Liquid ONLY Diet

MaryPhillips90

Has anyone tried a liquid only diet? Slimfast or juice?
A co-worker of mine is doing the juice diet. She has a juicer and makes all of her juices and they are pretty good! Nothing added but fruit. In 6 days, she lost 7lbs!
(My favorite juice was strawberriers, apple, and blackberry. Oh my, it was so good.)
I've been considering a liquid diet of sorts. What about Slimfast only, with occassionally snacking on fruit and low-calorie snacks?

mirandamatte

Its seems like you would gain it all back once you started eating...I mean you have to eventually start eating again so why not just moniter your calorie intake and do it the good ole tried and true way.

kristy6ward

The thing about a juicer is that it cuts out most of that wonderful fiber you would have gotten by just eating the fruit. Its the fiber that makes you feel full longer and guards against sugar spikes. It might be a quick short term solution, but I wouldn't stick with it.

hollyberry2012

Good Morning Mary I can tell you that I once did a liquid only diet for 30 days and I lost 30 pounds, but gained it all back plus soooo much more. It was called Cambridge. That was way back in the day !! I'm old!

I do drink slimfast for the vitamins and convenience a couple times a day, but I eat sensible meals too. I'm very overweight and so my calorie allowance is probably higher than yours. The only negative things I can say about slimfast is

1. if you have diabetes in your family, it does have sugar in it. I don't so I drink it.
2. i've heard the protein in it isn't the best quality.
3. if you only drink slimfast, you might get constipation.

On the positive side, slimfast gives me good vitamins and minerals in liquid form and they get in my bloodstream and give me so much energy whereas pill vitamins don't absorb as well, hurt my stomach, and make me HUNGRY big time.

anmei2411

I tried it when I first started losing weight a few years ago but I found it extremely hard. At some point I was ready to kill for a bread roll or anything I could chew and swallow but all I had were those stupid drinks. Can't even say if it would have worked out because I gave up after 2 or 3 days.

Sidesteal

It is very, very, very likely that your coworker is losing weight because her juice-only diet is creating a severe calorie restriction. It is also very likely that most of that weight is water.

It is also likely that your coworker will at some point soon, decide that food is good and drinking juice 24/7 is stupid and not sustainable.


A good solution? Don't do it. Eat at a moderate deficit, don't do anything silly, and get some exercise. Take a reasonable approach and you'll stick to it without wanting to kill people and without falling off the wagon.

bluberrygoo

I fast once every two months with either the BB 3 day fast, V8 fusion, or slim fast. I usually lose around 6 - 8 lbs and have never gained the weight back. After you go back to solid foods you have to eat clean food and slowly build back in more calories. Atleast that's what works for me.

btdublin

I think the initial lossage is purely solids 'expelled' from the body and not replaced (because the liquid matter does not take the 12-24 hour to pass through your system like solids do), liquids leaving the system much quicker, although the nutrients in them get absorbed much quicker too!. So you get an immediate loss, the rest is just a matter of keeping calories down, which works while you do it properly but some on here will tell you it's not healthy for you in general (not getting enough nutrients / bad for your internal workings etc...)

I have sort of done it on occasion. Not as a plan but just because I replace my meals with soups (particularly lunches, havent had a sandwich for lunch for months!) and sometimes have only soups / protein shakes / dairy (yogurt/milk/coffees) for a number of days.

Again I have seen a quick immediate loss and loss has continued but I think that is just a factor of limiting calories.

Juices are v high in sugar/carbs so I am currently limiting them. Obviously going on a liquid diet of anything (high carb milkshakes for example) is not good for you; but also a diet just juice is probably very bad for you too. Lacks off the other macro nutrients you need. Throw in the soups instead! Gives you protein and some good carbs (noodle soups maybe) without all the high sugars.

Not a long term lifestyle diet, it is a fad diet, therefore unsustainable long term!
Interested to hear other people's results!

amuhlou

I don't think Slimfast is a great substitute for nearly all your calories throughout the day, even if you could manage to choke that much of it down. It's usually intended to replace a meal (maybe two) but all the ads I remember mention a 'well-balanced dinner.' This leads me to believe there are some holes in the nutrition it provides.

I have a coworker who is juicing right now (with doctor's approval) and can tell you a few things:

1) the initial financial outlay for a juicer is BIG. Apparently the cheaper machines can't handle all veggies, so you are in the $500 range to get a good one

2) you definitely should still count calories because you will likely be adding a lot of fruit to sweeten up your juices, and fruit has a substantial amount of calories. For example, one juice my coworker made had 2 apples and an orange in it. Yes it's full of good nutrients, but that doesn't mean it's free calories.

