Erm, I respectfully disagree with bits of that while agreeing with the general idea. 1200 is not "starvation range", though it's a low calorie range and for someone of the OP's height it's definitely too low. "Starvation mode" is a myth from all I've heard, although eating a very low number of calories can create various problems. And while I too would be concerned about getting adequate protein on a juice fast, 120g is far, far higher than the minimum recommended by various reputable bodies. 50g protein is more like it for a minimum.
Something I've just remembered is that while I'm sure you can get 1200cal through juicing, you'd need to imbibe an incredible amount of juice to do it. You'd be juicing nonstop. I vaguely recall reading an article about a woman who took up juicing and found that she had to make a fresh portion of juice every hour, which meant preparing veg and cleaning the juicer took up a considerable portion of her day. Never mind my physical health, I think I'd go crazy doing that for a week, let alone forty days.
Port, I've seen your posts from the last year and I've seen you try a few different diet plans out. While it's good to see what works for you, I'm concerned that this plan not only lacks sustainability but it really is doing nothing to teach you to make good choices. Say you do lose weight on this plan. What are you going to do life long? Have you tried boring old calorie counting? It's not exciting but it is damn effective. You can eat what you want as long as you don't go over your daily limit and if you're like me, you'll make healthy choices just so you can have a little more to eat. Example, I'd rather have a salad, lean steak and a pile of veggies instead of fast food or dessert. Another concern I have is if you really are working with a doctor, why on Earth would they allow someone who is at risk for diabetes or even pre-diabetes to live off of juice and agave/honey for 40 days?? If your ticker is accurate I would start higher than 1200 cals and slowly work my way down. I understand what it is like to be addicted to carbs and such...I feel that I was myself. I never realized HOW much I was until I started taking cinnamon supplements and my sugar/carb cravings literally stopped. Maybe you could look into something like that for yourself.
Esofia, yeah, I've heard that the starvation thing was a bit of a myth, but my nutritionist told me to not go any lower than 1500 for someone of my age, height, and muscle index because it would cause severe crashes. I'm around 5'10 right now and if I went as low as 1200, even through healthy things like fruit and veg, I would suffer from it. But, I agree, it's different for different people.
My nutritionist also told me that an active person that does more than thirty minutes of working out in the 'hard' range where the heart rate gets up to and maintains 150+ that you need, at most, 120 g of protein, though it might be mg's, I can't remember since I haven't seen her in a month or so.
I just don't like the idea of the whole fasting on juice thing. You need things other than juice, and fruit, to hold a good weight and to have sustainable weight loss.
For context, I sometimes can't eat meat since I can't process protein, I have a kind of auto-immune disease that makes red meat the spawn of Satan sometimes, so it's like... why? Why would you give up meat? I love it but it hates me.
Thank you for all your concerns...
My GP isnt keen on the idea but she knows that im stubborn so she said that she would supervise me.
I did look at the reboot website and sign up..REMEMBER..this is not a diet...im not doing this for longer than 40 days. After 40 days im switching over to a 75% raw food diet...i went on this to help my stomach recover from all the wheat and gluten. I also did it.. to help try and break my addiction to bread products. The primary reason for doing it is not to lose weight..its to help my stomach and digestive system. I am NOT living off of fruits.. I have lots of dark leafy greens im juicing..and yes it takes a lot out of your day..As far as hunger goes..its day 2 and i dont feel hungry like i did when i was ingesting bread..i find i can go a couple of hours without eating after drinking a juice...my stomach doesnt feel as bloated and i feel great so far.
Porthardygurl, glad to see that your GP is willing to supervise if you have decided you are going to do it against her advice anyways. Is there a way she can refer you to a registered dietician? That would be very useful if you think that various food intolerances are causing you so many problems.
The metabolic-slowing effects of repeated dieting (especially very low-calorie or very low-protein diets) aren't myth, but "starvation mode" is a poor name for them, and the effects are generally poorly understood, with many misunderstandings and false assumptions being common.
Metabolism doesn't halt, it just slows down, and this effect is very variable. Not everyone experiences it, or to the same degree and the mechanisms aren't all fully understood (but some are).
The best understood is that of muscle loss. When you diet, you lose muscle as well as fat. If you're very sedentary you will lose more muscle than an active person. If your diet is low in protein, you will lose more muscle than a person eating adequate protein.
Muscle requires more energy (calories) to sustain than fat (which is why fat loss is what you want, not muscle loss).
This may explain "starvation mode" entirely (although there is evidence that other processes are involved, including immune and endocrine issues).
Some people say that if starvation mode existed, weight loss surgery wouldn't work. (Which is why starvation mode is a bad name for these metabolic declines - starvation isn't prevented, it's slowed down).
Evidence of that decline does exist though. Depending on the surgery, up to 60% of gastric bypass patients return to their presurgery weight or higher by going back to eating as they did presurgery. This should be physically impossible unless the person were to be eating dramatically more than they did pre-surgery, and the evidence is that this is not true. In fact, there's some evidence that the regainers aren't eating as much as they did pre-surgery, their metabolisms simply are slower (muscle loss may or may not be the cause).
