The Best Colon Cleanse to Lose Weight

The best colon cleanse to lose weight is to juice for a few days and transition to a whole foods cleansing diet. The idea is to move waste from the colon and toxins from the gastrointestinal tract (GI) and also from all the internal organs. Doing that will give you a clean slate.

From there, eating a detox diet of whole foods will gradually establish a permanent lifestyle change of eating whole vegetables, fruits and lean proteins. My Food Pyramid by the USDA is an excellent nutritional guide.

Juice for up to four days

By juicing for a few days, you give your digestive system a break, literally. Consuming freshly extracted fruit and vegetable juices will provide your body with vitamins and minerals. Use organic produce whenever possible.

If you cannot easily get organic produce, use a bleach bath to remove pesticides: dip all produce in a two-gallon bath of filtered water with one teaspoon of bleach. After five minutes, rinse thoroughly before using.

Consume two tablespoons of olive oil on the fourth day to move bowels.

Transition to a whole foods detox diet

Elson Haas, MD, author of The New Detox Diet, recommends juicing for healthy individuals. He also advises people to use whole foods as a detox diet.

Eating whole grains such as cooked brown rice, millet, quinoa, whole groats and oat, whole vegetables, fruits and a very small amount of lean protein, legumes or protein, will feed the body. At the same time, all the internal organs will be cleansed as you are not eating preservatives, colors, fragrances and refined flours, sugars or trans fats from fried foods.

Drink herbal teas such as dandelion, burdock root, buckthorn root, yellow dock and red clover to assist cleansing of the internal organs.

How to keep the weight off

To lose one pound, reduce daily intake by 3,500 calories or about 500 calories per day. Juicing easily accomplishes this goal. Most people will consume less than 2,000 calories daily.

Transitioning to the whole foods detox diet, you will have to still watch calories, but you will probably consume less than were you to be snacking on doughnuts and eating pizza.

The last transition is designing a realistic, satisfying diet to keep your weight stable. My Food Pyramid has excellent guidelines. Aim to eat no more than 30 percent of fat and of that, no more than 10 percent from saturated fat (fat that is solid at room temperature). Surf the net for low-cal, low-fat recipes to stick to a long-term way of eating to support a healthy weight.