A fasting day on vegetables is a great way to shift your weight in the right direction. Find out 4 good reasons to organize vegetable unloadings and 11 secrets of doing them, and also decide which vegetables are best to choose for this!
Author: Kristina Lobanovskaya, doctor, practicing nutritionist Article updated: 11/10/2020
Fasting days on vegetables are simple and easy, although not the closest path to slimness. This is a weekend for the body and its general cleaning. Vegetable unloading allows you to effectively and gently cleanse the intestines, give rest to the hard-working digestive system and at the same time shake up the body in the good sense of the word.
Who can I recommend fasting days on vegetables? With a competent approach and the absence of individual contraindications (we will dwell on them separately) for absolutely everyone. But there are situations where they are especially useful and desirable.
After the "belly festival"
Have you eaten too much? It's time to become a vegetarian for a day or two. However, no matter how much your conscience and heaviness in your stomach torment you, refrain from unloading immediately after a hearty feast. There is no need to put double stress on the body. The next day, return to your usual diet, and the next day, proceed to fasting.
During the plateau effect
Almost everyone who loses weight experiences the “plateau” effect. At first, the scales behave wonderfully, showing regular weight loss, and then suddenly they flatly refuse to give up their position. It seems that everything is being done correctly, but the device stubbornly shows the same weight. Most often, this means that the body has adapted to the nutritional system offered to it, has learned to spend calories wisely, and again needs a little shake-up. A fasting day will bring him out of the resting state, activate his metabolism and allow him to successfully continue his path to slimness.
As a general cleaning
Vegetables contain a large amount of coarse plant fiber, which works like a foam sponge. Swelling, it moves through the digestive tract, cleansing the intestinal walls and absorbing everything unnecessary and unhealthy, which is sometimes stored for years, like in any poorly cleaned apartment - in corners and closets. All these wastes, toxins, stagnant feces, fat drops, and other debris are eliminated without effort and stress in a simple and natural way. From the professional point of view of nutritionists, during such unloading, not only the intestines are cleansed, but also the lumens of blood vessels. Prevention of atherosclerosis is another advantage of vegetable days.
With stagnation of bile and insufficient water-salt metabolism
Many vegetables have diuretic and choleretic properties. If there is stagnation of fluid in the body, if the swelling is not caused by heart failure, a cucumber fasting day helps a lot. Pumpkin, carrots and tomatoes have also proven themselves excellent in this regard.
In one vegetable day you can lose up to 1.5-2 kg of weight. And yet you shouldn’t rely heavily on fasting days on vegetables for weight loss. This result is unlikely to be permanent, since the loss of body weight occurs mainly due to the loss of fluid and salts. And yet, if you arrange such days regularly, the weight will gradually but steadily decrease.
General recommendations and rules
- The optimal frequency of vegetable fasting is once a week. If you eat different vegetables, you can stretch the fasting for 2-3 days. It is better to limit the monovariant (eating only one type of vegetable) to one day.
- Meals should be frequent, with a break of no more than 2-3 hours.
- You need to drink at least two liters of clean water per day. It is better if a glass of water is not drunk in one gulp, but in small sips, like drinking moderately hot tea. Mineral water should be without gas.
- From liquids other than water, you can include unsweetened green tea, rosehip decoction or herbal infusions in your diet. But you should avoid starting your morning with green tea. It is better to take a teaspoon of flaxseed oil on an empty stomach.
- On such days, you should limit your salt intake as much as possible, or better yet, eliminate it altogether. If vegetables are difficult to cook without salt, you can sprinkle them with a few drops of lemon juice.
- Everything that can be eaten raw should be eaten raw. Boiling, stewing and baking are also allowed. However, the benefits of such food will be less. Frying is the most undesirable and even unacceptable way of heat treatment of foods for fasting days.
- Whether to stop at only one type of vegetable or to include different garden crops in the menu is something everyone chooses for themselves. But a single day is always more effective for losing weight. It’s even better if juices squeezed from them are added to the vegetables.
- High physical activity should be excluded, and it is better to choose weekends for vegetable nutrition, which are supposed to be spent in relative idleness and at home. You should not visit the gym or pool these days.
- The daily calorie content of vegetables should not exceed 1500 kcal.
- It has not been proven by science, but it has been confirmed experimentally: it is easier to endure such days during the waning phase of the moon. Against the backdrop of slow metabolic processes, the feeling of hunger is more easily tolerated.
- Do not start a fasting day if you are in a bad mood or have to force yourself. Your body does not need such feats, and it will resist. Soul and body - they must be together and at the same time! Only then will the result be exactly what we expect.
Advantages and disadvantages
Like any diet, fruit and vegetable fasting days have their advantages and disadvantages, but there are many more advantages from such nutrition:
- you don’t have to waste time cooking;
- this food option is very budget-friendly;
- The body is cleansed well and swelling subsides;
- the digestive system rests;
- the body stores vitamins and microelements.
Of course, this type of fasting day also has its disadvantages:
- attacks of weakness are possible due to a sudden change in diet;
- There may be a decrease in mood and performance due to feelings of hunger.
