Category: Hormones

Every September we all make ourselves the same promise… ‘Next summer I will be in shape’. Unhappy with having spent days on the beach covering up and vetoing any bikini shots from being posted on Facebook. The winter months go by and we postpone starting any sort of exercise or nutritional regime getting away with wearing baggy dresses and thick black tights. The fact that we live in Ireland means that winter coats are pretty much a necessity until about mid May when the leaving cert weather starts to kick in. The girls now want to organize a trip away… “Somewhere with a beach so we can get a tan”. Regretting the past few months having failed to fulfill that promise of getting shape, spending the time munching on rolls and pizza instead of taking the time to get bikini body ready we see no alternative but to look to a ‘quick fix’. Enter: The Juice Detox.

As a personal trainer and health coach I see too many girls coming to me with ruined metabolisms having crash dieted or followed starvation strategies in order to lose weight as quickly as possible. There are thousands of these sorts of diets out there and most of them are ridiculous but nothing makes less sense to me than a juice detox. The very idea of it being a detox is laughable. It is impossible to detox efficiently without the presence of amino acids and it is impossible to get SUFFICIENT amounts of ALL the amino acids from fruits, vegetables and other foods such as avocados or chia seeds.

Without wanting to get too scientific the liver has two phases of detoxification and the second one needs amino acids to function efficiently. During these detoxes there are no amino acids going into the body so toxins can only go through phase 1 of detoxification. These toxins are not converted into free radicals and without phase 2 being able to neutralize them the liver has no choice but to release them into the blood stream. This juice detox in its attempt to detox us has now in fact left us more toxic than before.

Will there be weight loss on a juice detox? Probably. Will it be true fat loss? Probably not! Toxins are released from the fat cells and passed through phase 1 but as we cannot continue to detox them we start to feel ill and they end up being reabsorbed and stored by the fat cells. Most of the weight lost will be water weight and if the juice detox is long enough the ‘detoxee’ will now probably have slowed down their metabolism. Just two days of severe under-eating can slow down your thyroid (the master of metabolism). If you choose to live on 4-5 juices a day you are on a severe calorie restrictive diet with the majority of your calories being in the form of fructose from fruit. It will be impossible to avoid damaging your metabolism especially if this is an activity you intend to engage in regularly or for longer then two/three days. The rebound weight gain seen after this kind of detox plan can leave you even fatter than you were in the first place. When you return to your original eating habits (which you will as a juice detox is unsustainable) your metabolism will no longer be able to handle the amount of calories you were once able to eat without gaining weight

Magazines are flooded with ‘get your body bikini ready’ features, accounts of juice cleanse detoxes are rampant online and everyone seems to have the answer to shaping up in time for summer.In my experience, the only thing that really works long-term, outside of faddish diets and exercise trends, is good old-fashioned hard work and clean eating. It’s a tough pill to swallow as everyone wants the quick fix, but if you’re dedicated and passionate about getting in shape, it’s worth the slog.I started training at Body Rock Performance in Sandymount, a gym run by personal trainer Paul Moran, last summer in a bid to tone up before a holiday, and I haven’t looked back.The classes, which take place both indoors and outdoors, run for about an hour and consist of targeted interval training concentrating on specific muscles for each exercise. Interval training, which involves alternating periods of high-intensity exercise with rest, has been recognised as the most effective way to increase fitness. It also burns more calories over a short period of time than steady-state cardio and continues to burn calories after your workout.Each class at Body Rock is different, and often concentrates on specific areas – such as dreaded leg days, which consist of a lot of lunges and squats, or arms and abs, which involve a lot of weight exercises.To mix in a bit of cardio, Paul and Stephen sometimes use the dreaded ‘Prowler’, a weighted fitness sled often used in rugby training which will have your legs screaming within seconds. Periods of sprinting are also sometimes interspersed into the class to give an all-round workout that have you feeling fantastic, and more than a little relieved, once it’s over.Although training at Body Rock is far from easy, it is an incredibly effective, and dare I say, fun way to tone up. When I initially started taking the classes, it took just two weeks to see changes, and you can also get your body fat ratio measured at the gym so you can keep on top of your progress. In contrast to a lot of gyms, the atmosphere is fun, inclusive and good-natured, which spurs you on to work hard and see great results. You can also have your diet and nutrition analysed at Body Rock to see where you might be going wrong in that area, which is often the main hurdle people come up against in their bid to lose weight and get in shape. As an added bonus, you can try out your first session at Body Rock for free to see if it’s suited to you. Sarah McIntyre

Email info @brp.ie for more information. You can visit Body Rock’s Facebook page here.www.brp.ie