Has anyone done the Master Cleanser (Lemonade Diet)? I’m struggling with Atkins this go round, and I find myself almost starving (that empty feeling) more often than I should.
I’ve needed some type of detox - I’ve been eating too many processed foods since August 2005. Any thoughts?
Yes, detoxes don’t work. What makes you think that any diet can make you sweat, pee, or burn off things in processed foods selectively and why would that be a desirable thing in the first place? It isn’t physiologically possible. Any time you see the word “toxins” in any diet or nutritional supplement, just walk away. That means they have no idea about anything to do with the body. That is as close to an absolute rule as you can find in this world.
The key to dieting is to try a strategy that you feel is sustainable for your whole life and stick with it. The rate of loss isn’t important in that context.
There are some threads on “toxins” in general. Here is a decent one recently:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=335692&highlight=toxins
Thanks Shagnasty for the advice and the link.
I did it, back in the day, when I was a moron hanging out with too many hippies who’d go on about “cleansing the system” and “giving your digestive system a break” (um, my digestive system is designed to, you know, digest. It’s its job. Why would it need a break?). Think about it. How much can cayenne pepper, maple syrup, and lemon juice really do for you?
If you’ve got that too many processed foods feeling, I find a couple days of nothing but fruits, veggies, and whole grains will make me feel better. Fresh fruit for breakfast, veggies to snack on, a big salad with all the healthy yummy stuff for lunch (I love a simple salad of mixed greens, chickpeas, avocado, apple, and strawberries, with just balsamic vinegar as dressing), and then steamed veggies and brown rice for dinner, with some good soy sauce and sesame oil. Most people will get sick of this at some point, but just a few days of it is really nice. If you eat meat, I guess some grilled chicken or fish or something would be good in there somewhere.
But the point is, detoxes don’t work, your body already has a “detox system”, and drinking 3 cups of lemon juice (or whatever) a day is not going to “cleanse your body”.
There’s a bunch of people at my work who do this from time to time. Some of them can do it for the full period, which I think is 10 days, and some of them only do it for 3 or 5 or 7 days.
When I had first heard about it a few years ago, people always mentioned it in context with how much weight they lost doing it, so I had thought it was a weight loss program at first.
But then, as I asked more questions and listened to people talk about it, I learned that it’s “really” supposed to be about detoxing your body, not losing weight, that losing weight is just a happy side-effect.
I read the book they passed around to pull other people into the Master Cleanser Cult, but figured it all to be bunk. I got a grandmother who is 90 years old and pretty healthy, my grandfather is 85 and pretty healthy, and they’ve never done a master cleanser, and eat 3 meals a day every day.
Usually people at work will go on to the MC together, 2 or 3 or more people at once will start on the same day, and check in with each other a few times a day. They keep each other “strong” during the tough diet.
A large part of their conversations centers around how much weight they have lost. Perhaps they are just using the number of pounds lost as a guide to how many toxins they believe they are losing during the MC. Or, perhaps, the number of pounds lost is always their goal, and talking about detoxing is merely a pretense. That’s my real suspicion.
Anyhow, I’ve never, ever, ever seen a person who has lost weight on MC keep the weight off. And once you think about it for a moment, the reasons are fairly obvious.
At any point in time, the food in your digestive system weighs a certain amount. When you stop eating, and your digestive system empties out what it has with nothing new coming in, your whole body weight will go down by that amount. Well, when you start eating again, your weight will go back up by that amount.
MCers will say that their stomachs shrink while on MC, and therefore they eat less after the MC is done. That may be true for the first week or ten days after MC, but I go to lunch with a lot of these people. Two weeks after they are done with MC, they can eat a phenomenal amount of food. Their intake per meal is not reduced by having done MC two weeks previously.
Also, I don’t know anyone who starts MC and keeps exercising. For instance, I know people who are runners or play tennis, but when they start MC, they don’t seem to have the energy to do their sports. I’m assuming that’s because they’re getting lots and lots of carbohydrates from the maple syrup and are only burning that for fuel.
Choosing to do something that will cause you to perform less physical activity is not a good thing. You’re getting out of the habit or ritual of healthy exercise.
Plus, if you had previously formed good eating habits, and then go on MC, you are spending 7-10 days not practicing good eating habits.
As Shagnasty said, “The key to dieting is to try a strategy that you feel is sustainable for your whole life and stick with it. The rate of loss isn’t important in that context.”
Things marketed as diets that help you lose weight quickly (with or without supplements) only reinforce in your mind that you can eat badly, use a diet to lose weight, then eat badly again, which is not good for your body either short term or long term. The word “diet” means what you eat, not a plan to lose weight fast. So choose a diet (a daily plan of food for the rest of your life) that you like to eat, that also gives you the proper amount of calories and nutrients.
I’d like to add, however, that MC has one very obvious benefit: It’s much cheaper to be on MC for 10 days than to pay for most food that you would normally eat during those 10 days.
Stop eating processed foods.
I do sort of understand the mindset behind a detox. It’s the same thing that makes people state that their diet starts Monday (and binge 'til then). We like clear rules and extremes, and starving yourself for a few days is like ‘starting from 0,’ sort of the way you feel after you’ve had the flu and are ready to eat again. Well, until you get your ravenous appetite back. In my experience, the ‘happy side-effect’ of detoxing i.e. weight loss is often the intended effect, but the detoxer is too ashamed to admit to it. She wants to portray herself as having loftier goals.
I believe there is an excellent detoxifier out there that costs much much less than anything else you can buy.
I’m on some pretty intense chemo drugs right now. One of the drugs, if it stays too long in my system, can irritate my bladder and cause UTIs.
So what miracle product did my doctor tell me to use to flush this drug out of my system?
Water.
Yep, that’s it. Drink enough of this miracle product and you can flush a lot of toxins out of your system!
Gotta agree with you there. I tend to drink over 4 liters a day. (Although the Institue of Medicine recommends 3 liters a day for a man.)
There is no reason to be hungry if you are doing Atkins correctly. In fact the official program says several times, “if you are hungry, eat.” You should be eating at least 5 times a day.
Cheese and high fiber veggies are good snacks. If you’re not sure check the Induction foods list.
I agree with Hello Again. There is plenty to eat on the Induction phase that you shouldn’t be going hungry. Are you perhaps being too picky about your veggies? Feeling too lazy to put together a salad? Not drinking enough water? Having caffeine withdrawal? All of these are common “mistakes.” You might need to read more Atkins literature to get the full picture and the right motivation.
I will tell you, however, Atkins was too hard on my kidneys. All that extra protein gave my kidney stones. YMMV.
Maybe looking into eating clean.