Is Juice Fasting Really Helping You To Lose Weight?

Many nutritionists laud juice fasting as a sure way of losing weight. Does it mean that if you embark on juice fasting, you are sure to lose weight? To help answer this question, we have dissected juice fasting to see whether it will help you lose weight.

What is Juice Fasting?

Juice fasting is an undertaking that involves consuming vegetable and fruit juices while abstaining from eating solid foods. Sometimes juicing is misconstrued as blending, but it is worth noting that the two are distinct. Juicing entails squeezing juices from vegetables and juices, blending mixes all the edible parts, including the pulp. It helps in detoxification, a process through which your body gets rid of toxins, thus improving your health and helping you lose weight.

Pros of Juice Fasting

• It helps in weight loss because the diets contain low calories. Most juice diets contain 600 – 1000 calories per day which is a huge calorie deficit.
• Fruits and vegetables are rich in minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants, thus improving your overall health.
• Juices contain anti-inflammatory compounds that help boost your immune system.
• It can help in the production of healthy enzymes that aid in digestion.
• Your skin becomes silky and soft.
• Your body undergoes detoxification, during which detox eliminates arterial cholesterol plaques, fat cells, tumors, and mucus. This, in effect, reenergizes and gives you stronger immunity.
• Juice fasting improves the absorption of nutrients in the body. Juice is in a predigested form which makes it easy for it to be absorbed in the body.

Cons of Juice Fasting

• The juice may contain too much sugar, which may be detrimental to your health. In extreme situations, this may make your insulin resistance increase, leading to Type 2 diabetes.
• Juices contain calories too, and thus there is still a risk of consuming high calories if you don’t maintain the right balance between your usual mean and the juices.
• The juicing process entails separating juice from skin and skin. These could be a good source of fiber which is associated with weight loss.
• You could experience hunger and fatigue, thanks to abstaining from solid food.
• Consuming low calories can make one feel less energetic and experience symptoms associated with low blood sugar levels like weakness, headaches, dehydration, and hunger.
• Drinking a lot of juices may harm harmful to your kidneys. An example of this disorder is kidney stones.
• You may have headaches due to possible fluctuation in blood sugar levels.
• You may feel a bit uneasy and isolated. If you are working and planning to do it for about ten days, you may feel a bit uncomfortable not eating the usual meal, especially when you are in the company of your friends.

Is Juice fasting helping you significantly Reduce weight?

Many researchers agree that there are scant studies on the subject, but the few available studies acknowledge that a relationship exists between juice fasting and aid weight loss. Well-thought-out controlled studies have shown a reduction in weight on day three from the time the subjects consumed vegetable and juice-based diets. The researchers experimented on 20 people to see how their weight would change on the strength of the juice diet. The juices were a mixture of green vegetables, citrus, roots, vanilla almond, and cayenne. The subjects took 6 bottles of juice-based diet vegetable/fruit juices daily for three days. The weight decline remained significant over the following two weeks, which was attributed to microbiome changes. The diet was enough to induce changes in the intestinal microbiota, which is associated with weight loss. The research established that there were changes in firmicutes which are associated with increased body weight. The phylum Firmicutes levels went down, while Bacteroidetes spiked towards the end of day 4. Day four of the experiment registered a remarkable decline in body mass index, and this weight was maintained for the next two weeks. This shows that even three or four days of juice fasting can be beneficial to you. This shows juice fasting can work if done correctly. The study shows that you can lose weight through juice fasting because there were remarkable gains in weight loss. If you want to lose weight, then you can start to try juice fasting. Taking a variety of vegetable juices will be of enormous benefit to you. Juices from dark leafy greens and beets would particularly be good for this purpose. They contain polyphenols which may help in weight reduction.

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UCLA has also recently attested to the benefits of juice fasting. According to the university, juice fasting reduces weight gain and promotes general wellbeing. UCLA established that eating many fruits and vegetables activates gut microbiota which determines how full or hungry you feel. They also help regulate the amount of energy your body absorbs. The microbiome instead acts indirectly in helping you control your body weight. In the grand scheme of things, lots of research has shown that people lose weight after juice fasting. However, the weight loss emanates from decreases in calories intake and changes in gut microbiota as opposed to specific juice characteristics.

The Right Way Juice Fast

Which is the best way to do it to achieve optimal results? The first thing is to plan well by determining what is it that you want to achieve and then lay out a plan to work towards that. Your goal could be to lose weight or to improve your digestive system. Whatever your goal is, we have established that juice fasting can deliver incredible results. Why not start there then? You also need to determine a reasonable quantity that you feel you will be comfortable with. Consider making most juice from veggies, including spinach, cucumber, kale, carrots, celery, and beets. You can use fruits like lemons, limes, blueberries, blackberries, kiwis, and dark cherries. It’s is advisable to do this for just three days and not inordinately longer because it could be counterproductive.