Image courtesy of Ethan Hein
One of the things that I hear often at my WeightWatchers.com® meetings is that those of us on program are not “dieting” but attempting to change our lifestyle. There’s a very valid reason they try to make that distinction. For most of us diet is a four letter word, albeit one you’re allowed to say on television (Link contains profanity and is NSFW). If you tell the world you are on a diet not only are you letting everyone around you know that you are not comfortable with your current weight (and thus do not “love yourself for who you are”), you also open yourself up to an uncomfortable level of scrutiny in social situations (“Are you sure you should be eating THAT?”). So instead of packaging their program as “diet” (and all the negative baggage that goes along with it) the folks at Weight Watchers instead choose to say they are promoting a healthy lifestyle change.
The positive labeling trend seems to be catching on, but some of these new “healthy lifestyle changes” are nothing more than good old fashioned starvation diets wrapped up in a pretty name.
The hip new word in healthy living seems to be “cleansing.” In an effort to remove the stigma of dieting a growing number of people instead claim to be going through a detoxification process. The goal, they claim, is to remove toxins from the body and perhaps even attain a higher level of spiritual enlightenment. The fact that they may happen to drop 10 pounds in three weeks doing so is just an added bonus.
While there may be some health benefits to things like enemas and fasting, frequent use of these methods – especially without the supervision of a physician – can lead to some serious long term health problems. On top of that any weight loss benefits that may result from depriving your body of food for long periods is lost the minute you start eating again. At that point your body will be in starvation mode and you will hold on to the new influx of calories longer than it normally would.
Long story short? Starving yourself in order to lose weight is never a good idea, regardless of whether or not you’re drinking lemonade while you do so. If you’re seriously considering a detox or cleansing your should consult a licensed medical professional first and make sure that what you’re planning on doing is safe and actually going to result in long term health benefits.
Accepting yourself for who you are doesn’t mean you have to settle for being overweight, nor does having a desire to lose weight mean that you have to starve yourself in order to do so. There are considerably saner lifestyle changes available to those of us in the “real world” who don’t have to deal with the pressure of unrealistic beauty standards in Hollywood.
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Several years ago I did the evil lemonade “cleansing fast” for a full 10 days – didn’t pass out, die or anything dramatic like that, but it did change my relationship to food for a while in a weird way. I could get excited about eating a tomato (and not because it was vine ripened in someone’s backyard and an heirloom variety). Amusingly enough, at the time (I was vegan) I didn’t experience any sort of significant weight loss, and the bodily “trouble zones” I had were not effected at all. What DID change them? A reasonable (calorie wise) diet with plenty of protein, and fat free dairy in addition to plenty of vegetables and whole grains – coupled with intense kettlebell and weightlifting exercises.
Starvation fasts and cleanses are ridiculous.
A proper cleanse involves a balanced diet with limited processed crap, caffeine and alcohol. Lots of fibre! and digestive enzymes.
The program I work with is a true healthy lifestyle.
So this sort of thing really irks me.
I have done a raw vegan diet for like 8 days once,and occasionally will do 1-2 days. 100% raw, no transitional time. Was definitely a purge of sorts and, like the low-carb diets, really teaches you about your body.
For some of the time I felt great, energized, etc but although it is a lifestyle others can do day-to-day, rather than a detox, it is a tough one to do and normally takes a few years to work up to.
However I will always recommend raw veganism as a “cleansing” diet (3-7 days) for someone over a pure starvation diet. Because even though it is extreme, it has those little things called calories, vitamins, and minerals. You cleanse yourself of all sorts of bad stuff while still feeding yourself and having fuel to function (and probably cleanse better than pure starvation).