Best 3 Day Cleanse: Comparing the top detox cleanses

If you’re thinking about reaching for a 3-day cleanse, chances are you don’t feel terrific. You also might be eyeing a diet program you want to start, and you want to get a jump start on weight loss or an increased sense of wellness. The average 3-day cleanse markets itself as offering all this and more. But among those promises — weight loss, increased energy and alertness, boosted immunity, and so on — are any of them actually possible?

We’ve dug deep into the research behind various approaches to the 3-day cleanse and come up with a thorough but concise explanation of what you can expect, along with recommendations for the best products available.

Here’s a quick summary of our top 3-day cleanse recommendations if you're in a hurry.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles. That includes those looking into 3-day cleanses. It’s a topic with a few potential dangers for consumers, so we took our time, pored over the research, and ultimately tried the products we selected for ourselves.

Collectively, our testing team has spent more than 120 hours researching cleanses, detoxification methods, and various aspects of nutrition associated with these products. We also consumed juice cleanses ourselves, including the products that rose to the top of the pack and are included in our guide, so we can give you a first-hand account of what to expect.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

To determine our top picks, we looked at five evaluation criteria: effectiveness, taste, cost, safety, and convenience. We used these criteria to classify the top 3-day cleanses and give you further insight into each product.

Effectiveness

Winner: Raw Generation

In terms of the potential efficacy any 3-day cleanse can offer, we need to be clear: No collection of pills, juices, colonics, or magnetic jewelry can detox your body. Your body detoxes itself, and if you were in a situation where your body wasn’t able to detox itself properly, you’d be hospitalized.1

So, what can we reasonably expect any 3-day cleanse to do? Well, according to the research, not too much. As we said, detoxification is off the table. You also can’t expect a cleanse to reset any part of your metabolism or cause you to burn a significant amount of fat.2 But if you’re looking for a way to jumpstart a healthier lifestyle, see early results in a diet plan, or curb sugar cravings, a cleanse might be a powerful tool.3 Specifically, a juice cleanse.

To that end, the cleanse in question needs to provide a restricted amount of calories without so few calories that you might come out of it ravenous for carbs and fats. It also needs to have a relatively limited amount of natural or added sugars.

Each of the three companies highlighted in our guide offers numerous juice cleanses, but only Raw Generation provides a significant amount of protein along with an option specifically designed to do so with a limited amount of sugar. From a pure health perspective, this is the best approach you can hope for from a juice cleanse.

Taste

Winner: Raw Juicery

By actually trying these juice cleanses ourselves, our team was able to discuss various elements of taste so that we could relay that critical information to you. Granted, taste is somewhat subjective, but our testers agreed on which companies got which juices right and which needed work.

What Raw Juicery gets better than most in almost every flavor is balance. Too often, an unpleasant element of another brand’s juice was too strong, or an aspect billed as a cornerstone for a given juice fell flat. Raw Juicery also has an excellent variety of options, and the company’s custom box-building interface is excellent, allowing you to design your own cleanse around your favorite flavors. Other companies have somewhat similar features, but Raw Juicery’s was the easiest to use.

Raw Generation was a relatively close runner-up here, as its juices represented a traditional approach with tried-and-true flavors delivered faithfully, even if they weren’t terribly exciting. And while the company’s low-sugar protein smoothies received mixed reviews, the versions sweetened with dates were enjoyable.

Cost

Winner: Juice from the Raw

The major downside to Raw Juicery’s product is cost. To be fair, there are aspects of its product for which some people would be willing to pay extra. But Juice from the Raw offers the most affordable 3-day cleanse that doesn’t sacrifice too much on quality.

Take a look at how the cleanses from our top recommendations compare:

As you can see, Juice from the Raw has the lowest costs across the board for our recommended cleanse. The 20% subscription discount you can get from Raw Generation actually gives it the edge in cost, but the likelihood of a customer subscribing to a cleanse is too low to consider that a dealmaker.

Safety

Winner: Raw Generation

One of the greatest dangers a juice cleanse poses comes from extreme caloric restriction. The National Institutes of Health recommends that adults consume about 2,000 calories daily, but some juice cleanses only provide you with a few hundred daily calories.4 While this is sustainable for a few days from a strictly survivalist perspective, it’s not a great idea.