Important: In order for fasting days to be beneficial, it is better to carry them out at least once a week.
It is especially convenient to set aside a certain day of the week for these purposes - it will be easier for the body to adapt to such a regime.
Side effects and contraindications
Days in which you eat only vegetables, against a background of low calorie food, can cause a temporary deterioration in your overall mood and be accompanied by rapid fatigue. Dizziness and nausea may occur. Perhaps they can be corrected by changing some vegetables to others. If you experience any discomfort, it is better to postpone unloading until another time.
This detox method is contraindicated during pregnancy and breastfeeding, poor health, low blood pressure, and irritable bowel syndrome. Vegetable fasting is not compatible with problems of the gastrointestinal tract, which imply restrictions on the consumption of sour and rough foods. An exception during pregnancy may be situations when a woman gains weight too quickly, but only on the recommendation of a doctor and under his supervision.
Vegetables with a high protein content should not be consumed as a mono-diet for people with inflammatory diseases of the genitourinary system.
A little about the benefits
This vegetable salad is in great demand among the population for good reason. Experts have noted that the result of its use is not only an improvement in well-being, it has enormous benefits for the human body:
- The fresh ingredients included in the dish contain insoluble fiber, which reduces the need for frequent meals and maintains a normal level of physical condition;
- After non-digestible dietary fiber penetrates the gastrointestinal tract along with vegetables, the likelihood that diabetes will develop sharply decreases;
- Due to the presence of many necessary components in the products, the development of tumors of both malignant and benign types is prevented;
- Fruits and vegetables that are not subject to heat treatment have a stimulating effect on the functioning of the immune system;
- Long-term consumption of food normalizes metabolic processes in the intestines;
- Vitamins and minerals, found in large quantities in vegetables and fruits, have a positive effect on nails, elastic skin and hair;
- It also provides the body with a boost of energy, thereby eliminating the feeling of fatigue.
Everything you need to know before using
Regardless of the fact that this fasting food is very useful and has only positive results, its use is not allowed for everyone. Therefore, sometimes it is better to completely abandon this method of losing weight in order to avoid serious problems. It is necessary to take into account that it is completely prohibited to take such products for people suffering from:
- Impaired normal functioning of the kidneys (renal failure);
- Irritable bowel syndrome – IBS;
- Disorder of the process of processing and assimilation of food by the body;
- Stomach diseases - especially ulcers;
- Problems with the gallbladder or pancreas.
Attention!
It is necessary to take into account that if you neglect the listed contraindications of specialists, you may encounter serious problems. Remember – you can’t joke with your health!
Which vegetables to choose?
Vegetables, in principle, can be anything. And even those that are high in calories and rich in starch, with the right approach, can also be included in the fasting day menu. A favorite of any vegetable diets and fasting days are fresh cucumbers and zucchini. Numerous reviews of the results of unloading on cucumbers and zucchini show their high efficiency. Unloading on cabbage, tomatoes, beets, and carrots has good results.
A very desirable addition to vegetables is low-fat kefir. It goes especially harmoniously with cucumbers and potatoes.
And one more important point. Local seasonal vegetables are always preferable to imported counterparts. To ensure their safety during transportation, long-term storage and improve their presentation, chemicals are often used, which do not add any benefit to them. In addition, nutritionists claim that products grown in a person’s region of residence are the most adapted and beneficial for him.
Let's talk in more detail about the most common vegetables and one-day mono-diets.
Fasting day on cucumbers
Cucumbers have a low calorie content and a pronounced diuretic effect. In one day you need to try to “fit” at least a kilogram of them into yourself, or better yet one and a half, dividing this amount into 5-6 doses. You can include the same amount of low-fat kefir in the menu.
Salads made from chopped cucumbers, seasoned with 1/2-1 tsp, are well digestible and easy to eat. vegetable oil. It is better if it is taken from the list of healthy oils for weight loss. A large amount of various greens will harmoniously complement the dish and make it even more healthy and gastronomically complete. You can season the dish with kefir instead of butter. It will not be a crime if on this day you also allow yourself a small piece of boiled meat (but not pork) and one egg.
Reviews of those losing weight on cucumbers show that very often it is precisely such light fasting days that encourage those losing weight to switch to the popular cucumber mono-diet. You can “deflate” on cucumbers in one day very significantly due to large loss of fluid. Maybe not forever, but very useful.
Options for fasting days for weight loss
On the Internet you can see a lot of options for such “hunger strikes”. I’ll tell you straight away that you shouldn’t sit on the water. This type of unloading is achieved gradually with a completely healthy gastrointestinal tract. If you have an ulcer or gastritis, you can make the disease worse. And in general, this type of cleaning is very extreme. Now let's move on to proven options. So, the most effective fasting days for losing weight.
Tips from Elena Malysheva
Elena advises three very effective ways to cleanse your body. Each option is good in its own way. I would alternate them, however, if all three suit you. But let's talk about everything in order.
Cleansing and losing weight using chicken. The weight loss effect is achieved due to protein, which is very abundant in chicken. The body spends more calories on its absorption than it receives. This way you definitely won't go hungry.
