In 2006, Beyoncé needed to shed some pounds really fast for her part in the Dreamgirls movie. She resorted to a liquid diet fast, commonly known as the Master Cleanse diet, Lemonade diet, or the Lemonade Fast. And the results were great, as Beyoncé followed the diet for 14 days and managed to lose 20 pounds. So let’s see what this diet is all about and whether it’s worth following it or not.
The Master Cleanse principle
Developed in the 40s by Stanley Burrows, the Master Cleanse diet was initially a detox and fast diet created to cleanse your body. Now, as you can see it’s also used as a weight-loss plan. Besides Beyoncé, many other celebrities, such as Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jared Leto, and Denzel Washington, followed this diet.
The Lemon diet is quite harsh since it only allows you to drink a liquid concoction without eating any solid food for 10 to 14 days. A liquid diet with about 600-700 daily calories will inevitably make you lose weight.
Master Cleanse diet rules
The “lemonade” you’re supposed to have at least 6 servings a day can be made from the following ingredients: 10 ounces of filtered water, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of grade-B maple syrup and 1/10 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
Other than this drink you can do a salt water flush in the morning using a quart of water with 2 teaspoons of salt and drink an herbal laxative tea in the evening if needed.
When the diet is over, it’s recommended you go back to regular food progressively. Start with light foods like soups, vegetables, and fruits, then gradually add other foods you usually eat.
Is the Master Cleanse diet effective?
Well, we already have Beyoncé and lots of other cases that proved you can successfully lose weight through the Lemonade Fast. It severely restricts caloric intake, so its almost impossible for weight loss to not occur as long as you’re not cheating the diet.
However, you should know not all dieters follow the strict guidelines of this diet. For example, Beyoncé admitted she ate vegetables while on the Master Cleanse diet.
The Lemonade diet also has a downside: you’ll be deprived of essential nutrients, and symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue, sluggishness, nausea, constipation, or diarrhea may appear. It’s definitely not the most comfortable diet.
Not everyone can follow this diet. Doctors definitely don’t recommend it for pregnant and nursing women and diabetics, but if you have any other medical condition, you shouldn’t follow this diet before asking the doctor’s permission first.
The Master Cleanse diet promotes short-term weight loss, which puts you at risk of gaining back those lost pounds quickly. Also, it severely restricts calorie intake for a rather long period of time – which can bring its own problems – and part of the weight loss can be from lost muscle mass and water.
I would definitely see it work for a 3-day period if you want a fast detox – especially after holidays during which we tend to down way too many calories. Nevertheless, 10-14 days seems way to long for such a drastic diet. Beyoncé probably added veggies to her version of the Master Cleanse diet to make it bearable – it’s just too much without any solid food.
If you’re looking for a long-term diet that can help you lose a lot of weight, I definitely recommend you find a balanced one, that provides all essential nutrients to support physical exercise (there’s really no healthy way of losing weight without working out regularly). Feel free to check out our nutrition section of the website, where you’ll find plenty of weight loss plans (with their pros and cons) as well as tips and healthy ways of losing weight without dieting.
