I don’t know why juice became such a thing in the fitness conversation. At any rate, the detox myth still seems, unfortunately, to be going strong.
But it needs to go. Like. Now.
Because doing a detox is at best unhealthy, and at worst dangerous.
Let me give you all the juicy details
When you juice fruits and vegetables, you get rid of most of the stuff that makes them healthy in the first place! While all the nutrients and shit in plants is awesome, what makes them good for weight loss is all of that glorious fiber.
It’s healthier to eat the food whole because taking out all the...umm... food... leaves you with a soup of mostly sugar and other stuff you’re only supposed to consume in small amounts.
Now, eating the sugar in fruits and veggies is fine when you’re eating the whole vegetable because all that satiating fiber is going to fill you up long before you can eat gratuitous amounts of sugar or any other nutrient.
Take orange juice for example.
Cue flashback to my days juicing oranges at 4am in an overpriced cafe in San Francisco
If I remember correctly, it probably took about 10 oranges for 1 glass of juice. I eat a ton of fruit because I have a raging sweet tooth, and fruits are mega convenient healthy snacks because they don’t have to be refrigerated. That said, I have never eaten such an ungodly amount of oranges in 1 day, let alone 5 minutes! Pretty sure most people haven’t.
10 oranges worth of sugar is an absurd amount of sugar for 5 minutes of refreshment. So much sugar would have otherwise been impossible to consume in such a short timespan.
With juices you can drink insane quantities of not only sugar, but other vitamins and minerals you’re not necessarily supposed to have in such high, concentrated doses.
Luckily, your body just pees out the crazy amounts of vitamin C you consume from a glass of OJ. This isn’t the case with other nutrients where the body cannot handle excess so well.
While having a crazy high dose of Vitamin A once isn’t the end of the world, on a cleanse you’re literally living on these juices. This means you give your body waaaaay more of that vitamin than it ever needed. Unfortunately, it can’t just piss out the extras like it can with vitamin C. This is a very unhealthy situation to put yourself in. I’ve heard of more than a few occasions of people ending up in the ER from doing cleanses.
Because the overdose of certain vitamins made their body toxic...
Eating the plant as a whole sets a limit on how much you can physically eat and how much you’ll probably eat. This is why fruits and veggies are awesome. They have so much fiber they make it really hard to overconsume calories, even when you’re trying to.
Not to say it’s impossible to overeat unprocessed whole fruits and veggies, it’s just way harder to do so than it is to overeat brownies.
That fiber takes a while to digest so it’s really really filling (see above for why this is important). Not to mention fiber is awesome for your digestive health.
It’s a very profitable business idea because you can get away with charging $10 for .50 cents worth of ingredients. In my opinion, it's not a very honorable business though.
Because if you lose weight on a detox it’s because you’re basically starving yourself. It has nothing to do with any magical detoxing effect of cayenne, lemon juice, or organic kale.
Your liver and kidneys are really damn good at their job. If they weren’t you’d be dead or in the hospital.
You can’t “cleanse” your liver and kidneys, they do that on their own without any assistance from kale or whatever. Besides, eating lots of fiber is a way better way of “cleansing” your system than removing all the fiber and drinking something that tastes like mud.
Plus, it’s not like these detox beverages get a fastpass where they get to skip the line to your liver and kidneys like those bastards walking past you at Space Mountain. They have to get in line behind everything else, including all of the “toxins”.
Overheard in San Francisco:
“I’m starting a detox on Monday so I have to get all my drinking and partying in this weekend”.
Fun fact #1: The resulting facepalm was so hard I broke my hand.
If you really want to “detox”, treat your body better to begin with rather than doing cleanses as damage control for your alcohol and pizza infused weekends.
Why do I get so firey over detox’s? Well, becaaaaause:
- They’re a scam people use to capitalize on the insecurities of others to make a quick buck. Not. Fucking. Cool. You deserve better than that.
- They’re unhealthy and, depending the on the detox, quite dangerous.
- They don’t create healthy, lasting habits that will actually make your life better and longer. It’s a quick fix that doesn’t get you any closer to your goals. The result is stagnation and frustration. And this blog exists because I want to help people end the frustration of "I've tried everything, but nothing seems to work" and finally see the results they've been unable to achieve for years.
