletters Posts: 1,008 Member
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    PeachyPlum wrote: »
    For me, juice is like 450 calories of Dammit I'm Still Hungry.

    It's like popping a multivitamin with a glass of Kool-Aid and calling it a meal.

    This is probably the best way I've seen it put. I think anything used as a "meal replacement" should be a giant red flag for "IT WON'T WORK IN THE LONG TERM"

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