All the detox pills and smoothies in the world cannot rid your body of poisons overnight, or even in a few days.  That’s a myth—although it has made certain trainers and celebrities rich selling their gunk.

Some of those detox formulas have sneaky tactics to make you think something happened.

If you have a myriad of substances that don’t belong in your body, your excretory system will handle it. Sweat, urine, kidneys, liver, colon, and lungs are in on the game, constantly excreting what needs to go.  If you’re feeling a little punk and think you need a cleanup, drink more water, exercise more, eat sensibly, sleep deep and long, cut back on booze for a bit, and consider probiotics to help everything along.

If you have something so serious it's life-threatening that’s an emergency to be handled by a doctor, probably in a hospital.

There is one more thing you can do to detox though, and it actually works—shed fat.

Your fat cells are well-known for storing lipids so you get fat. But these cells also welcome hormones, vitamins, and pollutants. One reason that men develop woman-like breasts when they get overweight is that the fat cells make and store extra estrogen.

Fat cells' habit of grabbing vitamins is thought to be one reason vitamin D deficiency is so common.

Because fat cells store so many different molecules, they can lock away elements that you need in circulation. It’s not just vitamin D—fat cells also hog their share of vitamins A, K, and E. And they can also store things like pollutants and microplastics that you do not need at all.

This toxin storage system does have its good side. It seems to be the body’s way to sequester harmful elements from other organs. But keeping these toxins around for long periods is not a good idea.

When you lose weight, your fat cells shrink as the fats, water, nutrients, and toxins stored in them are released into the urine or blood stream very gradually. The process—unlike various commercial cleanses—doesn’t make you sick. It happens gradually enough for your body to handle it. For the most part, it all comes out in the urine.

You can lose weight for a lot of reasons; from avoiding Type 2 diabetes to reducing the risk of strokes. And now you can add detoxing your body to the list.