How Detox Diets Cause Weight Gain

It’s that time of year when our social timelines are filled to the brim with talks of detoxing, cleansing and juice diets. Now, we’re all for eating plenty of fresh fruit and veg but detoxing? Really?

Detox diets usually last a few weeks and normally involve eating nothing but fresh fruit & veg and drinking only water. There are other variations on the theme such as drinking pre-prepared shakes or juices but you get my drift.

Here’s the thing. Detox diets are unnecessary, deplete the body of essential nutrients and can actually cause weight GAIN. Yep, you heard right.

So lets start with the whole ‘unnecessary’ thing. There is very little evidence to suggest detox diets actually work. Our bodies are already very efficient at removing toxins, it’s what our liver, skin, lungs and kidneys were designed for.

And whilst we’re at it, only a proportion of the toxins we have in our bodies come from food. We have a whole load of environmental toxins dumped into our bodies each day from pollution, cosmetics, cleaning products, laundry detergents, the list goes on… Why put yourself through it if you’re breathing in pollutants all day, wearing clothes laundered in detergents and spraying, shampooing, deodorising and moisturising chemicals into your body each morning?

Ok, but what about the ‘proof’ that you DO lose weight on a detox diet? Well, that’s a bit of a no-brainer really. If you’re eating nothing but fruit/veg/juice, you’re massively restricting calories so yes, you will lose weight. Unfortunately, as the calorie restriction is so great, the body goes into starvation mode, which is what kicks off the spiral of weight-gain.

Our body’s preferred energy source is fat. When we restrict our calories severely, it panics and starts to cling onto the fat stores. This is because it’s being tricked into thinking there’s a famine and so conserves the fat for later use. So instead it starts to use lean tissue (muscle) for energy. I’ve spoken before about how important to metabolism lean tissue is so the less we have, the less calories we burn.

Detox diets do not ‘boost’ or ‘reset’ metabolism. On the contrary – they slow it. So when you start to eat normally again, you will actually be burning less calories on a daily basis than you were before, meaning you often pile on the weight you’ve lost during the diet, plus extra.

What about the argument that people feel better on a detox diet? This is probably due to the fact you’re drinking more water and taking more fluids on through the fruit or juice so yes, your skin will be better, you perhaps will have less cellulite and you possibly may be less bloated but that’s thanks to a better level of hydration and your stomach being pretty much empty rather than a lack of toxins.

On a serious note, our bodies need carbohydrates, proteins, fats and all the other nutrients we find in our foods such as calcium. Without these, our bodies cannot function on a very basic level. By eliminating these from our diet, we’re depriving ourselves of vital nutrition which can impair immunity, hormone function and long-term deficiencies can lead to diseases such as osteoporosis later in life. In short-don’t do detox!

There’s no doubt that a ‘toxic’ diet puts unnecessary strain on the kidneys and liver but I’m talking a diet packed with fatty, sugary, processed foods. Instead, concentrate on a ‘clean’ diet. That is, one full of natural, unprocessed foods and eating organic where possible to cut down on the toxins. Think wholemeal pasta, brown rice, fillets of meat rather than say, sausages or chicken nuggets and fresh fruit and vegetables.

Losing weight isn’t easy. If it were as easy as eating just fruit and veg for a week, we’d all be doing it. The right diet, combined with the right exercise will give you a healthy, sustainable loss and I guarantee you’ll look and feel better than your juice-sipping counterparts.