MC & weight loss FAQs

For you dieters out there you hafta keep in mind that there are no shortcuts or magic potions and that no form of fasting, water, juice, MC whatever were designed as weight loss diets,PERIOD!. Fasting is meant to take the burden from digestion and all the energy that goes toward it and let the body repair and heal itself. Stop looking at the numbers on the scale they are meaningless and you can easily become obsessed. Lose the scale!! You will know you are loosing weight by the way your clothes fit and most of all by the way you feel.

 No amount of wishful thinking or misinformation will make any form of fasting a weight loss diet, PERIOD! Fasting for weight loss is an inroad to eating disorders if you are not doing it with the full understanding that it is just a "tool" to clean out the system so the body will operate more efficiently and you can continue to loose weight safely and efficiently by the required lifestyle change. No if and or buts about it. If you go back to your old ways you >>WILL<< gain the weight back and possibly more because all forms of fasting will slow the metabolism.  The catch and a prime reason that makes any form of fasting not a good weight loss diet is that most overweight folks metabolisms are already slow and if you don't incorporate regular exercise and lifestyle change after the fast the you will fail bringing you back to the beginning or worse, putting on more weight than you lost! and you'll be caught in a vicious cycle and the start of and eating disorder akin to binge and purge.

The primary focus of any successful  weight loss program is and will always be quality, balanced nutrition and regular exercise. Rapid weight loss is neither healthy nor permanent. It takes the system 6 to 8 weeks to normalize the metabolism after any fast and prolonged fasting without resting and including exercise and sound nutritional program for the rebuilding process may cause permanent damage to the metabolism and cause all kinds of possible problems from nutritional deficiency.

Because all forms of fasting are >>cleanses<< the body will do what it needs to do the most first. Often it will not be weight loss and there will be periods where you will not loose any weight. So do yourselves a favor and stop looking at the numbers and press on knowing that you are doing yourselves a world of good and that you are attacking the "root causes" of obesity. being overweight is not a thing in and of itself. It is a "health issue"

Weight loss requires a >LIFESTYLE< change. It will require >>REGULAR EXERCISE<<. No if ands or buts about it. Exercise is the most efficient way to bring the metabolism back on line.

Another thing folks need to keep in mind is that 10 days is just the >MINIMUM< for an MC so don't expect any miracles. The body doesn't even start to get into deeper cleansing till day 8 +/- and around 15 +/- days before getting into the deeper cleansing at the cellular lever. Don't expect that you will clean out a lifetimes worth of abuse even with a 40 day MC. It's just a very good start. Without the lifestyle and diet change and incorporating regular exercise you will go back where you started or worse.  The MC does not CURE anything. There is no magic in the lemonade. It helps take out the trash to allow the system to heal itself which is what all these cleanses do. Slow and gradual is the only road to "permanent healing/weight loss" . There are no shortcuts or magic potions. Educate yourselves, focus, exercise regularly and most of all be patient

We know the MC formula already and it is just about a "given" that >everyone< will loose weight on the MC. We also know from experience that this weight loss can vary greatly from one person to the next and even for the same person from one MC to the next. It is also a fact that if folks go back to their old ways that this lost weight will come back. So I would encourage folks that post about their weightloss that for their own ultimate benefit and others to also discuss what their plans are to keep this weight off. That is the info that is missing and almost never gets discussed here and would really complete the cycle of using the MC "succesfully" for weight loss. Without a follow up plan the MC or any form of fasting is a >>surefire<< no two ways about it plan for failure and worst yet a plan were a person using fasting for weight loss can gain back even more than they lost.

Remember that 4 or 5 lbs sometimes more depending of the persons starting weight, how full they were, how well hydrated they were etc when they started, that weight is from emptying the bowels and water weight loss. Posting about this miraculous weight loss at the begining of the fast can be very misleading and definitely false hope to the newbies that have yet to find out how the MC really works and that it is is only >part< of a succesful weight loss program.

A response to the above from someone who counsels folks with "eating disorders:

As someone who has done fasts, I agree with your points about the MC not to be used as a weight loss plan. Anyone doing their first fast, who has possibly been overweight for awhile, cannot understand this until they experience the whole fast.
Also, I know that for some, they can tend to get grouchy because of the calorie restriction too. I wouldn't be surprised at all, if, after some experience with the fast, many people will change their minds completely, as to the philosophies and strategies that they might have had in the beginning.
I find it very wise of you to warn of possibilities of obtaining eating disorders if not in the right frame of mind for a fast. I counsel people with eating disorders. They are usually a lifelong problem that can destroy families. So, forking from that path, if at all possible, is important. The sooner, the better

Quite often when purusing the master cleanse forum or various blogs, you come across many individuals who seem to be obsessed with the numbers game, that is to say, following their weight on a daily basis.  Unfortunately, health is not a numerical concept and cannot be defined using statistics.  Human beings, however, tend to want to quantify well-being into easily understandable figures.  We feel compelled to ascribe numbers to every aspect of wellness, from the qualities of our food to our fitness levels to the physical space we occupy. As a consequence of social pressures, we turn our attention away from health and focus instead on the most contentious of these figures-weight-checking our scales to see how we measure up to our peers and role models. Yet each of us is equipped to gauge our relative healthfulness without any equipment whatsoever. When we have achieved a state of wellness, we feel buoyant and energetic. Some of us are naturally slim, while others will always be curvy. No matter what our weight, we can use the cues we receive from our physical and mental selves to judge how healthy we really are.  When you throw away your scale, you commit to a lifestyle that honors the innate wisdom that comes from within your body and within your mind.

The numbers you see on the scale, while nominally informative, can prevent you from reaching your healthful cleansing and eating goals by giving you a false indicator of health. You will know when you have achieved true health because every fiber of your being will send you signals of wellness. When you choose to listen to these signals instead of relying on the scale, your definition of well-being will be uniquely adapted to the needs of your body and of your mind.