Have you ever considered a liquid diet plan to lose weight? There is a considerable amount of controversy that surrounds this diet but it has definitely shown fast results.
Often, liquid diets are prescribed by physicians to fight obesity. However, regardless of your weight and health conditions, liquid diet plans can be used to lose weight without exercise.
How Does The Liquid Diet Plan Work?
As the name suggests, the diet involves liquid meals in the form of juices, smoothies or shakes. What most people think is that liquid diets restrict meals to only fruits and vegetables, but in reality, they can be modified to include protein and dairy as per your nutritional requirement and lifestyle.
The diet helps to reduce weight by allowing a highly limited amount of calories. When you ingest fewer calories than you consume, your body automatically starts using up the energy from fat reserves, thus prompting weight loss. Aside from losing weight, the liquid diet is also considered to cleanse the body of toxins.
Lose Weight Without Exercise
It can be advised that the juice fasting diet plan should not be combined with exercise. Since the reduced calorie intake uses up the fats stored within the body, the diet is designed as a means to lose weight without exercise.
However, if exercise is a part of your daily routine, adding protein to your meal replacement shakes can provide adequate sustenance for short periods of physical activity.
In any case, it is best to keep exercise sessions under 30 minutes. For those who are dangerously overweight, exercise can be combined with the diet under the monitoring of a physician.
What To Eat On A Juice Fasting Diet Plan?
Although you may think that your choices in foods are severely limited when you are on a juice fasting diet plan, it is far from the truth as there is a wide range of liquid meal options that are nutritious and delicious at the same time. Of course, fruit and vegetables are the popular choices. There are plenty of great recipes for liquid meals that include dairy items and other sources or protein as well. In addition, you can also introduce herbal teas and soups also make great meals.
However, it is advised to not include highly sweetened drinks and carbonated beverages. While coffee is best avoided as it dehydrates the body, you can drink some in the morning if it is an essential part of your routine. It is also important to drink plenty of water.
Liquid Diet Plan Safety Concerns
It is often incorrectly assumed that the lowered calorie intake from a liquid diet plan is at unhealthy levels that don’t allow for adequate sustenance. People have collapsed and experienced fatigue with the introduction of drastically reduced calories. It is advised to choose liquid meals with plenty of vitamins, essential vitamins and anti-oxidants to make sure that the body has the fuel to carry out normal activity and does not become weakened.
Take note that fatigue and dizziness is a sign that you are not getting enough nutrition and therefore the advice of a dietician or a doctor is necessary before you choose to continue.
The best way to maintain an effective liquid diet plan is to make sure that the calorie intake of every meal is properly planned and tracked. At least 500 or more calories per meal will keep the body functioning normally while losing weight. The side effects of extremely low-calorie intake can range from muscle loss all the way to anemia.
Other Health Concerns
It is also important to keep in mind that a juice fasting diet plan may not be suitable to be continued for too long. Doctors have advised not to continue with a liquid diet for more than three months as there are certain nutrients that the body can only extract from solid foods. Take a break on each three month diet period by eating solid foods such as lean meats, vegetables, and fruit to prevent further weight gain. It’s best to eat about five or six small liquid meals a day as opposed to three meals. This will keep your metabolism from slowing down and keep the body supplied with energy throughout the day.
Aside from nutritional concerns, weight-watchers on the liquid diet plan also need to consider developing good discipline to make sure that they don’t slip back into unhealthy snacking in between meals.
True, there are various complications surrounding the liquid diet. However, it is definitely effective when it comes to fighting obesity and provides a fast option to lose weight without exercise. Be sure to do more research on the available menu options and to prepare yourself for the diet before you get into it.
As mentioned before, a doctor’s guidance is always important to make sure that the lowered calorie intake has no adverse effects. When followed correctly and carefully, a liquid diet plan is a great weight loss option that has offered spectacular results in many cases.
Have you ever tried this diet? Please share your experience with the liquid diet plan below…
I went on the Medi-Fast diet in the mid nineties. It was physician monitored, and included a weekly meeting to discuss. I lost 189 pounds in 10 months. At around nine months, I noticed that my hair brush was getting full of hair after I brushed it. I was taken off the diet at ten months without any plan to maintain the weight. It took about three years to put it all back on again and then some.
If you’re considering an all liquid diet, be more aware of nutritional needs and requirements than my physician was, and have an exit plan in place, which I didn’t. Good Luck, folks.