[librablonde]

Hi all,

in my never ending quest to lose weight and feel healthy again, I recently came across a documentary on You Tube by an Aussie guy who decided to go on a 60 day juice diet to lose weight and resolve some chronic health issues he had. The doco was called "Fat, Sick And Nearly Dead". Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT6PrbctPJ4

So he drinks nothing but freshly made fruit and veggie juices for 60 days and after that he slowly reintroduces solid foods that are only plant based (fruit and veg, nuts and legumes) for about 8 months and now his diet still has juices every day, lots of plant based solid meals and the occasional treat. He and his friend lost of lot of weight doing this and have kept it off (the doco was made a few years ago) and the chronic health conditions are in remission.

So the guy seems to be a little like a snake oil salesman but mostly an earnest, genuine person with a message about the road to good health and our relationship with food. He talks about "rebooting" your body with fresh juices, detoxing and how the new lifestyle changes your relationship with food.

Do you know anyone who has done the Reboot? Have you lost weight doing something similar? I guess the reason why this idea appeals to me is twofold: pretty rapid weight loss and also I have a very busy life so don't have lots of time to devote to diet meal preparation. And I like the fact that you don't have to pay ongoing fees or meetings like with Jenny Craig/ Lite 'n Easy, etc. I'm a vegetarian and most major diet companies have very limited vegetarian meal plans.

So check out the movie. What do you think? A great inspiration or is it a scam?

[cinnabubble]

Sounds ridiculous and unsustainable. I wonder if he got the book deal before or after he started the diet.

[BeYOUtiful]

pretty rapid weight loss

Those words alone would have me avoiding it like the plague.

[Sinister Bonnet]

I've done a five day juice fast. I cannot begin to imagine doing it for 60 days. You are hungry and to be indelicate, you will be doing enemas with no fibre in your gut.

I dropped several kilos and by about day 3 I was as high as a kite. I was living by the beach, not working, not caring for kids and living in a hippie vegan household.

Cannot even begin to imagine doing it for 2 months while working and caring for a family.

[Tyrone Finkelmey...]

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This post has been edited by Tyrone Finkelmeyer: 26/03/2013, 08:20 PM

[AnnBB]

My SIL did it. She didn't do it for 60 days, she would do it for a week at a time and when she wasn't just 'juicing' she really watched her portions. She lost about 15 kgs or so. My BIL did it for a little bit as well. He would drink the juice during the day and have a small, healthy meal in the evening. He too saw some results.
Not really my style of weightloss, but they were using it as a little bit of a kick start rather than a long term solution. I think I like food too much to try it myself!

[Schnitzelvonkrum...]

I think that, as with anything, there are some real merits to the concept, but it doesn't need to be taken to the extreme to be of use. It doesn't have to be all or nothing - how about starting with adding a green smoothie to your day? You could start with it being a snack, maybe at the time of day when you are most likely to falter diet wise, and then possibly move towards using one as a meal replacement.

[Alacritous~Andy]

So the guy seems to be a little like a snake oil salesman but mostly an earnest, genuine person with a message about the road to good health and our relationship with food. He talks about "rebooting" your body with fresh juices, detoxing and how the new lifestyle changes your relationship with food.

I've been reading a fair bit about various liquid diets lately. (note, this is all just my opinion)

Pretty much all "liquid VLCD diets" (eg shakes/lemon detox/juice diets) will pull out this line. I have heard/read a lot of debates about the validity of this. Some argue that morbidly obese people are "food addicts" and that liquid diets are the closest thing one can do to going "cold turkey" as one would with other addicitions. Hence, by removing "food" as we traditionally know it, from your life, you have a chance to "reboot" as he says, and form a new relationship with food. But how do you form that relationship? Simply removing then reintroducing something is unlikely to bring about change.

One big negative about any of these types of diet is that they don't provide roughage for your gut, and the jury is still out on how detrimental that is for your health. The literature all seems to suggest that they might be a good option as a kick start for those very overweight, but are otherwise unneccessary, and definitely not a longer term option, because they are so unbalanced.

Shake based diets contain all sorts of nutritional supplements. I think that in order to be getting what your body needs from juice, and juice alone, you would need to learn a lot about the nutritional content of various fruits and veg. That education process might be beneficial in reshaping how you view different foods. But if you are going to that level of educating yourself, to my mind, it might as well be by including a balance of whole foods, rather than whacking them through a juicer.

[i-candi]

Low carb, high protein, exercise. Calories in less than calories burnt. It's all you need.

Don't lose weight in an unrealistic way.

I think obsessive people find it easy to lose weight in this extreme way as once they set their mind to it then they achieve it, the length of time they maintain it depends on their obsessiveness. (ok may not be true but after living with two obsessive people and me being soooo not obsessive I believe this).

This post has been edited by i-candi: 07/01/2013, 09:49 PM

[GoodGollyMolly]

Even though every rational bone in my body knows that this is a fad diet with lots of problems, I'm tempted to try it given that my SIL lost 6k in 2 weeks doing it.

But I know it's not a good long term solution!

I may try replacing one meal a day though and see how that goes. Or just skipping the juicer step and eating the fruit and veg!