Fat,Sick and Nearly Dead

I think juice fasting only works if you commit to a very specific kind of diet afterwards, which this gentleman did. Essentially he went from drinking liquified fruits and veg to eating solid fruits and veg - his nutrition was the same, the form it took was different. The documentary is really good and profiles peoples interesting lifestyle choices.

only a good idea if it's medically supervised.

I watched the movie and actually try to do it for a while

I did it for about a month and it got very boring real fast. It wasnt something I could stick with long term and was hard to maintain. I did feel better but it wasnt really worth sticking with long term imo! I also didnt lose any real weight so thats another major reason i stopped!

I'm not talking long term !!! I eat essentially pretty healthy,just have KILLER sugar cravings.thinking this might kind of retrain my taste buds.

After seeing FS&ND, I went out and bought a Breville juicer. My gf and I have morning juice every day. It has made it super easy to get the necessary servings of fruits and vegetables I need. If you look at the program, there are different "fasts." You can do a weekend, long weekend, week, two-week, or a month. Adding fresh juice (Not V8) to your diet can only be a good thing. Dang tasty too!

Not sure about the juice fast but I have experience with HMR fasting. You "drink" your protein several times a day and you drink water. My husband and I were both elated, we lost 50 lbs each and it was pretty fast. It was monitored weekly by a doctor, etc... There were 2 main problems, after we got over the week long headache, we felt better but we were literally starving! Somedays were easier then others but man, I would have knocked a kid down for a carrot stick! Not kidding. The other problem was,once we started to eat again, even though it was very strick, like 1 meal a day and liquid for the others, we immediately began to gain weight.
The experience is also responsible for one other thing, in my opinon. I now cannot eat salt. Even the tiniest bit will make me retain water. That never was an issue ever, and now it is and has not gone away.
In short, I would only recommend a fast as part of a religous belief or as a cleansing to get the icky stuff out of your body before you start on a program like this.
Hope this helps. Kathy

Generally speaking, documentaries may have bias and may lack sound research, but because they are very convincing they may cause people to apply those things to their daily lives.

This may be one example.

It's a convincing, touching story. But I'm fundamentally against juicing because you're taking all the fiber out of good foods. Fiber's what makes you full and is good for your digestive and even cardiovascular systems. If he had done smoothies of all those vegetables instead, or just eaten them, I would've been more on board.

only a good idea if it's medically supervised.

I agree with this. It'd be a huge shock to your body, especially if it's used to a lot of fats and carbs, sugars, all that kind of stuff. If you were to do it, you should at least notify your doctor.

Juice fasts are amazing for around 7-10 days, its a great way to cleanse the body. I was doing fresh juice for breakfast for a while and it was amazing how just that one meal made such a difference. That documentary is amazing, and is the root of my interest in non-conventional sources of medicine. I say try it, you'll probably feel really really crappy for a few days while your body is flushing everything out and detoxing, but I've heard excellent reviews from individuals who have done them.

Just eat food and work out.

Yep! :happy:

I'm not talking long term !!! I eat essentially pretty healthy,just have KILLER sugar cravings.thinking this might kind of retrain my taste buds.

The juicing probably won't help with the cravings. Largely because (unless you're doing only vegetable juice) you'll be ingesting a lot of sugar (fructose), and that is going to feed the cravings.

I used to be in the same boat. What helped me was throttling back my carb intake to about 100 g per day (none of those carbs are 'white') and considerably increasing my protein intake.

only a good idea if it's medically supervised.

I agree with this. It'd be a huge shock to your body, especially if it's used to a lot of fats and carbs, sugars, all that kind of stuff. If you were to do it, you should at least notify your doctor.

I agree. Doing something like this should have medical supervision involved.

Check out the group on this topic: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/328-juice-fasting-fat-sick-and-nearly-dead

A friend of mine did it, i honestly can't imagine doing it after what he went through for a month.

I started watching the movie and its just not for me. Eating right, within calorie limitation and knowing what you eat (rather than fast food/restaurant where you have no idea whats in the food) and working out enough is something I can handle for the rest of my life

Maybe I would try it with just liquids like smoothies made with soy milk and fruit and some veggies but not just fruit & veggie juice. Seems a little extreme. I admire the willpower they had in that documentary to stick with that for so long. If I ever did something like that it'd have to be for a few days to a week, max.