Severe caloric restriction can result in the short term is likely to result in symptoms similar to those of low blood sugar, including:5

• Hunger
• Dizziness
• Anxiety
• Sweating
• Heart palpitations
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Confusion or brain fog
• Blurred vision

Juice cleanses also typically only offer a limited amount of protein over their courses — a vital macronutrient.6 Raw Generation is a rare exception here, as two of its three cleanses offer more than 4x the amount of daily protein you’ll see elsewhere.

If you could get many of the potential benefits of a juice cleanse without as much caloric restriction, that would be a good thing. Here’s a quick nutrition comparison:

Convenience

Winner: Raw Juicery

Juice cleanses typically ship frozen. They arrive at your door in large boxes loaded with frozen gel packs to keep the contents cold. You have to store them in the freezer, then thaw them and consume them within 24 hours of thawing. In our testing, Juice from the Raw arrived more thoroughly frozen than Raw Generation, the latter of which had just a little bit of liquified juice at the top.

But Raw Juicery is one of the few juice makers that doesn’t need to ship its juices frozen. That’s because it employs a high-pressure processing method as opposed to blade-based juicing or pasteurization.7 That results in a juice with a stable fridge-temperature shelf life of 30-60 days.

That extended shelf life also makes this the easiest juice cleanse to manage. In testing, juices from companies that ship frozen take a while to thaw. And exactly when that 24-hour clock starts ticking is unclear. If a juice is mostly thawed, but there’s a medium-sized piece of frozen juice still in the middle of the bottle, can you drink it 30 hours later? It’s hard to say.

Our testers ended up consuming some juices that were partially frozen, which should be identical from a nutritional standpoint, but it can affect the taste. When water from within a juice remains frozen, it allows some of the juices' other flavors, a few of which aren’t always pleasant, to be more concentrated.

The reps from the companies we spoke to generally said the same thing, which was that we could start counting from the moment the juice completely thawed. But what if that happens overnight? Our testers can put cameras in their refrigerators, but not everyone can.

Ultimately, that convenience factor made Raw Juicery much more recommendable than its competitors for ease of use.

Generally speaking, a 3-day cleanse is any 72-hour regimen that alters your diet in a way designed to promote greater wellness. Some cleanses are as simple as increasing your water intake, while others go as far as a deep fast, consuming little more than water and lemon juice for the entire period.

The potential efficacy and safety of a cleanse is as variegated as the approaches available to you, but our careful review of the credible scientific evidence currently published indicates that no cleanse seems to do what many claim they can do: detoxify the body.8

Because of this, we’ve decided to keep our focus on 3-day juice cleanses, which have some scientific evidence for a certain kind of efficacy, namely the reduction of body mass and a positive alteration of the gut microbiota.9 This data is still based on a small number of studies that had too few participants to be considered definitive, but it’s more than other cleanses can boast.

So, if you want to take a break from an unhealthy lifestyle or jump-start a new diet program with an initially impressive bit of weight loss, a 3-day juice cleanse may be able to help.

The results you see from completing a 3-day cleanse are based on your own experience, as many such diets are not scientifically proven to detoxify anything.8 Your liver and kidneys do the bulk of detoxifying in your body, and while you can eat certain foods that may be good for those organs, there’s nothing you can consume that can outcompete their detox efforts.10

This doesn’t necessarily mean that completing a cleanse is harmful or a bad idea. In fact, many people who use cleansing and detox products talk about the immediate benefits they experience, including weight loss, renewed energy, and better digestion. But what's actually happening to cause this?

There are several potential reasons why people who do 3-day cleanses feel better during and after the cleanse:

In testing, our team universally experienced some benefits over the course of their cleanses. The most commonly reported effects were increased focus and energy. Our testers also saw a reduction in body weight, but that was only maintained by the testers who moved on from their cleanses to another diet program. Testers who returned to normal eating gained back that water weight.

Since many cleanses involve some level of calorie restriction — whether this is through fasting or restricting the food you eat — you may experience lightheadedness, irritability, or fatigue. Restricting calorie intake long-term can cause malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, and other complications that can severely impact your health. This is one reason why our top recommendation is also, in our estimation, your safest choice (Raw Generation).

Also, keep in mind that the FDA does not regulate cleanses and detox products, so you can’t ever be 100% sure about the safety of ingredients or doses.21 It’s important to notice how your body responds to the products and discontinue use if you experience any adverse side effects.

As always, consult your doctor before beginning a 3-day cleanse or any other detox diet.