The classic pattern of yoyo dieters is that each successive diet requires more calorie restriction, to yield smaller results. "Caloric adaptation" may be
a more accurate term than "starvation mode."
Whether this is only due to muscle loss is unclear, but there's some indication that this isn't true.
Recent research has found that calorie restriction (even mild calorie restriction) has a negative impact on the immune system. When you're eating less than your normal, you're more susceptible to illness. This isn't tragic - but it does mean that if you're dieting, you have to be a little more aware of personal hygiene, because you'll catch cold or flu more easily than if you were not dieting.
To me this is research makes me wonder whether my autoimmune disease is a result of a lifetime of chronic dieting. It also makes it seem likely that one of the ways the body deals with calorie restriction is by diverting energy (and remember energy is measured in calories) away from other body processes - and immunity may be the first system to face "budget cuts."
How much dieting or a particluar diet reduces metabolism (and even whether that reduction occurs) seems to vary from person to person. We do know some of the factors. Protein intake - the person's age and health status (many health issues reduce metabolism, especially endocrine disorders such as diabetes and insulin resistance), the person's dieting history (repeated dieting - especially yoyo and crash dieting).....
Crash diets are incredibly appealing, because they yield the impressive results we have been conditioned to believe we need. But that kind of weight loss is "addictive" and unsustainable. And it takes more and more extreme methods to recapture the same "high."
We say and truly believe that we only need a jump start, and that we'll be ok with slower losses on a more sensible diet in the future - but that's not the reality. Instead, most people get easily and quickly discouraged and disheartened with "sensible weight loss" and end up on the yoyo dieting rollercoaster, often for their whole lives.
I've been on that rollercoaster for more than 30 years, and getting off wasn't easy. Learning to be ok with sensible and gradual changes (and therefore sensible and gradual results) was extremely difficult. I still "want" the incredible rush of rapid weight loss, but after more than 3 decades of crash dieting, I can't seem to experience rapid weight loss even on starvation calories. My metabolism is clearly impaired (and I suspect chronic dieting played a substantial role).
This is a bit off subject, but it's important, because there's a great deal of evidence that crash dieting, and yoyo dieting is not healthy, and may even make future weight loss attempts more difficult. As such it's extremely important to avoid the yoyo cycle, and vital to that is finding a way of eating that is sustainable.
We spend far too much time and effort to get the weight off fast, and almost no attention is paid to finding a way of eating that is sustainable for a lifetime. We decide that we'll worry about that when we get all the weight off - but most of us never get to that point, because we get discouraged when the results aren't what we expect (instead of becoming ok with slow, gradual weight loss we quit when the weight loss slows, because loss seems hopeless).
Sustainable, permanent changes are key - and while we all "know that" (or think we do) that's not how most of us go about weight loss. We've been conditioned to think of weight loss in terms of speed, and decide that we'll try to find a way to do sustainable later. Maybe if sustainability were our FIRST CHOICE, and not our last, the weight loss success statistics wouldn't be so dismal.
If I could make one change in my life, it would be to have never gone on a single rapid, crash or "detox" diet. If only from the very beginning, I had focused on making "forever changes" and not worrying so much about the numbers on the scale.
Thank you for all your concerns...
My GP isnt keen on the idea but she knows that im stubborn so she said that she would supervise me.
I did look at the reboot website and sign up..REMEMBER..this is not a diet...im not doing this for longer than 40 days. After 40 days im switching over to a 75% raw food diet...i went on this to help my stomach recover from all the wheat and gluten. I also did it.. to help try and break my addiction to bread products. The primary reason for doing it is not to lose weight..its to help my stomach and digestive system. I am NOT living off of fruits.. I have lots of dark leafy greens im juicing..and yes it takes a lot out of your day..As far as hunger goes..its day 2 and i dont feel hungry like i did when i was ingesting bread..i find i can go a couple of hours without eating after drinking a juice...my stomach doesnt feel as bloated and i feel great so far.
A lot can happen in 40 days. If you were doing this for 3 days, 7 days, or even 10, I wouldn't be as concerned. That your doctor isn't keen on the idea should tell you something, especially since doctors don't get a lot of education on nutrition (in fact, almost none). If your doctor knows it's a bad idea - it's a VERY BAD idea.
Please consult a dietitian.
I can tell you from experience that all fasts "feel great" because they do damage that results in endorphins being released and endorphins are the body's natural painkillers - the result is euphoria. You can't trust "feeling great" in the short term. Now the damage isn't usually severe, if the fast is short - but 40 days is not short. Not on a diet of essentially 100% of calories coming from sugar.
You're also not going to wean yourself off carbohydrates by embarking on a 100% carbohydrate diet (and yes even for 40 days, this is a diet, and virtually by definition a crash diet).
I truly wish I could give you my memories and my experience. I've been on juice and vegetable fasts and crash diets of all sorts. I've been on virtually every type of diet in existence. I also have all the digestive problems with carbs and wheat that you mention, and fruit and vegetable juice fast was not the solution.
Fasts did more damage to me than all other types of diets combined (and I never went on a 40 day fast).
