Reine de Glace

Anonymous asked: Can you explain how using laxatives helps losing weight?

Interesting question. This one I will answer because I think it’s necessary to understand just their role when people use them for weight loss purposes.

First you need to acknowledge just what they are: Laxatives (herbal or chemical based) are made solely to cause bowel movements - either by softening stool, bulking it up (dietary fiber), or inducing a diarrhea effect/stimulating peristalsis action (bowel muscle movements) and mucous production etc. Their location of activating is only the small and large intestine, or the colon (suppositories, enemas etc).

Essentially, laxatives are only dealing with the aftermath of digestion - calories are already processed in the body. They merely aide the removal of waste and water from the body.

So, the question really is: Do they actually help with losing weight?

Short term, yes; if you take enough you will probably drop some water weight and waste product weight, depending on how much of both you have. But you will also be risking throwing your body’s water content and electrolyte balance out of whack, your bowel losing its regularity and having to play Russian Roulette to the unpredictability of if you’re going to be constipated or with a serious case of diarrhea; and most importantly, the inevitable gain of that weight due to the water levels being replenished and more waste being produced.

Long term, no. The weight lost with the aide of laxatives is similar to the ‘empty calories’ notion: There’s no real value to what is lost, it’ll be gained back the moment levels go back to normal (as they should).

They won’t speed up digestion or metabolism, they’ll only help the lower part empty out. It’s a false sense of security brought on with the removal of water and waste that makes you believe you have lost weight, when the reality is you have only temporarily dropped levels in your body that’ll go back to normal, as if you did nothing at all. All you truly have the potential of getting with long term laxative use for weight loss is (to name a few): IBS, decreased bowel function and even renal failure in extreme cases. You just don’t screw around with the digestive system, because it’ll screw you far harder.

If you do have a sluggish digestive system, have problems which you believe are holding you back from losing weight, there are a range of herbal treatments which help the entire digestive system, and in the long run will be far more successful. Some herbal remedies to look out for are:

Senna (natural laxative that helps stimulate the peristalsis action), Liquorice (anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic, great for the stomach), Dill (helps with intestinal distress and bloating), Psyllium Husk (natural roughage to help bulk/soften stools and clean the intestinal tract), and Buckthorn Bark (anti-spasmodic and known to be calming to the gastrointestinal tract).

There are also many foods which have benefits to the digestive system and/or a laxative effect. Just take a look around and you’ll find plenty of info on both (and your body will thank you far more than if you just load it with OTC laxatives).

Hopefully this helps clear up the laxative use issue for more than one person.