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Q: I recently bought a diet and exercise program off an infomercial. In the package that I received, they recommended a 2 day fasting period before you actually start exercising. The 2 days of fasting are supposed to "cleanse impurities, detoxify your body, and prepare it to fully utilize its stored fat reserves to make any workout / diet life style change more effective." After the fasting, you can start eating again, according to their diet plan (which is similar to your Burn The Fat program in that it suggests 5-6 small meals a day). I know that you continually warn people to EAT and NOT to even skip meals, let alone skip a whole day of eating. So, is this fasting phase a good idea? Do you believe it's important to detoxify the body?
A: Detoxification and fasting are touchy subjects because some people have such strong - and even religious - beliefs about them. In the context of starting a weight loss program, detox or fasting is unnecessary and scientifically unproven. There is no science supporting the claim that detox will "prepare the body to fully utilize its stored fat reserves."It's also used in some cases as a "sneaky" way to start a diet program in order to achieve rapid, dramatic losses of body weight. This makes the diet appear highly effective and makes for impressive infomercial testimonials, showing unusually large amounts of weight loss. A fast, "cleanse" or "detox" at the beginning of a diet program can cause very rapid weight loss (note: weight loss, not fat loss). It's not uncommon to drop 10, 12 even 15 pounds in the first week or two with such protocols. This can boost the total weight lost over a 6 week program to impressive sounding 25-30 pounds, even if only 2 pounds is lost on each subsequent week after the first week. The question is, do you want to lose body weight or permanently lose FAT? The first 15 pounds is water, glycogen and even muscle tissue. Then maybe 10 pounds is fat - if you're lucky. The 1st 15-20 pounds will all come back because it was fluid, and the body fat will probably come back too because of potential metabolic damage done due to starvation and subsequent muscle loss. This is similar to the strict "induction" phases on certain diet programs, of which I have never been a fan. It's claimed that induction is necessary to metabolically shift you into fat burning mode, but I see it more as a "cheap trick" approach to quickly knocking off 10-15+ pounds of body weight (mostly water), to pander to the instant gratification needs of most dieters. Some argue that providing this "quick success" instant gratification is psychologically important for the dieter's motivation. However, it's not really success, it's only the appearance of success based only on scale weight. Going for the quick initial weight loss almost always backfires in the long run. Any crash diet, induction protocol or fasting ritual designed specifically to induce rapid weight loss is one you should avoid. Look at the weight loss recommendations of any legitimate science-based health and fitness organization such as the American College Of Sports Medicine, the National Strength and Conditioning Association or the American Dietetic Association and you will see the same healthy, sensible recommendation repeated over and over again: Healthy weight loss that lasts for the long term is 1-2 pounds per week, or 1% of total body weight per week (2.5 lbs if you weigh 250, etc). Now, regarding detoxification for reasons other than weight loss, it's difficult to draw general conclusions because there are so many different protocols that fall under the term "detoxification" with many different claims being made. But the fact is, most of them have little to no scientific evidence supporting them and some are downright kooky! Will Brink, Author of Diet Supplements Revealed, made a post in his forum recently that made this point very succinctly. Will wrote: "Who says you need to detoxify? The very term is quasi scientific at best, silly at worst. Are you looking to optimize increases in lean body mass or sit around drinking lemon water? I don't detoxify, as I don't feel toxic. The methods for detoxifying also run the gamut from real to a total scam. For example, for people that have high amounts of heavy metals, a process called chelation therapy appears to be legit to reduce those levels. Then you have all manner of pretend detoxifying diets, enemas, etc, which I have no faith in." When asked about a lemon-water based "cleansing and detoxifying" diet, American Dietetic Association (ADA) spokesperson Kathleen Selman, RD said: "Your body has its own mechanisms to cleanse itself. You don't need to ingest special potions -- that's hocus-pocus. Adequate fluid intake is what your body needs to keep your kidneys and bowel humming along. Your body needs more than 40 nutrients a day. That concoction contains little to no protein, fat, calcium, fiber, iron and countless other nutrients essential to maintaining your health and energy levels, and one drink can never satisfy that. You'll likely lose weight on this diet because your calorie intake will be minimal, but much of this weight will be muscle. Once you start eating normally, the pounds will come back, and this time it will be fat-weight gain. There's no scientific basis whatsoever for this program. It's dangerous. It's semi-starvation, and it will make you weak and tired." So, do I believe it's important to keep your body free of toxins? Yes, but I believe that "detox" is not necessarily a regimen of supplements, herbs, special drinks, fasting or weird "internal cleansing" procedures. "Detoxification" is something that you should be doing every single day of your life by making better food choices and avoiding harmful chemicals in the first place. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You stay "non-toxic" by drinking large amounts of pure water, eating lots of fiber, eating natural foods and avoiding man-made food, refined carbohydrates, refined fats (and trans fats), packaged food and other "chemical cuisine" as much as possible. If you really want to get serious about "detoxification", you could take it a step further by eating organic foods that are even less likely to contain toxins and chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. "Detoxification" is not necessary to start a fat loss program and prolonged fasting is actually quite catabolic and results in loss of skeletal muscle tissue and a decrease in energy which precludes intense training. That makes it a bad idea for bodybuilders, strength athletes and those seeking to maximize lean body mass. If fasting or "detoxing" are important disciplines to you for personal or spiritual reasons, by all means continue. If you believe you're getting some measurable physical benefits, then don't let me discourage you from continuing either. One of the foundational principles of the Burn The Fat program is that results are what counts and that you should continue to do more of what's working. However, my advice to someone who is unsure either way is to simply clean up their diet first and stop eating processed, chemical-laden food. If you choose to experiment with any type of fast or "detox" program, check for scientific support rather than anecdotal evidence, pay attention to your body composition results (not just scale weight) and listen to what your body is telling you rather than what the advertisements are telling you. If you don't, you may find yourself shelling out hundreds of dollars a month for "exotic cleansing herbs and supplements" or losing weight very quickly, only to regain every pound... with less muscle than when you started. Buyer beware.
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