By taking the fiber out of the fruits and vegetables, you will feel some temporary relief from digestive issues - but they will return full force (or worse) when you reintroduce solid foods.
By embarking on 100% carbohydrate diet, you will not be less dependent on carbs, you will become more dependent on them. The blood sugar results are going to possibly be dangerous (at least consider getting a blood sugar testing unit, to test for and be aware of problems. If your blood sugar significantly exceeds 100 frequently contact your doctor with this information immediately).
Nutritionally juice is essentially Kool-Aid with some antioxidants thrown in. The real nutrients go into the trash.
Unfortunately, since you're not listening to your doctor, or to any of us who have shared the wealth of our personal knowledge and experience with these symtoms and these diets, you're going to do what you want.
I can only hope that your stubborness doesn't cost you even a fraction of what mine cost me.
What does your diabetes caregiver (nurse? doctor? nutritionist?) think about this juicing plan? I'm familiar with T1 and not T2, but living on juice is very unlike how the T1s I know eat.
All of this sounds like an excuse for a crash diet. Drinking just juice for 40 days is a crash diet and i echo the idea that this will not teach you good health.
Also, I think no one, short of Jesus or a hollywood starlet/model could stand to deprive themselves of food for that many days.
You see why I don't post exactly what I do on here?! A lot of people who don't understand what you're doing will just use the opportunity to speak against your plans, while they are struggling to follow their own plans! I applaud your efforts at juice fasting, and I sincerely wish you well. You are getting calories and you are consuming real foods... so I don't understand what everyone else's problem is with your TEMPORARY juice fast! Geez. The human body doesn't need as many calories as the AMA says we need anyway. If it were true, then folks all over the world who do not follow the AMA's guidelines would have been dead a looong time ago. Also, your plan has the AMA's recommended calorie limits.... SMH. I just don't understand people on this forum at times. But back to you - Do what makes you happy! I see nothing wrong with your plan to juice fast and I hope you succeed at doing this for 40 days.
You see why I don't post exactly what I do on here?! A lot of people who don't understand what you're doing will just use the opportunity to speak against your plans, while they are struggling to follow their own plans! I applaud your efforts at juice fasting, and I sincerely wish you well. You are getting calories and you are consuming real foods... so I don't understand what everyone else's problem is with your TEMPORARY juice fast! Geez. The human body doesn't need as many calories as the AMA says we need anyway. If it were true, then folks all over the world who do not follow the AMA's guidelines would have been dead a looong time ago. Also, your plan has the AMA's recommended calorie limits.... SMH. I just don't understand people on this forum at times. But back to you - Do what makes you happy! I see nothing wrong with your plan to juice fast and I hope you succeed at doing this for 40 days.
So rather than be concerned for her health, we should just smile and nod? That's not the kind of support I would want if I were about to embark on something that might be dangerous. I hope people would tell me!
On the face of it your plan sounds fine - it's the length of time you want to do it for that seems too much to me. I've been on every fad diet going over the years and whilst some worked short-term, I always felt awful b y the end and always put the weight (and then some) back on.
Now, finally, I'm doing what I should have done all along. Dealing with the real issues like my poor food choices I've completely transformed my cooking and the total lack of exercise I used to get. I absolutely love food (and carbs which hate me) and can't imagine no solids for a week, never mind 40 days. I know I'm new here but everyone (and in particular JohnP and kaplods) speak a lot of sense. I sincerely hope it goes well for you, but please consider doing this for a lot less than 40 days.
You see why I don't post exactly what I do on here?! A lot of people who don't understand what you're doing will just use the opportunity to speak against your plans, while they are struggling to follow their own plans! I applaud your efforts at juice fasting, and I sincerely wish you well. You are getting calories and you are consuming real foods... so I don't understand what everyone else's problem is with your TEMPORARY juice fast! Geez. The human body doesn't need as many calories as the AMA says we need anyway. If it were true, then folks all over the world who do not follow the AMA's guidelines would have been dead a looong time ago. Also, your plan has the AMA's recommended calorie limits.... SMH. I just don't understand people on this forum at times. But back to you - Do what makes you happy! I see nothing wrong with your plan to juice fast and I hope you succeed at doing this for 40 days.
I do agree that some people have been rather rude (ie. "poop" comment). The OP has struggled and needs constructive support.
I'm not struggling - I have maintained, as my signature says, for quite a long time and remember the OP's posts well - she bounces from plan to plan, always disatisfied, never able to find one that she wants to stick to. Whether that is the plan itself or her willingness to stick to it, I don't know. I think she would be much better invested in a counselor to help her with food issues and a registered dietician so that she can actually approach this possible wheat issue in a logical manner.
If she truly believes that carbohydrates are causing her so much grief, I don't see how a 40 day juice diet will find the root of the problem. An experienced/knowledgeable dietician and doctor can help - however, she has already gone against medical advice and chosen an arbitrary bible reference/juice program instead.
I wish the OP the best of luck but people here are quite concerned for her health. She has a baby at home to care and it worries me that she seems to not really address the root of her issues, instead bouncing from fad to fad.
