The lemonade diet, also known as the maple syrup diet or the master cleanse, is a modified fast. It requires you to drink between 8 and 12 glasses of a specially prepared lemonade as well as use a laxative tea twice daily and do a salt-water flush every morning. The lemonade diet is a fad diet, not nutritionally sound and not recommended for long-term weight loss.
Fad Diets
According to the National Institutes of Health, any diet that makes unrealistic promises, such as the lemonade diet's claim of dramatic weight loss in just 10 days, or eliminates entire food groups is a fad diet and should be avoided. Very low calories diets, such as the lemonade diet have a diuretic effect -- much of the weight lost is water weight and easily regained when you start eating normally again. The American Academy of Family Physicians believe that in the long run fad diets are detrimental to a person's health and that for long-term success, a patient must make sustainable healthy lifestyle changes.
The Lemonade Diet
The lemonade diet is a very low calorie diet that has a total daily caloric intake of between 800 and 1,000 calories, most of which come from sugar. The ingredients of the lemonade are purified water, organic lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup. In addition to drinking up to 12 glasses of the lemonade daily, you are supposed to start your day with a salt water flush that cleanses your intestinal tract. There's also a laxative tea to drink. This diet is low in fiber, protein, calories and nutrients and is not safe for long-term use.
Healthy Weight Loss
To lose weight you need to use more calories than you consume. Adding regular physical activity will help burn more calories and can increase lean muscle mass. Because muscle burns more calories than fat, even at rest, this can boost your metabolism helping you to lose even more weight. It takes a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose one lb. of fat. A combination of reducing your caloric intake and burning more calories to create a daily deficit between 500 and 1,000 calories will result in slow, steady and safe weight loss of 1 to 2 lbs. per week.
Warnings
You may lose weight on the lemonade diet, but most of it will be water weight which you'll regain quickly after ending the lemonade diet. Because i is a low-protein diet, your body may convert muscle mass instead of fat to energy. This will actually slow your metabolism, making weight gain easier after the diet. In addition, the National Institutes of Health says that women need at least 1,200 calories and men need at least 1,500 calories daily to keep metabolism functioning. If yo don't consume enough calories, your body goes into "starvation mode" and slows down, stalling weight loss. Other negative side-effects of this diet include hunger, headache and fatigue.
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