After testing the top three juice cleanses on the market and several others, our testing team unanimously found that Raw Juicery’s Signature cleanse offered the tastiest juices. The comparison points weren’t often direct; each company has some of its own signature blends. Not only were the signature blends from Raw Juicery better-tasting, but the juices we could compare head-to-head often won out, as well.

However, some of Raw Juicery’s signature blends might contain an ingredient or two that could put you off. For a more straightforward approach with flavors you might recognize if you’ve enjoyed juices in the past (or made them at home), Raw Generation would be the safer bet. It’s also much more affordable.

Here’s a quick look at how head-to-head comparisons ranked across the three companies in our guide on a 1-10 rating scale. We’ve also included a head-to-head ranking of the preferred signature juices each company offers:

Among the green juices, little aspects of flavor balance consistently put Raw Juicery over the top. But Raw Juicery has both more signature juices in its catalog and superior signature blends executed at a high level. The best of these signature blends in our testing team’s opinion is the Yuzu Mate, a blend of Yerba Mate tea with coconut nectar, ginger, and yuzu lime juice. It was well-rounded, energizing, and complex.

Many people who complete a 3-day cleanse report feeling better physically and mentally. Some show quick weight loss results and report less brain fog and better moods, digestion, and energy levels. So, if you’re someone who’s had a long relationship with unhealthy foods, a cleanse could be an important physical and psychological step toward improving your diet.

When it comes to weight loss, those who cleanse sometimes see quick results, even losing multiple pounds over a short period. This is mostly water weight, but some of that water weight will stay off if you come off your cleanse into a healthier overall regimen than where you were before you started. But many people report putting weight back on once the cleanse ends.18

Some clinical trials have shown the potential benefits of cleanses. This cleanse trial showed improvement in patients’ cravings, sleep quality, and energy levels.19 And another bit of research showed improvements in participants’ gut microbiota, which, if sustained, could lead to better health outcomes.9

Who might want to avoid a 3 day cleanse?

Given the relatively unproven and short-term limitations of any 3-day cleanse, there are certainly plenty of people for whom they aren’t worth the cost, and some for whom they may be dangerous. If you already eat a well-balanced diet, you may not notice very many benefits from cleansing.

If you’re thinking about cleansing to burn fat or “flush out toxins,” you should know that three days worth of juice consumption will do neither of those things.

In general, cleanses are intended for adults, so consult with a pediatrician if you want to use a cleanse on a child under 18. If you are diabetic, malnourished, or have a history of eating disorders, a 3-day cleanse is very likely not the best option.20

Before starting any cleanse, it’s a good idea to speak with your doctor, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Best for most people, best nutrient balance, and best high-protein cleanse

Raw Generation is the most recommendable pick for anyone concerned that typical juice cleanses don’t provide enough calories, which many don’t. If you want to increase your intake of healthy foods for a few days without severe caloric restriction, you’ll appreciate that the least amount of calories in any Raw Generation cleanse is 850. In the Low Sugar Detox cleanse, you’ll get 1,030 calories per day.

In addition to these extra calories, Raw Generation also provides you with more protein than its competitors. While Raw Juicery and Juice from the Raw might get you around a dozen grams of protein per day, Raw Generation has a specific Protein Cleanse that offers 42 daily grams of protein.

Strangely, we found that the Low Sugar Detox actually provides more protein than the Protein Cleanse does, offering 47g to that cleanse’s 42g and doing so with nearly half as much sugar. There is a flavor trade-off when you choose the Low Sugar Detox over the Protein Cleanse, however.

There are three cleanses in Raw Generation’s lineup:

• Skinny Cleanse: Primarily vegetable juices sweetened with some fruit juice
• Protein Cleanse: A mix of juices and smoothies with protein derived from hemp and nuts
• Low Sugar Detox: All green drinks, two of which are more like smoothies and bolstered with nuts and seeds

Our Raw Generation testing experience

We knew we were going to have a somewhat less enjoyable experience when choosing a cleanse with just about half as much sugar as its protein-packed counterpart. But even with that knowledge, we were a little let down by some of the flavors. The straightforward green juices were tasty, but the drinks that offered the most protein were not. This remains the best pick for maximizing your protein intake while on a cleanse, but if you don’t mind the added sugar and calories, the standard Protein Cleanse will be a tastier option as compared to the higher-protein Low Sugar Detox product.

Raw Generation’s top flavor: According to our testing team, Raw Generation’s Lemony Greens was its best flavor. It tastes sweeter than you might expect, considering there is no added sugar and only 8g of natural sugar per bottle. It was bright and fresh, though its ginger content could afford to be stronger. As a runner-up, the Protein Cleanse was also tasty.

