Fasting, Juicing, The Kaufmann 1, and Weight Loss

The Kaufmann 1 diet is an excellent way to lose weight, and honestly I think it is the best, most practical way to achieve results. The initial few days are certainly the most difficult; most people will experience a Herxheimer reaction as the fungi in your body begin to die, and you can feel pretty nasty – almost as if you have the flu. During that time, your addiction to sugar will tempt you to eat things that you might not even normally crave. I remember the first time I tried the diet, it was everything I could do to not walk down to the local convenience store to buy a chocolate bar. I didn’t even have a sweet tooth before I tried the Kaufmann 1 diet! Regardless, you can and will get through it, and you will more than likely feel better than you’ve felt in years after the initial week or two. When most people decide to drop some weight, they want to see and experience results as rapidly as humanly possible. This is a sentiment we can all sympathize with, but it often prompts people towards some fairly drastic actions, many of which may be more counterproductive than at all helpful. Kristin brings a couple of these up in her article, and I think they are important enough to merit repeating. One of the first things some people decide to do is simply fast to lose weight. After all, that makes sense right? If you don’t put anything in, your body simply has to burn what it has got, which is stored up fat. And in a sense, this is correct. The laws of thermodynamics certainly apply here – your body must get energy from somewhere. But there are a number of problems with this approach. When you fast, your body goes into something like “starvation mode”, where your metabolism is set up to consume fat at a slower rate in order to conserve energy. (I’m speaking of longterm fasting here, not the short term that our friend Mark Sisson is an advocate of.) The body is amazingly prepared for survival, which is one mechanism that makes it so easy for to put weight on – humans haven’t always had such a readily available supply of food. I’m over simplifying here, but, the irony of fasting is that it can actually make it more difficult to burn fat. And any weight that you do succeed in shedding comes right back on as soon as you begin eating again. Another method similar to fasting is juicing – simply consuming the juice squeezed from fresh fruits in vegetables. Juicing is a remarkable way to get an abundance of nutrients in a small serving, along with living enzymes, detoxifying chlorophyll and a host of anti-fungals. Carrot juice is even encouraged on Kaufmann 1. Juicing is wonderful for detoxing the body and helping rid the body of fungus – combining the anti-fungal properties of garlic and carrot with the cleansing properties of fresh-squeezed greens? What a powerhouse! But using juicing as a weight loss strategy is less effective. You will run into many of the same problems as you would with fasting. Both of these strategies – juicing and fasting – have their place in your handbook of health strategies. But when it comes to weight loss, the Kaufmann 1 diet is certainly the way to go. Many people experience results remarkably quickly, and for others, it take a bit more time. In the long run, re-training yourself to eat healthily on the Kaufmann 1 diet is going to give you more success. Try it for a couple of weeks and see if the scale numbers don’t descend very quickly!