In general, liquid diets lead to very fast weight loss. It's possible to lose up to 1lb. every day on an all-juice diet, and about 3 to 4 lbs. each week on a liquid protein diet. However, liquid diets also can cause side effects and may carry health risks for you, so check with your physician before initiating one.
Significance
There's no question that liquid diets enable you to lose weight. Physicians require most candidates for gastric bypass surgery to first follow a general liquid diet to prepare for the surgical procedure, because losing weight prior to surgery can help lower the risks for surgical complications. However, many overweight consumers who aren't planning gastric bypass surgery try liquid diets simply as a rapid weight loss program.
Features
There are two types of liquid diet in general use: liquid protein diets and liquid juice diets. When following a juice diet or fast, you generally drink little but fruit and vegetable juices, preferably freshly prepared, for up to three days. Meanwhile, you can follow a liquid protein diet for a month or more -- some programs recommend three months, although your doctor may have a different recommendation. On a liquid protein diet, you'll drink up to 80 oz. of shake throughout each day, either pre-mixed or in powder form mixed with milk or water, and drink nothing but calorie-free beverages. The shakes produced by commercial weight-loss product companies come in a variety of flavors including vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.
Function
Because your daily caloric intake will be very low -- in the range of 400 to 800 calories each day on a liquid protein diet and probably less than 400 on a liquid juice diet made of homemade fresh fruit and vegetable juices -- you'll lose weight quite quickly. However, to see this kind of weight loss, you can't cheat at all on your diet. In addition, water will make up some of the weight you lose in the first day or two of your diet, so you can expect to gain that back almost immediately once you begin to eat solid food again.
Prevention/Solution
As with any diet, you may face greater problems maintaining your weight loss than you did losing the weight in the first place. According to Vanderbilt University, 95 percent of people who lose weight eventually gain it back. Joining a support group or finding a counselor who can help you with behavior modification may help with maintaining your new weight.
Warning
Very rapid weight loss via liquid diets can pose some medical risks, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Although many of the shakes on the market advertise themselves as nutritionally complete, it's not really possible to get all the nutrients you need from a daily diet of milk shakes. A liquid diet made up of fresh fruit and vegetable juices will be high in vitamins and minerals, but won't supply needed protein and fat. In addition, extreme liquid diets can cause heartbeat abnormalities and even sudden death in very rare cases. If you're considering a general liquid diet for weight loss, contact your doctor first.
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