The Pros and Cons of a Lemonade Diet

The lemonade diet also known as the lemon juice diet is a fad that really caught on among dieters and has become very popular. So is all the hype about the lemonade diet true and does it really make you lose weight fast?

The lemonade diet is a pretty harsh diet. You are only allowed to drink lemon juice for a period of 10 to 12 days. During this period, you are not allowed to consume any other food.

The recipe for the lemon juice is pretty simple. You will need to mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice with honey or maple syrup. Then add 10 teaspoons of cayenne pepper and water.  You will have to make and consume about 12 glasses of this juice daily.

The purpose of the lemon juice diet is to detoxify the body and aid in fat loss. You might be wondering if this diet is safe or effective. After all, 10 days without food does seem dangerous and unhealthy. So, let’s look at some of the pros and cons of the lemonade diet.

One of the advantages of the lemonade diet is its detoxifying features. Since the lemon juice has detoxifying qualities, the body is able to detoxify itself effectively.

The disadvantage is that it’s not proven that the lemonade diet actually does any detoxification. The liver and kidneys are more than capable of detoxing a body without any harsh diets.

Another advantage of the lemonade diet is that those who go on it claim to lose weight quite fast. Since the diet is so restrictive and no fats or carbohydrates are being consumed, it is possible to lose a few pounds during this period.

The negative side to this is that the diet causes insulin spikes and obviously cannot be maintained for a long period. It causes cravings for food and once you’re off the diet and back to eating normal food, you will gain back the weight you lost and possibly a few pounds more. The diet due to its highly restrictive nature is stressful and you will experience irritation and anger easily.

There are several other negative possibilities with the lemonade diet. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the cons far outweigh the pros. The lemonade diet does more harm than good.

There is nothing like a sensible diet and regular exercise to keep you in good health. Fad diets like the lemonade diet, adversely affect your metabolism which drops since your body thinks that it’s on starvation mode and tries its best to hold on to the remaining fat.

Furthermore, the weight that you may have lost may just be water weight and not really fat. That makes the loss temporary and an illusion. Once you’re off the diet, the weight will pile back on and reality can be painful.

To summarise, the lemonade diet is not something that anyone should strongly consider as part of a long term weight loss solution. There is no substitute than good ‘ol exercise and a healthy diet plan.