Re: Post Master Cleanse: Water Retention or Lowered Metabolism?

1st of all the MC is not any kind of "drastic diet" it is as the name implies a "cleanse". It does not work by the restriction of calories. While doing 7 days is better than not doing it at all you barely did much of anything at all since it takes the system 3-4 days just to empty itself and another 3-4 to adjust to fasting and after this point is when it actually  is "just begining". It takes 2 weeks +/- before any cleansing at the cellular level is "just begining". Bottom line is you should be researching elsewhere than pointing to a less than "minimal" 7 day MC done a year ago.

The SWF is done while fasting since there are no solids in the system to induce peristaltic action to push waste out. It is not something one does with any regularity to loose weight or whatever. One only does it if/when needed. If you were doing it at other times than 1st thing in the morning on an empty system and not eliminating it all and perhaps drinking a buncha water post to help eliminate all that salt you might have caused yourself some harm. Who knows if it has anythning to do where you percieve you are putting on weight. Genetics probably play a big role in that.

"but can not shed the other half no matter what."

Have you tried a nutrient dense diet and regular exercise? and I don't mean walking. I mean something that raises and maintains you heart rate at high levels for sustained periods of time or resistance weight training. You know "real exercise"...... Weightloss requires a lifestyle change and regular exercise. No if and or but about it. Diets DO  NOT WORK and you can't "diet" the rest of your life. You are looking for a quick specific answer and there is no such thing. There are no compartamentalized issues. Nothing happens in the sysem independent of anything else. You should be looking at the bigger "overall health" picture instead of trying to find some non existent specific thing to point at.

There are many different protocols that you can research but many won't work or work extremily slow if you don't take care of getting the accumulated crap out of your system out so your system will operate more efficiently. Realistically speaking if you want to affect any real "permanent" changes you should first research cleansing as your initial focus. You started with the MC but with the wrong focus and expectations and then you didn't do it long enough to really affect much. The MC is a great start but you gotta think in terms of 2 to 3 weeks minimum. BTW the MC is also considered an kidney cleanse. 

One great place to realisticaly start affecting some real changes is Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live. He has a day to day 6 week program that if you don't cheat and stick to it you will see results. The 6 week program is tight but it is a good intro into the reality of nutrient dense diet as lifestyle and how it can affect your well being and life. There's also a mess of healthy recipes in his book and there are thousands on the internet