Good morning everybody!

My friend was telling me last night about the lemonade diet.  you know the one with lemons, cayanne, and maple syrup.  she said you can lose up to 2 lbs. of fat per day.  What?? Is this true?  What are your thoughts?  Has anyone here ever tried it?

You need to have a deficit of 7,000 calories a day to lose two pounds, and that is usually not even 100% fat. Plus it's not very healthy for weight loss, i don't even think it's healthy for detox. It is much safer to actually eat and lose that 2 pounds in a week. Studies have shown that slow and steady is the way to go!!

There are lots of threads on this fad. Here's a recent one:

http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/6895 5.html

From what I understand, it's a fast more than it is a diet. You eat/drink nothing but a specially prepared lemonade for as many days as possible, and during the process you lose up to 2 pounds a day.

But you have to wonder what those 2 pounds lost really are. With having nothing but lemonade, you're basically starving the body. So yeah, 2 pounds a day come off, but it's likely muscle mass coming off, and not fat cells.

thanks for the link

There are a few people on CC who have tried it - some think it's the best thing ever, others will advise you against it.

What I know from research is that 1) medical professionals do not recommend it and 2) it's unecessary.

The lemonade diet is marketed as a "detox" to flush "toxins" out of the body.  The thing is that your body, barring some particular medical condition, already has the capability and systems in place to rid the body of what it doesn't need all on its own if it's given adequate nutrition and exercise.

And information from CC will tell you that if you lose 2 lbs in one day, it's not going to be fat.  Even the proponents of the lemonade detox will tell that it shouldn't be used for weight loss.

Whatever you do, get information from both sides, and it would be best not do anything like this without consulting a doctor first.

Hi! I know several people who have done this detox/diet. The people I know who have done this lemon cleanse their purpose is to detox thier bodies because they are going to then eat super clean after the cleanse. Super clean = raw fruits and veggies, no processed foods, sugar etc. I don't think this cleanse is a good idea for the regular dieter who need to lose weight. But I think it's a great thing to detox an already fit body of a person who will continue to eat clean after the diet.

Several celebrities have done this diet... but they also have personal chefs, trainers, a movie role, etc. keeping them on track after the fact.

Most Doctors will advice not to cleanse the body with a fast or colon cleanse.

Most nutritionist will say it IS a good idea... who knows! ? ! ?

 

Someone had a story of having long-term problems after screwing up her intestinal flora. I wish I remember who that was...

Edit to add: Colon cleansing is a bad, bad, bad idea. There are essential bacteria in there that we need for digestion and protection against bad bacteria. To flush them out creates a huge imbalance and a great breeding ground for the bad bacteria.

Ser25 - you might be thinking of Clairelaine.  Her description is in the link you posted above.

That is actually a Kidney cleanse and isn't meant to be done sans eating anything else.  Using it for weight loss or general detox is a twisting of it's purpose and unhealthy.

J'nae Rae Spano, HHP

Original Post by ser25:

Someone had a story of having long-term problems after screwing up her intestinal flora. I wish I remember who that was...

Edit to add: Colon cleansing is a bad, bad, bad idea. There are essential bacteria in there that we need for digestion and protection against bad bacteria. To flush them out creates a huge imbalance and a great breeding ground for the bad bacteria.

A proper Colon cleanse includes re-stocking the digistive track with probiotics, aka those essential bacteria.

J'nae Rae Spano, HHP

It's true!  I watched Super Skinny Me last night on BBC, it's about two journalists that take a challenge to get down to a size 00.  One of the women tried the lemonade diet... in the first week she dropped 7 lbs!  That's amazing... and she was not overweight to begin with.  HOWEVER (and that's a really big however) the woman who did the lemonade diet developed a severe eating disorder, all she could think about was food!  Because of that she would binge and then purge and even tried laxatives.  I don't think any diet that makes you develop serious health problems that might result in an early death would be a smart choice.

i did it for 10 days, shifted 14lbs, 4 of which have come back in the month since. but the other 10lbs have stayed off. I personally think its a good kick start to a diet for a week or so but thats it, its certainly not a long term plan. Have a look through the forums and you should find a few posts on the master cleanse and lemonade diet i know i started at least 2 posts in december

and dont forget that some of that weight loss will just be excess food that was in your body before and has passed, leaving your intestines, well clear. Alot of the weight will also just be water weight, but I guess after a period of time you will lose more then just water... fat, muscle tissue... probably not the healthiest diet.

my friend lost 15 pounds on it.

 

then gained it all back within 4 days

from what I understand, this is a 'fast' intended for cleansing your body and should not be done with the intent to lose weight. I'm sure it can't be good for your body

I think anytime you are cutting out food groups in your diet, you are doing something unwise.  For a day or two cleanse, maybe it is a viable option, but not for dieting.  Dieting should be a healthy lifestyle change and doing something like that - you are certainly missing key components of a healthly diet, even if done for a week.

I just completed the Simply Slender Lemonade Diet. So nice because the product is pre blended, just add water.....the taste was good. This is a 4 day diet/cleanse that includes healthy fruits and veggies as part of the regiman, I like that as my metabolism is not shutting down. I didn't feel so good the first day but moving into the second and third I started to feel more energized. By the forth day I had lost 5 lbs and had set a good routine for myself. Continued work outs and sensible eating have kept me on track since then and I have lost an additional 3 lbs over the last two weeks. 

The way I see it, if you don't plan on drinking lemonade for the rest of your life, then it's not a good plan. You'll just end up gaining back what you lost.

Of course your right, I liked it to kick start my summer slim down routine and for the cleansing benefits. My skin looks clearer and have the energy I need to get my lazy butt up for the gym. If you have more than 10-20 pounds to loose this is not a long term diet to consider.

I always notice if I have dropped my food intake even for a day or two my stomache literally shrinks and I get full much quicker. Once you get to that point your portion control becomes a piece of cake right! For that reason alone I like the Simply Slender, only a 4 day regiman that accomplishes all my goals....sets me on track to meet my summer goals!

Calorie Count Plus's mission is to promote healthy and sustainable weight management.

What you describe is a FAD diet and it may produce results but those results will not be healthy or sustainable.

Once you go off the "diet" you are likely to gain the weight back. This may lead to yo-yo dieting which can add to frustration, self-esteem issues and a life of constantly going up and down with your weight with no real progress.This diet is very clearly an unsustainable fad diet.

Most of these diets claim some magical fat-burning science is involved, or that there is something special about the combination of foods. This is simply untrue - it is nothing more complex than a severe reduction in calories!

Plus, a safe rate of weight loss is generally considered to be roughly 1% of your body weight per week. For most people ~1-2 lbs per week is about right, assuming that you are not underweight to begin with.

Calorie Count does not support more weight loss than 1-2 lbs per week.

Under a doctor's supervision many people do lose at a faster rate, particularly when they have a lot of weight to lose and the health risks of losing at a very fast rate are evaluated by the doctor against the risks of being overweight.

Have you figured out how many calories a day are you consuming on this lemonade diet? It sounds like a simple starvation diet to me. That is what worries me, and it's not nutritionally well-rounded.

This diet is not recommended

Calorie Count is all about sustainable weight loss, this can be done by using the Tools on this site to achieve a healthy reduction in calories leading to weightloss which can be maintained long-term without too much effort.