You're toying with the idea of doing a juice cleanse, but you're not sure whether it should last 3 days, longer or shorter, and which package suits you? Whether your juice cleanse should run for 3 days, 5 days, 7 days or just one day depends on a few different factors.
But first, we'll take you on a little journey through fasting: Where does it come from and why should you do it regularly? What other kinds of fasting are there besides a juice cleanse? This background knowledge helps you choose the best cleanse for you.
What is a juice cleanse?
A juice cleanse is a cleanse where, for a set period of time, you only drink freshly pressed juices and avoid solid food. What matters is that the juices are made from a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices, and contain no added sugar or preservatives. The juices should also not be heated, so that all the nutrients from the raw ingredients are preserved. Every juice should give you a variety of nutrients, and of course they should taste good too. Curious about our juices? Here you'll find all our different flavours.
Back to the juice cleanse: A typical juice cleanse lasts anywhere from one to several days, and some people even live on juice alone for a week or longer.
The most common reasons our customers give are these: detoxing the body while giving it plenty of nutrients, easing the load on digestion, losing a few annoying kilos and treating themselves to a mental break. While several of these points haven't been scientifically proven yet, our customers value the experience on their own bodies. Besides giving up your usual food, you can also give up stimulants like coffee. You can read more about that in the article: “Coffee, nicotine and alcohol: taboos during a juice cleanse”.
Interested in the right way to go about a juice cleanse? Then we recommend the article “Juice cleanse guide: how do I fast properly?”.
The origin of the juice cleanse
For us, fasting isn't a trend, it's part of our philosophy of life. We fast regularly to give our body and mind a break. How did the practice come about, and what are the differences? You're about to find out.
How the juice cleanse came to be: since when have people fasted?
The roots of our juice cleanse can be found in different cultures and religions. For hundreds of years, individuals and groups have practised going without solid food, in part or entirely, or without indulgences such as alcohol, sweets, meat and even sex, for set periods of time. Historically, fasting has a religious and a medical background.
In antiquity and the Middle Ages, people distinguished between three levels:
- Full fasting - complete abstinence from food and drink
- Half fasting - one meal and fluids are allowed
- Abstinence fasting - giving up individual foods and drinks (e.g. alcohol)
Out of this tradition, a whole range of new forms (such as our juice cleanse) has developed, picking up the basic ideas of old medical and religious traditions. The most popular methods today include intermittent fasting, juice fasting, soup fasting and mimicking fasting with meals like in our food cleanse.
The benefits of a juice cleanse: why do people fast?
The benefits of a juice cleanse are both mental and physical! They can vary depending on the length and intensity of the juice cleanse you choose, as well as each person's starting point.
We recommend writing down the most important benefits for you, so you have them right in front of your eyes in weak moments during the cleanse. That can help you see it through.
Want to feel good in your body and lose a little weight? You can read how a juice cleanse can help you lose weight here: “Can I lose weight with a juice cleanse?”.
Others hope a juice cleanse will give them clearer skin. Fasting may lower your inflammation markers, so your skin can look more even and finer. That's also because during the juice cleanse you skip foods that can worsen your complexion, especially dairy products from cow's milk and sugary sweets. You can read more about it in the article: “Finally getting clear skin - what a juice cleanse does”.
If you're especially interested in the benefits of your juice cleanse, we recommend our article: “What does a juice cleanse do for me?”.
The different types of fasting besides the juice cleanse
As mentioned, fasting is personal. What matters is that you find the best type and length of fasting for you. If you're eyeing a juice cleanse, for example, there are plenty of options at frank. too, such as the intensity. With our Mix & Match function you can also put together your own juice cleanse.
The multi-day juice cleanse vs. intermittent fasting
Probably the best-known form of fasting besides fasting with a juice cleanse is intermittent fasting. We'll tell you why intermittent fasting is particularly good for beginners and fits perfectly into almost any daily routine.
With intermittent fasting, also called alternate fasting, you go without food either for whole days (5:2) or for hours at a time (10:14, 16:8, 20:4). “5:2” means you fast on 2 days and eat and drink as usual for the rest of the week. With the hourly fasting forms “10:14”, “16:8” and “20:4”, the first number stands for the hours you fast and the second for the window in which you may eat. With the popular “16:8” variant, you fast for 16 hours a day and eat within the remaining 8. If you want to learn more about intermittent fasting, we recommend the article “Intermittent fasting rules”.
The upside of intermittent fasting is that you can set your fasting and eating windows however you like, and eat as usual during your non-fasting time. During the fasting period, so on the two fasting days with 5:2 or during the 16 hours a day with 16:8, what you consume with the traditional fasting forms is only water and unsweetened teas. Interested in the benefits of intermittent fasting? Then the article “What does intermittent fasting do?” is perfect for you.
But you can also shape your fasting days differently! Do you know our 5:2 intermittent fasting programme? With it, you get three dried meals a day from us, which you simply prepare with boiling water. This form is easy on beginners in particular and helps you reach your fasting goal. Intermittent fasting is ideal for comfortable weight management! That applies to anyone who wants to reach their dream weight and keep it long term. Want to learn more about intermittent fasting? Our 5:2 intermittent fasting guide prepares you perfectly for your fasting cleanse! Not sure yet whether a juice cleanse or intermittent fasting is the right cleanse for you? Then read this article: “Juice cleanse vs. 5:2 intermittent fasting: which suits me better?”
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Buchinger therapeutic fasting
The method of therapeutic fasting goes back to the physician Otto Buchinger (1878 - 1966). In the early 20th century, after a longer period of fasting, Buchinger noticed that abstaining seemed to have a positive effect on his rheumatic condition and appeared to ease his symptoms.
