Fasting to Lose Weight

What is liquid diet weight loss all about? Is all just hype and yet another FAD or is here some merit to this weight loss method? While many think that this is a “new” idea, its actually one of the oldest dieting strategies that started way back in the 1970′s.

The idea is simple. By “replacing” real food for something similar in liquid for you can eliminate a lot of calories from your diet. As we all know, when you significantly reduce the calories in your diet you can significantly reduce the amount of weight you lose. The fact that food is generally high in calories means that you have to constantly monitor how much you eat if you want to lose weight.

If you where to take a drink and have that drink contain the necessary nutrients then in theory you could replace meals with this and in the process cut out a lot of excess calories. Although this sounds great in theory, its not that simple. Lets quickly look at 2 approaches to liquid diets and weight loss.

1. Meal Replacements
This is probably the most common and its still very popular today. You will usually buy a product that comes in powder form. You then mix the powder with either water or milk and drink it like you would any other drink. The powder is usually made up of a lot of nutrients and vitamins and the idea is to provide your body with “everything” it needs without any unnecessary calories.

This way you can “replace” meals and cut out the calories without compromising on nutrition. Unfortunately its not that simple. You body needs real food and the vitamins and nutrients in real food is not the same as the fortified equivalent found in drinks. There is also an argument for digestion and the way real food releases nutrients into your body. A lot of the nutrients found in these drinks actually just flush through your system.

So,should you use it? Its entirely up to you but what I will say is that you should try and “replace” only one meal a day. Do not cut food out of your diet completely. Its not a long term solution for your weight problems.

2. Juicing
There is another type of liquid diet weight loss that is infinitely healthier and most definitely more effective. What is commonly known as juicing is simply when you “replace” meals by making your own juices. Instead of mixing some powder with water you juice fruits, vegetables and herbs and then drink that. The advantages are obvious in that you drink incredibly healthy juices that are high in nutrients, high in natural waters and low in calories.

One of the great advantages of juicing is the fact that you can combine fruits and vegetables in a way that allows you to drink vegetables that you would usually have a hard time eating. Although the idea is not to make the drinks as delicious as possible, the idea is to power pack a lot of good stuff into a single drink. These drinks are nutritious and filling and can truly be a meal replacement since you are effectively drinking the entire fruit or vegetable.

Another major advantage is the fact that you can use some great recipes that can actually enhance weight loss. Certain fruits and vegetables are known to increase weight loss and by combining certain herbs with your drinks you can really get some good results.

Again, this is not something that you should do for every meal but by doing it at least once a day you can reduce the amount of calories you eat significantly but still get a good dose of healthy food. Its generally not something that tastes great but the fact that you can ad fruit means you can mask a lot of the tastes from vegetables that don’t really sound to appetizing as a drink – unless you fancy a broccoli milkshake.

Liquid diet weight loss is a strategy that can be very effective but you need to be responsible in how you use it. There is off course fasting which is another form of a liquid diet in that you will spend your fasting days just drinking water. Like any weight loss strategy you need to commit yourself to something. Its the only way to get real results and doing it for less than 6 weeks is not really worth it.
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