Raw Generation’s least successful flavor: It’s tempting to wonder whether we got a bad batch of Protein Greens. It was the least successful flavor from any company in our guide. The initial taste was okay for a second or two, as the cashews and dates provided a nutty sweetness. But that was quickly consumed by an inexplicable smokiness the origin of which we couldn’t identify from among the listed ingredients. The nuts and seeds included are raw, so it likely wasn’t them. And we’re aware of dates occasionally being burnt in the drying process, but this was less burnt and more meaty in its smokiness. We did find that the smokiness was less intense if you swished the beverage around in your mouth for a bit before swallowing.

Raw Generation pricing

Raw Generation’s base price sits just between Juice from the Raw and Raw Juicery at $125 per 3-day cleanse. You can save a little on the cost per bottle by opting for longer cleanses, with options for 5-, 7-, and 10-day cleanses.

The steepest savings come from the subscription system, where you can save 20% by setting up an automatic shipment. You can set these shipments to occur every 1, 2, 4, 8, or 12 weeks. It’s a nice discount, but you’d have to be committed to regular cleansing for it to be worth your while.

Best tasting, best organic option, and best for jumpstarting weight loss

Several things set Raw Juicery apart from its competitors, including processing methods, flavors (both quality and variety), convenience, and price. That last point — the price — is where it definitely lags behind the competition. But if you can afford it, the other factors are all enough to recommend it highly.

We appreciate that the company only uses organic ingredients. Nutrients are highly concentrated in juices like these, and so can be harsh chemicals from pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. So, an organic juice cleanse is likely better for you than an inorganic one. We also appreciate that the company uses high-pressure processing (HPP) to cold press its juices.

HPP allows Raw Juicery to offer a few different benefits. For starters, the process doesn’t require pasteurization to be FDA-compliant. This ends up meaning that the juices retain more of their nutritional value, as they’re never subjected to high temperatures that can break down certain nutrients.7

This processing method also means that the juices don’t have to ship frozen, and you can keep them in your refrigerator instead of your freezer. With frozen juice cleanses, you have to get the timing right, making sure to thaw them in time for the next day’s cleanse while also making sure to drink them within 24 hours of their thawing. This was a source of frustration with competitors’ cleanses in our testers’ experiences.

Juices processed this way also have a longer shelf life in your refrigerator. If you want to order more juices from the company, you can keep them around for 30-60 days, depending on the flavor.

Raw Juicery offers two curated cleanses: Signature and Green. Each day on the Signature cleanse offers 770 calories from:

• 8 a.m.: Celery Juice
• 10 a.m.: Master Cleanse
• 12 p.m.: G3 Live
• 2 p.m.: Aftermath
• 4 p.m.: Tropic Thunder
• 6 p.m.: Red Cure
• 8 p.m.: Chill Pill
• Optional boost: Mini boss

The Green cleanse runs on the same schedule but provides just 610 calories with more green juices:

• 8 a.m.: Celery Juice
• 10 a.m.: Master Cleanse
• 12 p.m.: G3 Live
• 2 p.m.: Aftermath
• 4 p.m.: Green Fiend
• 6 p.m.: G3 Live
• 8 p.m.: Chill Pill
• Optional boost: Mini boss

That calorie count is slightly higher than many competitors while still being low enough to cause a loss in body weight (mostly from water). And those extra calories help ensure that you don’t rebound off the cleanse with a ravenous appetite from starving yourself, which leads many to resume eating habits just as bad, or worse, than they had before they started.

Our Raw Juicery testing experience

Raw Juicery seems to take more time considering the effects of its individual juices and building its cleanses to provide a specific experience. And the company isn’t averse to the inclusion of atypical juice ingredients like ashwagandha or fulvic minerals. Our testers found that wherever the company offered a defined experience, it delivered. Its Chill Pill, which is designed as a nighttime drink to help wind you down, seemed effective. And the Yuzu Mate provided just the kind of energy you’d expect from yerba mate tea.

One drink that our testers enjoyed but that we couldn’t test for its efficacy claims was Aftermath, which is billed as a hangover tonic. It tastes very good, with strong grapefruit and basil notes, but we didn’t ask any of our testers to induce a hangover for our research purposes.

