Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anyone has ever tried doing a juice fast to shed pounds? I just saw a documentary about with a friend and got a bit excited about the idea (it's called "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead" if anyone else is interested). Has anyone had experience/success with fasting? Thanks!

I have never tried a juice fast, but I would not recommend it, and I don't think anyone else here would, either. It's just a "quick fix". You will gain the weight right back, and you will also damage your metabolism. If you keep it up for an extended period of time, you're looking at many more serious health issues.

You can definitely lose weight the healthy way. Please consider that!

I would not recommend it either. Juice is not the healthiest thing to consume, and has a lot of sugar added... you're better off eating whole fruits and vegetables for the calories that you'd be consuming, and you'd get more nutrition that way too.

I think the juice fast you mention is generally paired with a raw diet. Also, it's not just juice like you buy in the market. It's fresh juice you would have to make, including lots of vegetables to decrease the sugar amounts.

A juice fast for a day or two to cleanse out your system would be fine, but not commercial sugary juices. Also, the benefits of juice fasting over extended periods of time are debatable. Be safe and do your research before trying anything like this.

No, I like food too much.

Once I did the "Hollywood Diet", which was a jug of some sort of juice that you were supposed to drink for 48 hours (nothing else) and you would lose 10 pounds. I wound up scarfing down McDonalds on the second day b/c I was so hungry.

I think when most people hear "juice diet" they tend to think of buying bottled juices and surviving on just those and they are really not healthy. You must make your own fresh juice in this diet and no sugar is added.

They recommend buying a very high quality juicer and juicing massive amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables daily during the juice fast. This includes all sorts of vegetables, including large amounts of Kale and other power packed veggies. Not many people would go to this trouble and would try to short cut it with bottled juices, but again that's an entirely different thing.

The two men in the movie lived on nothing but the freshly juiced vegetables for the length of their fast, and their juices contained naturally sufficient amounts of proteins due to the vegetables chosen. The diet was expensive, costing around $25 per day if organic, or about $11 a day for conventional fruits and veggies (though you'd fill yourself with a lot of pesticides with this route).

The ReBoot website, which supports the diet behind the movie, recommends an alternative route of juicing just 5 days at a time and consuming whole fruits and vegetables in between the juice fasts.

If you decide to go this route, please also follow their advice for regular monitoring by your physician.

http://jointhereboot.com/

I wouldn't opt for it. Short-term diets don't work for me. Long-term approaches to eating food I'll eat for the rest of my life do.

But we're all different My main caveat to you would be to ensure you get enough protein. Protein helps protect the body from catabolizing your lean muscle tissue as you lose weight. Without protein, you'll lose a higher percentage of muscle (and therefore less fat).

I tried the Hollywood Juice Diet. It suppose to make you drop 10 lbs in 2 days. I only did it for one day along with fresh fruits and didn't lose any weight. A friend of mine, however, lost 9 lbs on the same diet but gained it back plus more.

I wouldn't recommend a juice diet. It messes up your metabolism and gives you horrible headaches.

Okay, i don't know if I should admit this, but about 9 years ago I did the "Lemonde Diet" It was water with squeezed fresh lemons, a bit of natural maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. That is all drank for ten days. The first two days were really hard, but after that I wasn't even hungry. I had tons of energy and lost over ten pounds... of course it all came piling back on.

I would never do it again, and would not recommend it. I did have a friend who was put on some sort of liquid diet for a short time, under the instruction of a doctor, and was brought back onto regular foods based on what he told her, so that might be different.

I switched to "slow and steady wins the race"

I am on the juice cleanse now and I have lost 20 lbs. I have a few more days to go and I'm done. It was great. I had a lot of energy and of course, I lost a lot of weight. The first 3 days were tough but after that, it was great. I would definitely do it again.