Weight is a complicated tool while measuring the overall health of a person.
For most people, an increase in weight leads to stress as this is generally considered to be the result of an unhealthy lifestyle.
But the truth is, even regular items that are considered healthy can be secretly causing you to add on those extra pounds.
Synthetic juices that claim to be packed with vital nutrients are one such example.
It may seem hard to believe, but the truth is, juicing may not be as healthy as you think it is.
In this article, we shall discuss how juices may be affecting your weight loss plans and whether they can have any harmful effects on your health.
Contents
How do humans gain weight naturally?
Weight gain or loss is a very simple phenomenon that has been complicated by the sheer number of factors that are able to influence it.
In simple terms, you gain weight if you consume more calories than you are able to use.
The extra calories are stored in your body as packets of fat that become noticeable over a short period of time.
Regardless of what you are eating, if it contributes to excess calories at the end of the day, you will gain weight.
Let us see how this can apply to juices.
But before that, we should first see how healthy synthetic juices are on their own.
Are Juices Healthy?
Synthetic juices do carry traces of the original fruit, and they do have some nutritional value packed into them.
But regardless, they are still not as healthy as they claim to be as they do not provide you with a lot of the useful things your body needs.
To start off with, synthetic juices contain significant amounts of added sugar, which give them a sweet taste.
These added sugars are a problem for you as they can contribute to an increase in your body mass!
Just for visualization, an 11.5-ounce bottle of Simply Orange’s pulp-free orange juice contains 33 grams of sugar.
That is the equivalent of what you will find in a whole doughnut!
These carbs contribute to inappropriate, uncontrolled weight gain, which in turn leads to hypertension, high blood pressure levels, and the most worrisome of all, diabetes.
Besides containing a lot of unhealthy sugars, juices prevent you from getting all the fiber that you can get from natural fruits.
Lack of fiber can lead to constipation and other digestive tract-related problems in the long run.
Can juicing really cause weight gain?
As highlighted above, Juices carry a lot of added sugars in them, which leads to unintended weight gain.
In most of these juices, the main sugar is fructose, which is very readily used up by the body and absorbed into the bloodstream.
Fructose is a natural sweetening sugar found in fruits.
It is easily digested by the body, and large amounts of it are mainly responsible for the increase in fat around your belly.
Just to be clear, fructose in fruits is not as concerning, mainly because fruits give you a lot of additional nutritional benefits.
With natural fruits, you get many advantageous micronutrients such as antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins which are absent in the synthetic juice boxes.
And it is not just the added sugars that cause weight gain.
The truth is that a large number of fruits are used up in the manufacture of a small amount of juice.
For example, 2-3 full oranges are used up to manufacture enough pulp for one bottle of orange juice.
So all the calories that are in the pulp of 3 whole oranges have been stored in a single bottle.
This makes the calories in the juice boxes much higher relative to what you would get from natural fruits.
Experts call these calories the ‘hidden calories, and it is also responsible for slowly building up those extra pounds on your body.
Another factor that contributes to an increase in your weight when you start juicing is the tendency of your body to hold on to the water in the juices.
The gain of water weight is a natural response of the body when huge amounts of fluids are consumed regularly.
This water weight can make you think that you have grown fat, but as your body adapts to regular juicing, the water weight slowly sheds away.
However, this process is slow, and the person remains bloated for a good period before the body starts to un-bloat itself.
Due to all these reasons and many more, yes, you can actually gain weight by excessive juicing instead of losing it!
Can you avoid getting fat while juicing?
If you are still following a juice-based diet, then it is still possible for you to lose weight packed on by all those sugars.
A dedicated workout routine needs to be made and followed religiously. You also need to keep regular checks on your biological body composition by following a balanced diet to see actual results.
This allows you to remain in a calorie deficit as your body burns away all the extra calories you keep gaining from your favorite beverages.
Even daily jogging or minimal exercise can be enough for you if your weight gain isn’t a much serious problem.
Are there alternatives to juices for weight loss?
There are a number of different juices that you can consume that carry a lot of benefits without making you put on more weight.
Fresh watermelon juice contains a lot of water and does not carry any side effects at all, like gaining weight.
It also allows you to keep hydrated and fresh during the summer season.
Apple juice, directly squeezed out of fresh apples, is another excellent alternative that fulfills not only your nutritional needs but also has a lot of fiber to offer.
The fiber in the Apple Juice strengthens the process of peristalsis (movement of food along the digestive tract) in your body and allows the healthy functioning of the digestive tract.
Final Words
In conclusion, the evidence clearly suggests that if the goal is weight loss, then synthetic juices are not what you should be consuming.
Instead, juices that are 100% natural fruit or made from vegetables are much more effective in helping you achieve your goals while offering the same refreshment that boxed juices offer.
