Barring any mitigating factors (like certain illness or medications), if you’ve gained weight, it’s likely due to poor lifestyle habits. And the only way to fix that is to focus on behaviour changes. Attacking the symptoms of your poor habits – the weight gain – is not getting to the root of the problem. If you want long-term and permanent results, you need to start practising healthy lifestyle habits.
Detoxing for weight loss is a knee-jerk reaction to repent and cleanse your system. You spend weeks, months, or even years clogging up your system and packing on weight and now you want to detoxify your body.
Good for you for recognizing the error of your ways! But your plan should be to attack the habits that got you there in the first place – instead of attacking the weight that resulted because of them. Falling for the hype that special teas, shakes or pills will rid your body of toxins and fat is all myth. There really haven’t been any scientific studies or research done on commercial detox claims. However, there are plenty of endorsements – designed by clever marketers – to make it appear that diet detoxing works.
Have you ever known someone who went on a strict detox to lose weight, and then was able to maintain the weight loss and their good health for the next five years? Probably not. Those who are successful at permanent weight loss do so with changes to their diet and exercise habits.
Thanks to our kidneys and liver, our bodies are designed to detoxify themselves. Drink more water, eat more fibre (vegetables!) and you’ll keep yourself internally clean. Sweating during exercise is also part of the body’s natural detoxification process.
Detoxing does not provide you with the tools necessary for long-term health. You won’t learn how to undo the damage you did because you will be right back to those damaging habits once the detox is over.
You need to learn what you should be doing to help your body reach and maintain a healthy weight. And those habits should be habits you can continue safely and healthfully forever.
Therefore, the way you eat and the way you move will be reflected in the way your body looks and – more importantly – feels. And seriously, you can’t live on detox pills and potions for the rest of your life.
Eat right, move more, and you’ll lose the weight. In addition, you’ll save yourself the disappointment and expense of a costly “detox” program.
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Eve Lees has been active in the health & fitness industry since 1979. Currently, she is a Freelance Health Writer for several publication and speaks to business and private groups on various health topics.