Many people want to lose weight and achieve permanent fat loss. Vegetable juicing in particular can help with this, but be wary of juice fasting and the juice diet as a long-term weight loss solution.
Juice fasts can have their place for cleansing and detoxification, but should be done carefully, ideally with the supervision of an experienced healthcare professional. Just starting full steam on the juice diet after previously eating largely processed foods is likely to bring up a detox reaction.
Symptoms of detoxifying too quickly on the juice diet can include headaches, fatigue and gastrointestinal problems. It’s also important to remember that if a person simply goes back to their old ways of eating, the pounds will soon pile back on. Ultimately, this is a very counterproductive strategy in the long run.
There is a simpler, more permanent way to reduce body fat with juicing. All it requires is forming some new habits that address the underlying causes of weight gain. Let’s look at why and how to do this.
Juicing to Lose Weight Permanently
Forget about rapid weight loss if you want a permanent change in your body. Studies conclusively show that people who lose weight quickly will usually put it back on again soon after they stop the diet. In fact, crash dieters are consistently heavier in the long-term.
This is due to the way restriction diets mess with your metabolism and teach the body to become more efficient at storing fat. The juice diet is no different in this regard if you see it as a quick fix. It also lacks protein and healthy fats, both essential for true weight loss.
Additionally, much of the weight people lose on restriction type diets is water weight or even muscle wastage when protein is limited. Most don’t start accessing stored body fat because, even if they are ‘counting calories’, they are still continuing to eat the type of foods that elevate insulin in their body.
Insulin is the fat storing hormone and it’s very difficult to access stored body fat for fuel when you’re insulin levels are high. You don’t actually need to count calories or go hungry. This approach has been tried over and over again and proved a spectacular failure.
How Fresh Vegetable Juice Reduces Hunger
One of the big reasons so many of us put on weight is that we are so often hungry. Much of this has to do with the insulin response created by processed grain foods and the staggering levels of sugar in popular beverages.
Another common reason for hunger though is that your body is actually desperate for nutrients. Not food as such (we call margarine food but it is about as far from it as it could be). But rather, the vitamins, enzymes, minerals and phytonutrients that are involved in so many essential processes for good health, stable energy and a healthy appearance.
This is where using vegetable juices for fat loss really works. When you juice and drink vegetables like kale, beets, carrots, celery, cucumber, parsley and many others, you extract a high percentage of their nutrients into a potent and quickly assimilated glass of cellular nutrition.
You’ll probably be surprised by how quickly your usual hunger dissipates once your body is satisfied that it is getting what it truly needs to power and maintain your cells. No willpower is needed. You just won’t be as hungry.
It’s virtually impossible to fight a survival instinct like your body’s need for essential vitamins and minerals. Cutting calories if you are already not getting enough nutrients in your diet will only make things worse. Rather, give your body what it needs with fresh raw juices, such as the nutrient rich weight loss juice recipe ahead.
The best way to do this is to find a time that works for you and your schedule and start juicing once a day. Few other strategies to improve your health can make such an impact.
3 Ways to Time Your Juicing to Lose Weight
Many people like juicing in the morning before work as it provides a natural energy boost. From a weight loss perspective, this is much more effective than eating insulin raising and ultimately fattening cereals.
- Those who work from home may find after having one of these better breakfasts, followed by a big glass of vegetable juice for lunch keeps them going until dinner and really helps with slimming down.
- Something that’s worked well for me personally in the past was eating a good sized protein breakfast like this and then having a smaller lunch and dinner based on healthy protein and fats, mixed vegetables and avoiding grain-based foods like breads and pasta that lead to fat storage.
- In between lunch and dinner I’d have a glass of vegetable juice, like the recipe shared below. With the amount of nutrition in this way of eating, combined with the power of juicing, weight loss was quite effortless and I rarely felt hungry.
Pineapple and Greens Weight Loss Juice Recipe
When to drink: any time in the day
Best situations: When you feel a little hungry
Tastes: Fresh and green with a sweet aftertaste
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- Half a medium pineapple, chopped to fit into your juicer and keep the core as it contains the digestive enzyme bromelain.
- 1 large cucumber
- 2 stalks of celery
- 2 branches of kale
- Half a bunch of parsley
- The juice of a lemon or lime
Preparation
- Soak the cucumber, celery, kale and parsley in a bowl of warm water with a splash of apple cider vinegar. You might need to chop up the celery or cucumber to fit.
- Give both of these an extra scrub with a scrubbing brush if possible to minimize waxes and sprays.
- Juice your lemon or lime with a citrus juicer and add the juice and a couple of ice cubes to your collection jug. This preserves the juice and provides extra vitamin C and phytonutrients.
- Chop your produce to fit through your juicer shute
- If you’re serious about juicing, a masticating juicer like this one I use will deliver significantly more juice and really get the most out of greens like kale and parsley.
- Turn on the juicer, feed all the ingredients through, mix and drink immediately.
Feel free to experiment and make up your own fresh juices. Unless they are particularly thermogenic like grapefruit or pineapple, fruits, with their higher natural sugar content, should always be less than vegetables in your juicing recipe if you want to lose weight.
Conclusion
For reducing body fat and losing weight, juicing is best thought of as a powerful addition to a healthy diet.
One that will greatly reduce your hunger while increasing your energy and improving just about every aspect if your health in the long-term.
So forget about the latest quick fixes like the juicing diet and find 15 minutes in your day for more permanent fat loss with regular juicing. As a bonus you’ll likely find it improves your energy levels, enhances your appearance and even helps protect your body against serious diseases.
If all of these juicing health benefits aren’t worth getting up a little earlier in the morning, or 15 minutes less of whatever mind numbing repeat is on the TV in the evening, well then you have to wonder what is.
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