TBH, I thought the whole “cleanses are good for you” thing was over. ICYMI, though, it’s not. Case in point: You may have come across the Isagenix diet in Facebook ads or posts.
The diet—which includes cleanses, shakes, and supplements—focuses on “nutrition cleansing” and weight loss. They have a variety of cleanses and diet products that supposedly help you burn fat and naturally detox.
But before you stock up on shakes and supps galore, there’s more to know about this diet and its products than what Isagenix’s website suggests. Here’s a full rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly from my perspective as a dietitian.
Here’s how the Isagenix diet works.
Isagenix has a few different plan options, including for energy, performance, and healthy aging. But for weight loss, they have several different “Packs and Systems” that claim to be “conveniently packaged to help you take the guesswork out of achieving your best results.”
Take the Weight Loss Basic Pack (a 30-day Isagenix System), for instance (which costs $378.50 a month, BTW). Isagenix says this one’s “ideal for individuals who want to lose weight using a long-term, flexible program.”
Basically, you replace two meals a day with Isagenix shake meals (240 to 280 calories) and for the third meal, you eat something healthy between 400 and 600 calories. If you get hungry during the day, Isagenix also has small, 100- to 150-calorie snacks, which are more like a chewable vitamin tablet than a typical snack or protein bar you may be picturing.
After a few shake days, you’ll have a “cleanse day,” where you’ll be instructed to drink four small servings of a low-cal cleanse liquid and snack on Isagenix Snacks, and not consume any real food like fruits or vegetables.
You take supplements every day too: Ionix Supreme, which you can add to a drink for “clarity and focus,” a Natural Accelerator supplement to help “support a healthy metabolism,” and a pill called Isaflush at bedtime to “support a balanced digestive system.” It’s basically a dose of magnesium and other herbs, which can act like a laxative.
After the 30 days are over the program suggests either restarting or trying another plan.
Truthfully, the Isagenix diet might help you lose weight. Just not in what I’d consider a healthy way.
The system advertises that the cleansing helps you lose weight and that may happen (Isagenix product education manager Sarah Richter compares the program’s “cleanse days” to a form of intermittent fasting, which research indicates may be conducive to weight loss—if you can stick to the schedule.) But all of that weight will likely just be water mass or even muscle, which you definitely don’t want.
Also, your body doesn’t really need anything to help it “cleanse” or “detox”—it does that itself through sweating, peeing, and pooping. But the cleanse isn’t the only thing that I find potentially problematic about the Isagenix diet. Using a laxative regularly, even a natural one, isn’t good for your health long term.
Neither is eating the same thing—even if it does provide a wide range of nutrients—every single day. Repetitive, restrictive diets may lead to disordered eating habits for some people. I’m not saying Isagenix would definitely cause these negatives, but they are worth flagging in advance of trying a diet program such as this one.
There may also be some legitimate health concerns with the Isagenix product line.
There’s a lack of research on the herbs in these products, like aloe vera, licorice root, and peppermint. Just because they’re natural doesn’t mean they’re benign, and consumed in large amounts, they may not be safe.
FWIW, Isagenix says all of the ingredients used to make their products “are rigorously tested for quality, purity, and safety before they are used to make finished products.” But until more research is available on how the specific ingredients (and in what amounts) impact the human body, it’s hard to say exactly how your body would respond to supplements.
But still, there are other safe and proven ways to lose weight. Stick to a healthy mix of real foods to build life-long healthy eating habits and experience sustainable weight loss. Giving your body a variety of nutritious foods not only promotes overall health, but can also make you feel better.
What’s more, foods don’t work in isolation and cannot be duplicated through supplements. So eating a variety of foods—they work together to fuel your body properly and keep you healthy. And that sounds so much better than sipping on shakes each day—because let’s be realistic, no one can do that forever.
Ultimately, long-term, lasting weight loss isn’t something you can get from a a bottle, shake, or supplement. Instead, it boils down to sustainable lifestyle adjustments that work to complement each other—like increasing physical activity, managing stress, and eating a balanced diet that nourishes your body and doesn’t starve it.
The bottom line: I would suggest skipping the Isagenix diet. In my opinion, the cleanses, meal replacement shakes, and supplements aren’t worth it and likely won’t result in sustainable (read: healthy) weight loss.
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