But reason 1 is reason 1 for a reason (Fun fact #2: the english language is stupid)
It’s not fair to you to be subject to slick marketing which takes advantage of your vulnerabilities and desire to feel better in your body. ESPECIALLY when the product can be so detrimental to one’s physical health and emotional wellbeing (not to mention your wallet).
In my eyes, any fitness myth that makes health and fitness seem inaccessible from an economic point of view is detrimental. Because eating healthy already seems expensive (not to mention daunting) which can be a big deterrent from even trying if you can’t afford to buy organic or whatever.
Key points:
- The juice version of vegetables aren’t more healthy than the original version.
- Detoxes aren’t going to do anything to improve kidney or liver function.
- You don’t have to worry about toxins anyways. Your liver and kidneys got this bro.
- Yes, starving yourself causes weight loss because calories. Much of that weight is undoubtedly water weight and hard earned muscle, not body fat :(
- Plus, what happens when you stop “cleansing” but haven’t built up habits to maintain your new weight? That weight is going to come right back.
Ok, so hopefully you’re convinced and you’ll never be tempted to detox again or waste your hard earned money/muscle on overpriced kale remains. Hooray!
This would be a really shitty article if I just said, “Don’t do this because reasons”, without giving you a healthy alternative to help you reach your goals -- to help you burn fat, heal achy joints, and spend less money on hospital bills.
Now you know it’s better for health and fat loss to eat plain old, affordable, boring veggies in non-juice form.
But I want to give you an action plan because eating more veggies won’t matter if you only do it for two weeks. SO! I want to help you integrate veggies and other healthy foods into your lifestyle because that’s how you lose fat and keep it off i.e. never have to think about dieting again.
Yo reader, I'm really happy for you and I'm gonna let you finish, but I created the best fat loss guide OF ALL TIME. Because Insanity Free Fat Loss: 10 Secrets For Long Term Success walks you through literally everything you need to lose tons of body fat without the stress, anxiety, and general suckiness of dieting. Grab your free copy here.
Ok back to the show.
Here’s the basic template of how my online clients lose body fat to make getting in shape feel "too easy":
All you really need to know about nutrition are as follows:
- 3 square meals a day plus one snack
- 80% of your food should come from protein and colorful fruits and vegetables.
- Eat to 80% fullness
- Enjoy the occasional chocolate bar/cupcake/cheeseburger etc.
Focus on building one of these habits at a time. Break it up into as many steps as you need to keep moving forward, to keep building momentum no matter how shitty life gets.
Commit to one mini-goal every week. This mini goal should fit into the Habit Template of Badassery and Awesomeness:
I am 90-100% sure I will (habit) when I (reminder to practice habit) everyday for the next 7 days.
Pick something that seems too easy at first. Dominate it. Then make it a little harder the next week. And then a little harder the next week. And the next week. And the next week.
Because that's how you burn belly fat and improve your health, with consistency and momentum -- not on/off dieting or cleanses.
You wouldn't throw 300 lbs on the bar on your first day of lifting weights. You'd start with a weight that seemed doable. Then you'd add weight in small jumps every week or so. This is a MUCH faster way to lift that 300 lbs than trying to lift in on day 1.
In fact, this is the FASTEST way. It might seem different than what you're used to That's the exact point -- it is different! The fastest way to get that flat tummy is to stay focused/patient and "add a little weight" each week until your nutrition habits are as strong and fit as you are.
Here's one example of how you could do this:
- Wk 1: I am 90-100% sure I wil add veggies to one meal a day (habit) at lunch (reminder) everyday for the next 7 days.
- Wk 2: I will add veggies to 2 meals a day at lunch and dinner everyday for the next 7 days.
- Wk 3:I will add veggies to 3 meals a day at breakfast lunch and dinner everyday for the next 7 days.
- Wk 4: I will add veggies and protein to 1 meal a day at lunch everyday for the next 7 days.
And so on and so forth. The trick is to keep moving. Keep working on the habit no matter what, even if that means dialing down the difficulty of your habit during a busy period at work or during a tough personal time. This works so well because it's specific to you and gives you the freedom to adapt to the craziness of life.
I want to help you get a flat tummy, toned arms, and feel like a strong sexy badass, but I also don’t want this blog to get insanely long because ain’t nobody got time for dat. So I wrote Insanity Free Fat Loss: 10 Secrets for Long Term Success so you can burn belly fat without the stress of dieting or extreme, time consuming fitness programs.