i had never heard of the "master cleanse" and just looked it up.

http://diet.health.com/2009/06/22/ho...lth-and-heart/

yikes!

Craziness. I've never been at the stage of desperation that would make me voluntarily ingest a mix of maple syrup and CAYENNE PEPPER. Ew. I'll pass, and keep the weight, thanks.

right? lol. i also found a blog someone made while they were doing the "cleanse". even though she seemed to be a fan of it, she was saying that they also have to do a "salt water flush" a few times where they drink 32 oz of salt water (yuck) and a laxative tea every night. she said she lost 10 lbs, but also said she woke up every night/early morning with horrible diarrhea.

she also updated a month or so later saying she had gained back all the weight. :dizzy:

People do the craziest things in the name of weight loss... the more extreme the method, the more enamored people seem to be. A colleague of mine started proselytizing even before starting her cleanse this week. It's only gotten worse since she lost a few pounds... of course one wonders, a few pounds of what? But she doesn't seem to care. Sigh.

isnt it ridiculous how the scale dictates our lives? i am definitely guilty of this, but i hope i never get desperate enough to risk my health. my sister has a nasty habit of binging then abusing laxatives when she hits a plateau dieting. i always tell her shes just losing water weight, she says, "yeah but i need to see the numbers go down on the scale". sigh. she cant believe im happy with 1lb/week (which hasnt even been happening lately). she always says, "but that takes FOREVER!" id rather lose 1lb of fat/week than 5 lb of water. sure the number on the scale would make me feel great!! i would not feel so great once i stopped starving myself/abusing laxatives and gained it all back.

i was also shocked to read about the 23 year old who had a heart attack. i guess i dont usually think about my heart as a "muscle", so i dont factor it in when i think about muscle damage or burning muscle. scary stuff!!

Ugh, facepalm... when it comes to losing weight, some people are just... stupid.

Good for you for doing it the smart way ;)

Well I didn't do it for the parasite stuff, it was because I was having digestive problems and it really did help me go every morning. I really only drank the tea at night.

Well it is full of laxatives so it should help you go. There are cheaper laxatives though.

thank you! its definitely the longer/more frustrating road, but i hope not to yoyo forever like she does. especially not after reading that article!!

yes, stupid. saying you want to lose water weight just to see a drop in the scale? that makes NO sense.

Bunk.

A lot of the "colon cleanse powders" are just psyllium seed husks. They absorb fluid and grow 8 to 16 times their size, which makes it look like there was a lot of waste in your colon. But you can do the same thing with psyllium in water.

I have had friends tell me they feel so much better after a cleanse, dropped a bunch of weight and feel rejuvenated. But none of them have sustained any loss.

Honestly, I've tried OTC ones, and they don't unfortunately work that well for me. :-(

This is exactly what I think of when I have the slightest urge to follow one of these fad diets. I always think of that phen-fen (sp?) scare back in the 80s or 90s? I remember reading follow-up articles in the 90s about all these people who required hospitalization because they were OD'ing on those pills.

BTW, don't get me started on Alli. The pill that makes you leak your undies if you eat too much fat. They recommend wearing dark pants while on the drug. Um. Seriously, I'll keep my weight, thanks.

lotta bunk

I think it depends on how you look a t "detox". If you look at it as a quick way to drop some weight or something and do ridiculous things to achieve it of course it is ridiculous.
But if you look at it as a way to break a cycle or drop a bad habit then it has it benefits. A friend of mine was a big sugar and junk food addict. She did something similar to the South Beach for 21 dyas - no sugared drinks or food, no junk food, no excess salt, etc. It was hard. I had to literally sit on her sometimes for her to not give in. That was almost 12 years ago and she is healthier for it.

Amen sister!

My mom really hounds me to lose weight, and so does my endocrinologist, and rightfully so. Anyways, at one of my last check-ups, my mom was really pressuring me to try Alli, and I kept saying no, it makes you have anal leakage, no way, etc. So she asks my doctor's medical assistant what he thinks and I interrupt and say something about anal leakage, and he said yeah, it makes you do that if you have too much fat, and said he'd never do it because of that, and laughed. I was soooo happy to have someone on my side!

But yeah, no thanks. I'd rather lose weight slower than have anal leakage. I have digestive and bowel problems enough as it is (from being hypothyroid).