Lemon Detox Diet Side Effects
Before you begin your lemon detox, it's important to be aware of the possible side effects you will experience as you progress through the diet. Some of the side effects may be pleasant, such as a feeling of clarity and lightness. These you will enjoy. But others will most assuredly be less pleasant. Here's what to do about them.
Common Lemon Detox Side Effects
How to Handle Lemon Detox Side Effects
TIP: Take Chlorella or Spirulina During Your Lemon Detox
More Tips for a Successful Lemon Detox
Supporting the Lemon Detox Diet
How to Go Off the Lemon Detox Diet
Lemon Detox Diet: Common Side Effects
The lemon detox diet is essentially a juice fast and a rapid detox method. Toxins will be moving through and out of your body throughtout the process. Side effects are to be expected while doing the lemon detox diet, especially during the first few days. You will most likely experience one or more of the following side effects as you undertake your lemon detox diet. This is normal. If these side effects are severe or do not abate after day 4 or 5 of your lemon detox diet, end your lemon detox program early. See How to End the Lemon Detox Diet.
- fatigue
- headache
- light-headedness or dizziness
- nausea
- vomiting
- food cravings
- muscle or joint pain
- low blood pressure
- constipation
- irritability
We recommend taking a probiotic during your lemon detox cleanse to support gastro-intestinal balance and to ward off excessive side effects.
Add Green Protein to Your Lemon Detox
The lack of protein in the lemon detox diet will cause your metabolism to slow (which impedes weight loss) and may create blood-sugar imbalances (which also inhibits weight loss, but more importantly, is very dangerous for diabetics). If you are diabetic, DO NOT undertake a lemon detox diet. Read more about who should not do a lemon detox diet.
Nutritional support can reduce lemon detox side effects and prevent health risks, so we strongly recommend you supplement with a superfood. Many unwanted side effects can be avoided by taking a plant-based, nutrient-dense protein, such as chlorella or spirulina, to provide you with nutritional support as you move through the detoxifying phases of your lemon detox diet. We recommend one of these:
How to Handle Lemon Detox Side Effects
IMPORTANT NOTE: If any unpleasant side effects become so uncomfortable during your lemon detox diet that you cannot perform basic daily activities, decrease your lemon water intake, increase your plain water intake, and bring your cleanse to an early and gentle close. If your side effects aren't debilitating, stay strong with your determination and finish the entire lemon detox diet. It will get easier as your progress through the regime. Even though these side effects may be intense, they are transitory.
Dizziness and a feeling of weakness. Can lemon water cause dizziness? Yes! These lemon detox side effects are due to the reduction in calorie intake and the fact that toxins are moving through your blood and organs. Although this is normal, it is important to take the normal precautions. Whenever you feel weak or dizzy, rest as much as your schedule allows and refrain from driving a car or doing any kind of task that might endanger you in your weakened condition. These symptoms should clear up quickly after finishing the fast. Unless you are seriously underweight when beginning the lemon detox, these types of side effects can be safely negotiated.
Helpful tips: Schedule your lemon detox diet when you can afford to reduce your daily activities and rest when you need to. Also, avoid detoxing when you're going through any type of heightened stress. A juice fast of lemon water can make you dizzy, so please be cautious.
The repeating urgency to relive the bowels many times per day. This is paradoxical when you consider that you are not taking in solid food. Why is there the urge to eliminate while you're on a lemon detox diet, and what are you eliminating? You are eliminating fecal matter that lines the interior of the large intestine and colon. A highly active colon may continue throughout the entire lemon detox fast. Do not be alarmed. Because you are drinking constantly, you will not dehydrate.
Helpful tip: Have a colonic before starting your lemon detox cleanse.
Nausea, headaches, irritability. Remember that detoxification is a process of purifying the body of poisons. The more poisons there are to detoxify, the more side effects you are likely to encounter during your lemon detox cleanse. You may experience nausea or arthritic-like pain. This is normal for deep body cleanse of this nature. So, too, are intervals of headaches, grumpiness, confusion, and/or irritability. These are typically stronger in the early days of the cleanse and gradually decline over time.
Helpful tips: Clean up your diet a week before your lemon detox cleanse. Drink water during your cleanse in addition to the gallon-per-day of lemon detox drink you will be consuming.
Food cravings. The most challenging side effect is not a side effect, but the fact that you are going days without taking in any solid food at all. The lemon detox cleanse may be fun for the first day, but by the second or third day, craving for real food will often set in. This is the time for you to be most steadfast. You are now deep into the cleanse where the maximum amount of healing and detoxification has begun.
Helpful tips: Do your lemon detox with a friend, and ideally, with a member of your household. Let those around you know that you're on a detox cleanse and not to tempt you with lunch invitations or surprise snacks. Gain the support of those you live with, and if you're the cook, do what you can to give the responsibility to someone else. Supplementing with an intestinal-balancing probiotic and a nutrient-dense superfood can stop cravings and supply your body with healing and restorative nutritional support.
Related Information:
How to Go Off the Lemon Detox Diet