Your pre-holiday detox could be doing you more harm than good

It’s that time of year again; the days we have to get ‘beach body’ ready (whatever that means, anyway) before our holidays are numbered.

So we do what we’ve always done; we go on a last-minute detox.

We hit the gym, downsize our portions and down litres of juice in the hope it’ll make us toned and slim in time for the beach.

However, not only could these detoxes be pointless but according to a nutritionist, they could also be harmful.

Kate Arnold told Cosmopolitan UK that among many weight-loss tactics, detoxes are “especially problematic”:

“They tend to involve eating less and drinking more liquids,” she explained.

“So although you may lose some weight initially, it’s not sustainable.”

Even if you don’t invest in a Nutribullet and drink copious amounts of juice, she said that cutting down on food alone will only result in you becoming so hungry you binge on unhealthy snacks.

“Then as soon as you resume your normal diet, any weight you might have lost will go straight back on,” she said.

Sound familiar, no?

And most importantly, she warned that extreme dieting like this can have a bad effect on our bodies:

“Our bodies like habit so sudden changes to what you’re eating play havoc with your digestion,” she said.

“And if you’re eating less you’re probably not getting enough fibre, which can leave you bunged up, and feeling sluggish and bloated,” she added.

Therefore perhaps you should put down that juice, and if you do want to lose weight, introduce “small, simple changes you can maintain over a long period” as Arnold recommends:

“You’ll still see a difference quickly, but this way you’ll make sure you’re feeling good all holiday long.”

So if you have just a week until you jet off to Bali, maybe it’s best to look forward to the holiday instead of restricting yourself.

And remember – there’s only one way to get yourself a bikini body, and that’s to put a bikini on.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.

Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

‘Hip dips’ are the latest Instagram body trend

Photos of couple married for 70 years will restore your faith in love

This beautiful image of a bride breastfeeding her baby is taking the Internet by storm