Research suggests that therapeutic fasting may have positive effects on a medical, psychosocial and spiritual level. To judge how well fasting is working, fasters should seek medical supervision. In general, it makes sense to discuss especially radical forms of fasting with your doctor and check whether the method is suitable for your own health.
You start a therapeutic fasting cleanse on the first day by cutting your energy intake to around 1000 kcal a day, to slowly get your body used to the calorie deficit, along with a bowel cleanse using Glauber's salt.
While fasting, maximum energy intake should be around 250 - 500 kcal a day. Vegetable broth, fruit and vegetable juices and 30 g of honey are allowed. You should also drink at least 2.5 litres of water or unsweetened tea every day. The fast traditionally ends with breaking the fast, eating a raw or cooked apple. In the time after fasting, the aim is to slowly get your body used to a higher energy intake again.
Exercise also plays an important role in therapeutic fasting. Yoga and walks help get your metabolism going and avoid muscle loss. Daily movement also gets your circulation moving.
The perfect juice cleanse length: how long should you do a juice cleanse?
A good question, and one you can easily answer yourself. Whether your 3 day juice cleanse, 5 day or 7 day should go depends on your experience. If you've already completed a juice cleanse successfully, we say it loud and clear: go for gold!
Our frank. 5 day juice cleanse or 7 day can be your next challenge, and you'll definitely nail it.
By the way, 5 to 7 days is ideal for advanced fasters, because your body needs around 3 days to get used to the fasting metabolism.
If you're a newcomer, though, we recommend starting small. Ease yourself in and start with a 3 day juice cleanse. There will be ups and downs over the three days. Above all, though, you get the chance to enjoy all the positive effects of juice fasting and to come out of your juice cleanse as the winner of your personal challenge.
If this challenge still seems too big, that's no problem at all. Then maybe the 3 day juice cleanse is the right one for you. If you notice along the way that fasting isn't for you, just enjoy the remaining juices in your everyday life. By the way, you can also notice positive effects with short-term fasting and kick-start your natural cell recycling system, also called autophagy. If you'd like to know more about how to stimulate your autophagy in particular with intermittent fasting, you can keep reading here.
Once you've picked the right juice cleanse in the best length for you, you can plan your preparation. There's more on that in the article: “Juice cleanse preparation: how to make your juice cleanse a success!”.
Founder Korbi tells you in the video what you need to know about your next juice cleanse!
Which juice cleanse suits you?
Just as individual as the length of your juice cleanse should be the selection of juices. That's why we offer the intensity levels Starter, Medium and Pro. The rule here: the higher the vegetable content of the juices, the less energy your body has available during the cleanse and the more intense your fasting experience. Do you know our juice cleanse test, where we compare all frank. juice cleanses? You can find that article here.
But careful: did you know there are situations in life where we don't recommend a juice cleanse at all? You can read more about that in the article: “When a juice cleanse doesn't make sense”.
That's why we recommend Medium and Pro, as long as you like juices with a higher vegetable content and have already tried juices from us. These two cleanses include, for example, our juices Marvellous Greens, The Crocodile and The Purist. You can read more about which juices are best for your juice cleanse in the article: “Juice fasting: which juices?” or “The different juices in a juice cleanse”.
If your diet before your juice cleanse leaned sweet and cold-pressed vegetable juices are new territory for you, we recommend starting with our Starter cleanse. The juice cleanse with a balanced ratio of fruit and vegetables brings maximum variety to your fasting days and makes the switch easier.
By the way, in theory you could also make your own juice cleanse. Whether that makes sense depends on several factors, which we explain in this article: “Making your own juice cleanse”.
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Extras that make your juice cleanse nicer
While the cool juices of your juice cleanse feel like a pleasant refreshment in summer, in the colder months it can become a challenge to drink only cold drinks. That's why we love to complement our juice cleanse with a tasty broth and lots of tea. Do you know our different teas? They're super tasty, perfect for fasting and put together from a varied mix of herbs, spices and berries.
A warming alternative to the juice cleanse could be our soup cleanse or our food cleanse! While our soup cleanse includes a tasty organic soup of your choice instead of a juice, with our food cleanse you eat only meals that you simply and conveniently pour boiling water over and enjoy after a few minutes.
Discover our food cleanse now!
The soups in a jar are perfect for fitting the juice cleanse into your everyday life. Pack them for your day at the office or at uni. In just two minutes, your lunch is ready in the microwave. That way you don't have to miss out on anything at lunch with your colleagues or fellow students!
Besides the length of your juice cleanse, frequency counts too
Many customers use the time after indulgent holidays for a soothing break with one of our cleanses. After Christmas and New Year's Eve, after Easter, after a birthday are therefore typical occasions. Many people also fast before holidays, events and weddings, to get in the right frame of mind and feel good and light in their bodies. But how often should you do a cleanse, and is there such a thing as “too much”?
How often a juice cleanse is right for you depends on the length of your cleanse. We recommend a three day juice cleanse only once a month. If you take the time for proper preparation and follow-up, you'll be busy with your juice cleanse for up to a week every month.
The longer your fasting period, the less often a year you should fast. For example, we recommend the five day juice cleanse every three months, and you should only do the seven day juice cleanse every six months.
Planning to fast more often? Then take a look at our 5:2 fasting programme! While you eat and drink normally on five days a week, on the two fasting days you pause your consumption and, besides water and unsweetened teas, take only shots, juices and soups.
Our conclusion on the length of your juice cleanse
As you can see, the length of your juice cleanse is a personal decision that only you can make! Several things play a role here, including personal preferences, occasion and fasting experience. Try things out and find the way that suits you and your everyday life best!
Remember: everyone starts small at some point, and all that matters is how you feel and what does you good.
Discover our juice cleanse now!
