How to Detox for Weight Loss: 3 Steps

Yes, you can lose weight. And you don’t need fad diets to do it.

Your diet and lifestyle are tightly, closely linked to your health. More so than most of us realize.

3 Steps to Detoxing for Weight Loss

Step 1: Diet

When I first assess a new patient, a diet history is part of the assessment. I see daily proof of the old adage “You are what you eat”. I ask people if they eat vegetables and fruit. Almost everyone says yes. Then comes what for many is the harder question: “How many servings of fruits and vegetables did you have yesterday?” Far too often, the question is followed by silence. Then comes the truth: “Well, I had an apple on Tuesday.”

The first part of detox for weight loss is changing your diet. What does detox mean? Well, we all know we have to clean out the filter for our furnace, the oil in the car and the water purifier, right? We we have some pretty sophisticated filters in our body- the main ones are the kidneys and liver. Cleaning them out is what a good detox does. It is done by eating the right things, reducing the chemicals that pollute our environment and get into our bodies, and generally looking after our health. We have better energy too, as a result because the same things that help us detox also help our cells make energy.

For too long now we’ve been conditioned to look for a quick fix when something is going wrong with our health. If we’re in pain, we look for a painkiller. When we’re having difficulty sleeping, we look for sleeping pills. For weight loss, we look for quick weight-loss plans, pills or cleanses.

The much more effective, and long lasting, solution is to look for solutions that return us to health instead of covering up the symptoms of ill health with pill, potions and powders. Being healthy is a lifelong routine. Check out this guide to clean foods. Eating well is the best advice any doctor can give.

Step 2: Exercise

Our muscles were designed for movement.

I recommend thirty to forty-five minutes of aerobic exercise four to five times a week. Walk, run, swim, play tennis, dance, or whatever makes you feel best. The type of activity is not as important as just being active.

Look for activity that you genuinely enjoy doing: do it with a friend or join a group activity. Start with the level you are at in terms of the level of challenge. Then over time your activities can become more intense. You can go for a walk, bike ride, or use the jump rope for an hour each day, or to do a hundred push-ups, go to a yoga class, take up rock climbing or go to dance classes. If you enjoy the activity you are more likely to stick with it. If you do it with a friend, you will motivate each other when there are down days. Your body already has ways it detoxes itself. Exercise speeds up the process.

Step 3: Sleep

Everyone needs it.

During sleep your body gets rids of toxins. It rebuilds stores of molecules by repairing or replacing molecules damaged during your hours of wakefulness. If you sleep well, your body enjoys an overnight tune-up. If you don’t sleep well, your body experiences cellular stress. Research shows that people who don’t sleep well develop problems at a higher rate than those who do and have a harder time losing weight.

We have a culture now of not sleeping enough¹. We take pride in being busy and sleeping less. Our bodies are paying the price.

My advice is to go to bed early. You should wake up feeling refreshed and have no daytime drowsiness. Enjoy it. A good night’s sleep is not a luxury but a necessity.