If you haven’t read Part 1 – “Juicing for weight loss – Good or Bad”,  Click here

 

The Results

After juicing for 7 days (Miguel) and 5 days (Katie) we’ll break down our findings:

 

Foods consumed

During this experiment 90% of our intake was organic juices from True Grimmway Farms, the other 10% was vegetables and fruit as long as they were not cooked. Why? Because in principle it’s the same as juicing. You’re ingesting these foods without the loss of nutrients that would normally occur when they are cooked. Mostly we bought Avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples and bananas.

 

Detox

Many people state that when you start juicing one of the first things you’ll experience is a detoxifying effect. We honestly didn’t. We could see someone that eats heavily processed foods going through this. Thankfully we didn’t… and believe me, we had a hard enough time with it as it was.

 

The Cost of Juicing

The cost of each juice was $4.99. Katie had 3 and I had 6 per day. That alone works out to be $45 per day. After day 2 we started incorporating more fruit and veggies and in average we spent an extra $15-$20 dollars per day. Combined this brings our daily average to $55-$60 or about $30/person/day… please keep in mind everything was organic so it was more expensive than normal.

 

 The Scale

As much as we tried it was hard to eat the same amount of calories we’re used to so we both noticed we lost 4 to 5 lbs during that week. Each bottle of juice has 450 calories. With weight loss also came less bloating which was nice. however we both noticed our body felt softer than usual. Our muscles weren’t as firm as usual. Due to the reduced calorie intake, we definitely lost some muscle as well… this wasn’t a nice feeling. What’s the point of seeing a lower number on the scale if your body just doesn’t feel strong and firm?!

 

Energy Levels

The lower calorie intake also had consequences in our energy levels and our workouts suffered big time. We only managed to get 1.5 workouts that week… they were not the kind of workouts we’re used to, you know… the kind that leaves you feeling satisfied and exhausted. No, these workouts were pathetic lol, we wanted to work hard but the energy and the mental focus just wasn’t there.

 

Emotional & Mental State

Alright guys, this is where it got ugly… Katie and I know the frustration that can come from being on a strict meal plan and deal with it often. You make adjustments and move on, so you think this should have been easy right? WRONG! It was by far harder than just eating clean and following a meal plan. We were irritable, hungry, bored as hell… just imagine the fact that getting to eat an avocado at “dinner” was the highlight of our day… we were arguing with each other over the most stupid things, day 1 and day 2 were ok, from there on it was an emotional and mental roller coaster.

 

Pros & Cons of Juicing

Pros:

> Less bloating.

>Clean Kitchen – no cooking required 🙂

>More time in your hands – No prepping needed.

>Less dependency on Caffeine than we thought we had.

 

Cons:

>Hard to consume enough calories.

>Lose muscle.

>You’re drinking all the time, yet you don’t feel hydrated.

>Lack of Energy

>Irritability and emotional state.

>Much more restrictive than a Meal Plan

 

Final Thoughts

We would honestly NOT RECOMMEND juicing to someone that’s trying to lose weight. Why do it? It’s way harder than just eating clean and if you eat under your calories you’re going to lose weight regardless, the whole purpose of any nutrition approach shouldn’t just be to lose weight but to lose weight from body fat. We all enjoy eating so why not just learn how to eat according to your fitness goals instead?

 

Juicing isn’t sustainable, it doesn’t teach you anything. The weight we lost was gained back within a few days of eating normal food anyway (we’re happy with this, remember we were not Juicing for weight loss!). There will always be those that prefer the “quick fix” mentality and rather starve themselves for 3 or 7 days to lose a few pounds just to look good for a special day and then they go right back to eating timbits for breakfast… funny thing is, these are the people that never actually seem to have any permanent results because they gain that weight back as quickly as they lost it.

 

So what should I do:

1. Find a nutritional approach that may work for you.

2. Stick to it for at least 4 weeks.

3. Track your progress every week.

4. Analyse and adjust if needed.

 

If you don’t know where to start, check out our blog post “What Should I eat”

 

You got this,

 

DO NOT GIVE UP!