Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting 10 myths about dieting from the article by Michael Mosley in The Times.
Claim 7. Juicing is a good way to lose weight.
There are juice diets out there promising that you can lose “7lbs in 7 Days”, but are they credible?
Let’s start by looking at some of the numbers. There are around 3500 calories in a lb of fat and the average woman consumes 14,000 calories a week (2000 a day). So if you ate nothing at all for a week and lost all your weight as fat (which you won’t), then the absolute maximum amount of fat you could lose is 4lbs.
So why do the scales sometimes drop far more than that? Well, excess glucose is stored in your muscles and liver in a form called glycogen. This also binds water. When you stop eating your body burns through the glycogen stores, releasing the water. After a week you may well have lost 7 lbs but much of that weight will be water, and also some muscle, since, on these diets. you’re eating little or no protein.
The body doesn’t store protein, so after 24 hours without it in your diet your body will start to cannibalize itself. Not surprisingly, once you start eating normally again your body will replenish its water and glycogen stories and much of the weight will come back on.
3:42 pm
15 Jul 14