Lose weight by drinking maple syrup? Well, if it worked for Beyonce, I'll give it a try. Let's get one thing straight: I don't like crash diets. I write about health and fitness for a living, and I know that in the long term they don't work. I know that the only way to look good is to eat well and exercise all year round. But my principles are challenged when I try on my bikini in preparation for my upcoming holiday. ![]() My stomach looks bloated and I want to feel fabulous, not fat, on the beach. But I have only one week before I fly. So I need a high- speed weight- loss programme. ![]() Since the diet is designed to. Bride went to dangerously extreme measures to fit. Then she slammed the cup down on the side and. She was following the gruelling Maple Syrup Diet to. The Maple Syrup Diet is also. There are many reported negative side effects from the Maple Syrup Diet. And that's why I am trying the Maple Syrup diet - the near- starvation regime that helped pop star Beyonce lose a stone in just two weeks for her movie, Dreamgirls. Beyonce's diet apparently consisted of eating nothing for a fortnight, surviving instead on detox drinks consisting of a syrup mixed with lemon juice, water and cayenne pepper. You consume about 6. I like the idea of a diet Beyonce; can stick to: like me, she's a naturally curvy girl who likes her food. OK, so she has a little more at stake than me: millions of people see her cavort in tiny clothes, whereas I work from home in my pyjamas. But if she can stick to this diet, then so can I. The syrup - Madal Bal Natural Tree Syrup - is made from the sap of maple and palm trees. Also known as The Lemon Detox, the diet was introduced more than 3. Stanley Burroughs. Devotees say that as well as losing weight, you feel brighter, more alert and have clearer skin and eyes. You can do all sorts of different versions, from the extreme one - two weeks with no solid food and just the drink - to a soft one, with only one meal a day replaced by the drink. I decide to challenge myself to do five days on the juice. That should be enough time to see results and immerse myself in the experience. Day 1: The detox drink itself is made by mixing two tablespoons of the Natural Tree Syrup (which they say is 2. It's recommended you drink as much as you like, but ideally six to nine glasses daily. I quite like the ritual of making it, squeezing the lemons and grating the ginger. In goes the syrup and the cayenne pepper. I leave slices of lemons floating about, hoping that I can fool myself that this makes it a cocktail. ![]() And then I take the first sip of the nectar that will be my sole sustenance for the next five days. It is literally eyewatering. Usually when I drink something that makes me gasp and splutter like this, I at least have the consolation of knowing I'll be a bit drunk at the end of it. I try skimming the inch- thick layer of Cayenne pepper off the top of the brew and then take another sip. By the end of the day, I've developed quite a taste for my new detox drink, but I'm in a foul mood. When my husband tucks into a plate of pasta with pesto - my favourite comfort dinner - I sulk upstairs because I can't bear to watch him. Day 2: I wake up hungry, and with a pounding headachebut already feel a certain jutting of hipbones that I'm sure wasn't there yesterday. The ritual of brewing my morning coffee is replaced by the ritual of making my juice. The novelty has worn off already, and it now seems laborious. I put away two litres before lunchtime, hoping that the faster the toxins flush out, the quicker my headache will go away. This has a side- effect that is hard to describe in elegant language, but let's just say that I daren't stray more than 5. By the evening, the hunger is so ever- present that I cannot remember or imagine what it is like to feel satisfied. It's astonishing to think that I never feel genuine hunger. ![]() ![]() Lose over a stone in just a fortnight! That’s the promise of the Maple Syrup Diet followed by pop star Beyonce. The side effects from. ![]() It makes me think about all the starving people all over the globe. Then I think about what a gross insult to genuine famine a crank diet like this is. Such is my hunger that I start thinking about a rare steak, dripping with blood and smothered with peppercorn sauce. This is odd, because I'm a hardcore vegetarian. I go to bed - oh, how did you guess? Day 3: I wake up at 7am feeling surprisingly good. My face looks leaner, and although my limbs are no more defined, my stomach is noticeably flatter now. On close inspection, however, I note with dismay that my breasts seem to have deflated somewhat. By noon, I have had one large jug of juice and eating seems like a weird concept. Floaty, vague moods alternate with and bursts of manic energy. During one of these high mood swings, I decide to pile my car up with some long- overdue recycling and drive a couple of miles to the local tip. ![]() ![]() On the way back, I realise that this was a big mistake. I'm swerving around, failing to see kids darting in and out of parked cars. Twice I nearly crash into the vehicle in front of me because I don't notice the brake lights, even though I'm concentrating so hard I have barely blinked for the past few minutes. By the time I get back home, I'm light- headed and shaking. We know about drunk- driving, and driving while tired, but I wonder whether it's illegal to drive when you're so hungry you can barely function? By the evening I think I've got halitosis - there's a weird, stale taste in my mouth that no amount of toothbrushing or tongue brushing or mouthwashing seems to shift. I go to bed at 9pm to avoid seeing my husband eat dinner. Day 4: I wake up at 4. I pull a vegetarian sausage from the fridge and eat it without cooking it. Perhaps it's because it's raw, or perhaps because my stomach has shrunk to the size of a walnut, but the minute I've swallowed it, I'm racked with the most agonising cramps that make me double up. Even more disturbing than the physical discomfort is the fact that I feel guilty for eating a single sausage, calorific value about 1. I glance down at my new flat stomach, convinced that I can see a sausage- shaped lump, bloating and distorting my new slimline figure. I go back to bed but don't sleep too well. Throughout the day, my IQ seems to have plummeted along with my weight. I misplace my glasses about seven times in one hour, and work is impossible: I have the concentration span of about six seconds and end up staring vaguely at the computer screen, wondering what I do for a living and what my name is. I still drink my syrup juice, but I also eat a bowl of porridge and a houmous sandwich. The zerosolids approach has got to stop before I go mad. Day 5: The last day of my fast and it's time to measure and weigh myself. The scales tell me I've lost three pounds, and I assume that most of that was brain cells. There has been a marked difference in my stomach I've lost three inches from my waist - but overall, I think my body looks worse, not better. I've lost an inch from my bust, which I'm not overjoyed about. And because I've been too weak to do anything but laze around for the past few days, my daily walk or gym session hasn't been an option, and my arms, legs and especially my bottom look flabby. My eyes have huge, dark circles under them. When I think of the past few days - the lost work, the near- death experiences behind the wheel, the boredom and deprivation - I wonder what the point of it was. If I were Beyonce, and someone was paying me millions of pounds to be in a movie, maybe I'd have been more motivated. But just to look marginally thinner in a bikini? THE FINAL VERDICTBEFORE Weight: 9st 3lb Dress size: 1. Bust: 3. 7in Waist: 2. Hips: 3. 7in AFTER Weight: 9st Dress size: 1. Bust: 3. 6in Waist: 2.
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