Raw Juicery’s top flavor: For our testing team, Raw Juicery’s Master Cleanse was the favorite. It was pineapple-forward without being too sour, its sweetness wasn’t too sweet, and the turmeric was present and earthy without being bitter. Its cayenne offered an immediate heat that rose a little and lingered at the back of the throat afterward. The whole flavor profile was broad, bold, pleasant, and invigorating.

Raw Juicery’s least successful flavor: While many of Raw Juicery’s flavors were highly regarded by our testers, its Dragon Mami felt like a miss. The dragonfruit flavor was a bit muted behind the hibiscus, which bordered on flowery in an unpleasant way. To be fair, this was an extra flavor we ordered and not part of either curated cleanse, and it was still far better than the least successful drinks from competitors, but it was the lowest-ranking drink in our experience.

Raw Juicery pricing

Raw Juicery’s prices are considerably higher than its competitors, with a 3-day cleanse costing $169. If you take into account that the processing method is more time-consuming and expensive, and you consider that organic produce is costlier than conventionally grown, the price differences start to make sense. And if increased convenience and safeguarding from agricultural chemicals is important to you, the price should seem fair. But the high price is a major factor that prevented it from being our top recommendation for most people.

As a side note, the company also states that its 1-day shipping is built into the price, and we received our packages within 24 hours.

Best budget pick and best if you can’t give up coffee

Juice cleanses can be expensive, so finding a cleanse that includes good options and doesn’t break the bank is nice. Most of the cleanses you can get from Juice from the Raw fit that description, with simple blends of recognizable ingredients and a few pleasant surprises.

Perhaps the most important offering from this company is its Cashew Coffee Milk, which allows you to get your coffee fix in the morning — something typically excluded from the cleansing experience. That alone will be reason enough for many to start here with their cleansing journey. But there are some caveats that might make you consider an alternative, as well.

Provided price isn’t an obstacle, you can still get some caffeine from Raw Juicery’s Yuzu Mate, but that will either have to be an add-on you purchase alongside your cleanse or part of a custom box you build on the website. Juice from the Raw has built an entire cleanse around its Cashew Coffee Milk, saving both money and effort.

All told, there are nine juice cleanses you can get from Juice from the Raw:

• Juice Cleanse with Coconut Fusion
• 5-day Juice Cleanse n’ Lunch
• Juice cleanse with Cashew Coffee Milk
• Low Sugar Juice Cleanse
• Juice Cleanse with Probiotics
• 9-day Vitamin C Juice Cleanse
• 3-day Juice Cleanse with Shots
• 10-day Cleanse Dinner n’ Snack
• Maintenance Greens

The Cashew Coffee Milk cleanse only provides you with 540 calories per day, so keep a close eye on your energy levels and mood. You may need to supplement this cleanse with additional calories (think whole fruits and veggies, or even a baked sweet potato).

Our Juice from the Raw testing experience

Our testers were admittedly excited about several flavors in this cleanse, especially the Cashew Coffee Milk. In terms of taste, this product was fine, but the flatness of the raw cashews competed a bit too much with the coffee flavor. It also had a slightly thicker texture overall than we would have wanted.

Juice from the Raw’s top flavor: Our testers agreed that Sweet Greens was Juice from the Raw’s best flavor. It’s a classic green juice that tastes like it’s good for you but also tastes good enough that you could drink several bottles of it daily and be happy. Despite being billed as a sweet drink, it wasn’t afraid to rely on its celery’s natural saltiness to complement and bolster its other flavors.

Juice from the Raw’s least successful flavor: That Passion Fruit Cleanse did not provide what we were looking for. Specifically, the acidity of the Passion Fruit wasn’t tamed by the sweetness of the agave nectar. Rather, they existed in parallel, making the drink both too sweet and too sour. This drink needs another ingredient, perhaps something earthy like turmeric, to round it out.

For those averse to natural juices, the flavors will actually be superior, as with the Passion Fruit Cleanser, which our testers found to be too sweet and artificial tasting (it only contains 30% juice and is sweetened with agave nectar). But we were looking for a balance between flavorful and healthful, and these drinks tended to lean too far to the flavorful side.

Juice from the Raw pricing

Juice cleanses from Juice from the Raw range between $88 and $175, depending on the included drinks and the length of the cleanse. The 3-day Cashew Coffee Milk cleanse costs $98. It’s important to note that you only get six bottles per day with this cleanse, which brings its cost per bottle up. Still, its base price is low enough that the cost per bottle is less than either cleanse from Raw Juicery, which gives you eight bottles daily.