Liquid diets are diets that involve drinking caloric shakes or beverages for some or all meals. These types of diets normally provide less than 1,000 calories per day, according to the University of Michigan Health Service. Liquid diets should be done under the supervision of your health care provider as it may be harmful to decrease your caloric intake to less than 1,400 calories per day.
Cambridge Diet
The Cambridge Diet is one of the first popular liquid diets as it was developed in 1970 by Alan Howard, Ph.D., along with a team of nutritionists and doctors in England at Cambridge University, according to Cambridge: Food for Life. The Cambridge Diet has several different plans to choose from: the Regular, Fast Start, Physician Monitored, Maintenance and Lifetime Nutrition. For instance, the Regular plan allows you to eat and drink Cambridge food products with one solid meal per day, while the Physician Monitored plan is for people who need to lose large amounts of weight and is a complete liquid diet consisting of only 420 calories per day.
Slim-Fast
The Slim-Fast diet is an over-the-counter liquid diet that allows you to replace two meals per day with Slim-Fast shakes while eating one healthy, sensible meal along with healthy snacks, according to a Vanderbilt University article. Along with liquid diet shakes, Slim-Fast sells a breakfast and meal bars to help with the maintenance phase of the diet. After achieving your goal weight, Slim-Fast maintenance consists of replacing just one meal per day with a Slim-Fast shake and eating two healthy meals plus snacks to maintain weight.
Medifast
According to Medifast, its liquid diet consists of replacing five meals and snacks with their high protein, low carbohydrate and low calorie shakes or food products each day. The Medifast diet allows you to eat one healthy, low calorie meal per day in addition to the shakes or its meal products. Medifast has different plans for women, men and diabetics that adjust to your individual caloric needs for weight loss. Medifast does not require doctor supervision while on this diet, but is it always best to consult with your health care provider before starting any diet.
Optifast
Optifast is a complete liquid diet program in which all meals are replaced with Optifast meal replacement shakes. According to UAB Eatright Weight Management Services, Optifast is designed for people who need to lose at least 50 pounds and is ideal for people with moderate to high risk medical problems associated with being overweight. The Optifast diet program consists of different phases that include transitioning back to solid food and maintenance counseling. Optifast is traditionally done under the supervision of a medical doctor, but over-the-counter products are sold by Optifast as well.
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