You’ve probably heard a lot of people say that they were going on a cleanse to reset their bodies and trying to lose weight. At the surface, it usually sounds like a good idea as you rid your body of unwanted waste while cutting down on calories so that you end up dropping a few pounds of fat. There are a ton of different cleansing diets out there, but the one that has gotten the most attention is the Master Cleanse.
What made this one so popular? It was rumored that even superstar singer Beyonce Knowles went on the 10 day program to shed weight and rid herself of toxins, making the Master Cleanse book a bestseller. The book outlining the diet was released in 2007 by Tom Woloshyn, who has said that he has gone through 1,500 days of master cleansing. We’re going to take a look at the Master Cleanse Diet to see what makes it so much different than the other ones. From there, you can decide if the plan is right for you after weighing the pros and cons.
Celebrities That Have Done the Master Cleanse
In Hollywood, there is a lot of pressure to drop weight quickly when you are getting ready for a role or video shoot. Here are some of the celebrities that have slimmed down in a hurry using the Master Cleanse Diet.
Jared Leto – After purposely gaining a lot of weight for a role in the film “Chapter 27”, Jared Leto needed to shed the extra pounds quickly to get back to his normal self. To do this, Leto went on the Master Cleanse for weeks on end, and he ended up losing more than 60 pounds. He would then use it again to get underweight for his role in “Dallas Buyers Club”.
Ashanti – More known for her singing career, Ashanti has also gotten into the acting world. In 2007, Ashanti was looking to get in shape while promoting her role in the film “Resident Evil”. Ashanti went on the Master Cleanse for a week, and ended up losing eight pounds in the process.
Beyonce Knowles – Beyonce has always been known for her legendary curves, but needed to slim down even further for her role in “Dreamgirls”. Beyonce would try out the Master Cleanse for the role and ended up dropping 20 pounds in just two weeks.
Robin Quivers – Long time “Howard Stern Show” assistant Robin Quivers was desperate to lose weight and had tried many different diets. Quivers was able to stick to the Master Cleanse Diet for an extended period of time thanks to a suggestion from magician David Blaine, and she ended up losing a total of 70 pounds.
Angelina Jolie – Actress Angelina Jolie always seems to be in movies where she is showing off a lot of skin or getting into some very tight outfits. When preparing for a role, Jolie typically gets into the Master Cleanse before shooting. Needless to say, it looks like it has paid off for her career thus far.
How Does the Master Cleanse Diet Work?
So you know a little bit about the history of the Master Cleanse and some of the celebrities that have made it popular, but how exactly does it work? You have to have a lot of dedication to get through the Master Cleanse, as there isn’t much that you get to eat. The folks behind the Master Cleanse Diet say that you can use the program for as long as you want, but the best results will come at a minimum of 10 days. In the three days leading up to the Master Cleanse Diet, you should remove all processed foods from your diet.
First, you start off each morning by doing what is called a salt water flush. To do this, you take a quart of lukewarm water and add two teaspoons of non-iodized sea salt. A quart may seem like a lot, but you must drink the entire thing to stick with the program. There is also no breakfast that goes along with it, as your stomach must be empty beforehand. After doing this, make sure that you are pretty close to a bathroom as you will likely need to go several times.
After taking your morning salt water, you certainly won’t be done drinking liquids. The Master Cleanse Diet calls for six glasses of cleansing mixture throughout the day. So what is that? The “Lemonade” that you’ll be drinking is made up of two tablespoons each of freshly squeezed lemon juice and rich maple syrup. From there, you combine 1/10 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper powder and then eight ounces of water to mix it all together. It doesn’t taste great, to be honest.
If you are doing the Master Cleanse for the sake of ridding your digestive system of any toxins and not looking to lose weight, then you should be adding more syrup. If you are looking to drop pounds in addition to cleansing, then keep the maple syrup level where it’s at. Just know that there are just over 100 calories in two tablespoons of syrup, so you are getting 600 calories per day from the syrup alone.
The lemon juice will only give you about 40 calories per day while the cayenne pepper will add about 10 throughout the day. That’s only 650 calories per day on average, which is well below the recommended amount that doctors would suggest on a weight loss plan. If that didn’t sound crazy enough, then know that you have to end each day with an herbal laxative, which can be a pain right before you go to bed. This can be in the form of a tea or a pill, but taking laxatives to lose weight is already a known danger.
After the Cleanse
If by some grace of God you were able to get through 10 days of the Master Cleanse without giving up or passing out from consuming a total of 6,500 calories, then it’s time to ease out of the plan. There is a four day program where you are supposed to ease back into normal eating, and this is what those four days will look like:
Day One – The only thing that you will be consuming on the first day is orange juice. This isn’t the processed stuff, either, as you are supposed to be drinking the freshly squeezed variety (which can be hard to find unless you squeeze your own oranges). You can also drink water, but you can’t eat anything. It’s suggested that you drink several glasses of orange juice in this time.
Day Two – You’ll still be drinking plenty of freshly squeeze orange juice on the second day, but you finally get to eat food. It’s still not much in the way of solids, but it’s something. The suggestion here is that you make a soup that contains vegetables like carrots, celery and potatoes, and you can add organic rice. However, there is no meat in the soup.
Day Three – Getting to the finish line, orange juice is still on the menu for day three, as well as the soup you had the day before. On this day, though, you get to add salad and fruit, but not with any heavy salad dressings. You should still be avoiding soft drinks, milk, any type of meat and bread.
Day Four – After two weeks of not eating normal foods, you can finally get back to it. You can eat whatever you want on this day, but the designers of the Master Cleanse suggest that you keep it healthy, including lean meats that won’t make you gassy or cause digestive pain. That might be hard after cleaning yourself out for nearly two weeks.
Summing it Up
You might be tempted to get on the Master Cleanse Diet since a lot of celebrities have bragged about how they were able to lose so much weight on the plan. However, this is not a healthy diet in the slightest. There aren’t enough nutrients in maple syrup alone to get you through a couple of weeks, and you won’t be getting enough calories to feel any sort of energy. Imagine trying to exercise (which is part of a healthy weight loss plan) while consuming under 700 calories per day. It’s likely that you would pass out from exhaustion.
If you want to lose a couple of pounds in a couple of days, it might be worth giving the Master Cleanse a try, but that’s still a bit of a stretch. There are claims that you can lose up to 20 pounds, but a lot of that is going to be expelled waste. It’s nearly impossible to lose two pounds of fat per day unless you are running a marathon while fasting on a daily basis, which is another impossibility. To sum it up, look for a more healthy plan that’s much easier to stick to if you want permanent weight loss, as a lot of people end up weighing more after the Master Cleanse than with other diets.