Can You Drink Lemon Juice for Two Days to Lose Weight?
Lemons have long been used in various ways, including as remedies for colds and for promoting proper digestive functions. The citric acid in lemons helps ensure that your digestive system effectively processes food and that toxins don't accumulate. Combined with regular exercise and a balanced diet, lemon juice has the potential to help you lose weight, but the pounds won't fall off after just two days unfortunately.
Lemons and a cup of lemon juice. (Image: AkayArda/iStock/Getty Images)Lemon Juice Benefits
Lemons are packed with vitamin C, which helps ensure your digestive system is functioning properly. A digestive system that's in good working order can process food more efficiently and absorb essential nutrients that help burn fat cells. If your body is lacking in vitamin C and is unable to absorb nutrients, it continues to crave them. This results in more frequent feelings of hunger, which, if acted on, can lead to weight gain. Meanwhile, citric acid in lemons is critical in removing toxins from your system, which could otherwise accumulate and cause fatigue and sluggishness.
Two-Day Weight Loss
Significant weight loss from incorporating lemon juice into your diet over the span of only two days is highly unlikely. According to Mail Online, it takes about two weeks until a steady regimen of lemon juice, combined with a balanced diet and regular exercise, will result in any weight loss. Drink one glass of warm water with two to three tablespoons of lemon juice every morning. Drinking lemon juice first in the morning helps regulate your digestive system and prepares it for any food that you'll consume throughout the day.
Restrictive Diet
Drinking only lemon juice to lose weight and detoxify is a common dieting technique. This approach to dieting requires cutting out all food, and is often known as the lemon juice diet or lemonade diet. The juice is often mixed with maple syrup, water and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Proponents of the lemon juice diet believe that the lemon juice concoction consists of enough nutrition to sustain the body while it cleanses itself of toxins. In theory, it is possible that you can lose weight in only 48 hours by drinking only lemon juice.
Cautions
The lemon juice diet deprives your body of essential nutrition and is not recommended by health professionals or dietitians. The Weight Control Information Network recommends that any dieting attempt you make to lose weight is done slowly, aiming to lose no more than a half to 2 lbs per week. Cutting out all food for 48 hours could make you weak and dizzy, and can place your liver and kidneys at risk. Be sure to speak to your doctor before attempting any type of extreme dieting technique, such as the lemon juice diet.
