Spicy Lemonade Diet

The Master Cleanse is a diet and cleansing tactic that uses 10 days of consuming nothing but a spicy lemonade drink in order to shed pounds and clean the system. Invented in the 1940s by alternative health practitioner Stanley Burroughs, the cleanse was meant to cure a bevy of ailments. While the Master Cleanse has never been proven to cure anything, it was famously used by Beyonce Knowles as a way to drop 20 lbs. for her role in "Dreamgirls." Learn more about the Master Cleanse before you attempt to go without food for 10 days.

The Recipe

The Master Cleanse recipe sounds dubious as a way to nourish your body for 10 days. To create the spicy lemonade drink, combine 2 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 2 tbsp. pure maple syrup, 1/10 tsp. cayenne pepper or however much you can stand and 8 oz. of water. The concoction can be consumed anytime you feel hungry, from five to 10 times each day. The flavor is generally unpleasant, so you'll likely want to down the glass quickly rather than gulping slowly.

Benefits

The benefits of the Master Cleanse are few and far between. While Burroughs promised many benefits from the cleanse, it has not been studied or proven to carry any benefits. The only advantage to the cleanse is that you'll obviously experience weight loss. Drinking only the spicy lemonade restricts your caloric intake so severely that your body will begin burning fat and muscle mass for energy. While you may lose weight, you'll also lose muscle, which may make it difficult to keep the weight off in the future.

Disadvantages

When you restrict your caloric intake so severely, your metabolism slows in order to make up for the loss of nutrients and energy. Once you go off of the cleanse, you're likely to gain any weight lost back as a result of your hampered metabolism. The Master Cleanse is notoriously hard to stick to for 10 days, since you'll be tempted by the food your body needs to function. Lemon, cayenne pepper and maple syrup do not provide your body with the nutrients that it needs, making the Master Cleanse an ineffective and possibly dangerous way to lose weight.

Alternatives

If you're desperate to lose weight fast, remember that healthy weight loss is much longer-lasting than quick, faddish weight loss. While you may see immediate results, they are fleeting. Instead of relying on caloric restriction to help you lose weight, make a long-term plan for success. By planning ahead to lose no more than 1 or 2 lbs. a week, you can lose weight slowly and safely by creating better health habits, like eating foods that are low in calories yet high in nutritive content and exercising on a daily basis.