One of the hottest trends in the weight loss industry is juice fasting. The popularity of juice fast stems largely from the fact that they result in rapid weight loss. However, the question remains whether or not juice fasting actually works for permanent weight loss. This article will discuss various aspects of juice fasting for weight loss including how it works, how it affects your body and whether or not it is worth doing.
It seems like most people who are trying to lose weight are looking for a "quick fix" that will allow them to lose weight as fast as possible. In this regard juice fasting fits the bill. Most people who go on juice fasts lose an average of a pound a day - more at the beginning of the fast and then less toward the end. While that may initially sound like a great deal, there are a few things that you should be aware of before jumping in and trying a juice fast.
One of the major problems with juice fasting is that it does not provide your body with enough calories. When you lose weight on a fast you lose some fat, but you also lose muscle and water weight. The amount of lean muscle in your body determines how fast your metabolism runs. When you lose muscle your metabolism slows down as a result. That means that even as you are dropping weight on the fast your metabolism getting slower and slower.
Here's where things get sticky. When you reach the end of the fast and resume eating normally your metabolism is dragging. As a result it is highly likely that you will gain back every bit of weight that you lost while you were fasting. Not only that, but you may actually gain more weight than you lost, which obviously is not an ideal situation. This is because when you deprive your body of food for any length of time it doesn't know when its next meal will be coming so it grabs onto any food that you provide it and stores it away as fat in case you start starving again.
If you do decide to do a juice fast it is advisable not to stay on it too long. The longer you are on the fast the more likely you are to lose muscle mass and to have your body go into starvation mode and start storing away fat instead of using it. When you come off the fast come off gradually and reintroduce normal foods slowly to avoid as much weight gain as possible.
It seems like most people who are trying to lose weight are looking for a "quick fix" that will allow them to lose weight as fast as possible. In this regard juice fasting fits the bill. Most people who go on juice fasts lose an average of a pound a day - more at the beginning of the fast and then less toward the end. While that may initially sound like a great deal, there are a few things that you should be aware of before jumping in and trying a juice fast.
One of the major problems with juice fasting is that it does not provide your body with enough calories. When you lose weight on a fast you lose some fat, but you also lose muscle and water weight. The amount of lean muscle in your body determines how fast your metabolism runs. When you lose muscle your metabolism slows down as a result. That means that even as you are dropping weight on the fast your metabolism getting slower and slower.
Here's where things get sticky. When you reach the end of the fast and resume eating normally your metabolism is dragging. As a result it is highly likely that you will gain back every bit of weight that you lost while you were fasting. Not only that, but you may actually gain more weight than you lost, which obviously is not an ideal situation. This is because when you deprive your body of food for any length of time it doesn't know when its next meal will be coming so it grabs onto any food that you provide it and stores it away as fat in case you start starving again.
If you do decide to do a juice fast it is advisable not to stay on it too long. The longer you are on the fast the more likely you are to lose muscle mass and to have your body go into starvation mode and start storing away fat instead of using it. When you come off the fast come off gradually and reintroduce normal foods slowly to avoid as much weight gain as possible.