3) you have to pay more attention to protein and be sure to incorporate lots of the veggies that can provide that to you

I agree with the others that juicing isn't a sustainable lifestyle.But I suspect that if you're here on MFP you are already familiar with counting calories though and when you're done juicing, you can go back to eating sensibly.

hannata86

Slimfast does say its not a complete nutrition replacement, its not wise to treat it like it is!

I did Exante - a PROPER complete meal replacement, and I dropped masses on the scales week 1, then after it was like -1, -2, maybe -3 if I was really lucky (which you could lose on a conventional diet if you worked hard enough). Wouldn't touch em with a bargepole again because it took forever to get my metabolism going again.

It was lovely having no heaviness in my body, i was completely empty... but when the bowels were filled eventually, I was SO constipated. Not pleasant. And I got quite depressed because I realised just how much of my life is spent preparing, cooking, eating, talking about, & socialising with food..lol

Blue_Moon92

i started a diet last moday i've been doing it a week now and lost 6lbs. i havent missed a meal i just cut out snacking!!!

i eat 3 meals a day (yes i even eat breakfast)

my mfp allowance is 1200 cals per day. I have been eating under this just because ive been eating small healthy portions. I feel full and happy.

I am a dancer and the difference shows i had a lesson yesterday and the amount of time it took me to recover from doing my routine was sooooo much shorter.

I've done milkshake diets before and its just not worth it unless your willing to be starving 24/7 it wasnt for me and i put it all back on. at least now im eating healthy and alot of fruit i know the weight will stay off longer.

Good luck x

ElizabethRoad

It's possible that you could damage your body this way. If you're going to do something like this you should be under a doctor's supervision.

Jipples

Liquid ONLY Diet.....is ridiculous.

stubbysticks

Has anyone tried a liquid only diet? Slimfast or juice?
A co-worker of mine is doing the juice diet. She has a juicer and makes all of her juices and they are pretty good! Nothing added but fruit. In 6 days, she lost 7lbs!
(My favorite juice was strawberriers, apple, and blackberry. Oh my, it was so good.)
I've been considering a liquid diet of sorts. What about Slimfast only, with occassionally snacking on fruit and low-calorie snacks?

Please DO NOT do this with SlimFast. Keep in mind that with juice fasting, there are TONS of micronutrients packed into those juices (assuming the juice fast is done properly, of course). SlimFast is nowhere near as nutritious as those juices. SF shakes are not intended to be your primary source of nutrition, you need at least one proper meal with a good balance of protein, carbs & fat.

I won't say liquid diets are ridiculous because they do have value, particularly when preparing for bariatric surgery & transitioning back to regular food afterward. But to do it just for weight loss without a dr. recommending it? Not a great idea.

I jump-started my weight loss with SlimFast shakes for breakfast & lunch for a couple of months & it got me going. But as I got a regular exercise program in place & started burning more calories, I was too hungry to sustain it & switched to calorie-counting.

SlimFast is intended to be a TEMPORARY program to lose a few pounds. I wouldn't even recommend anyone stay on it as long as I did, to be honest.

Elizabeth_C34

All I can say is that this "liquid only" diet doesn't sound appealing on the way out...

QueenJayJay

Lose it fast; gain it back fast.

grinch031

6 lbs in 7 days is mostly water weight. That is what happens when you start a new diet and your glycogen stores are depleted as your calories (hence carb) intake drops.

gleechick609

Do we not remember Oprah Winfrey when she did a liquid only diet??



From liquid dieting to eating... liquid to eating... you gain it all back!

rjt1000

I fast once every two months with either the BB 3 day fast, V8 fusion, or slim fast. I usually lose around 6 - 8 lbs and have never gained the weight back. After you go back to solid foods you have to eat clean food and slowly build back in more calories. Atleast that's what works for me.

If that's correct, you'd lose around 20 pounds a year just from the fasting. How long have you been doing this cycle? A few years of it and you could weigh nothing at all.

yoitsjade

I'm going on one for about 5-7 days, only because I have a show coming up and I have to wear a revealing costume and unfortunately I didn't lose enough weight in time (10 lbs short of my goal).
I don't care if I gain it back because I'll be on christmas break and can resume my normal dieting plan anyway
How much do you think I can lose in that amount of time? Maybe 5 lbs? Hopefully 10

Saramelie

Has anyone tried a liquid only diet? Slimfast or juice?
A co-worker of mine is doing the juice diet. She has a juicer and makes all of her juices and they are pretty good! Nothing added but fruit. In 6 days, she lost 7lbs!
(My favorite juice was strawberriers, apple, and blackberry. Oh my, it was so good.)
I've been considering a liquid diet of sorts. What about Slimfast only, with occassionally snacking on fruit and low-calorie snacks?

And then what? She will never start to eat again? Come on, we all know she will gain it all back. In 13 days I`ve lost 8 pounds eating real food, all 1800 calories of it, every day. It`s water weight, this is what happens when you start ANY diet. Please do not fall for the fads one!