Are liquid diets safe?

CoffeeBeanFiend91

So I've a lot of weight since leaving school. I gained even more since starting my job where I sit on my butt in a cubicle all day. I was looking at a copy of the new DigestDiet book at work and it starts 4 days of mostly liquid diets and I'm really interested in trying it but I have a terrible metabolism because of prior health issues and I stop after feeling defeated because I am not getting enough "instant" gratification. I know weight loss is a process that can be very long and I expect that just curious if anyone knows of anything that will help me lose only a couple pounds very quickly so I can of an attitude  boost big enough to continue a healthy diet?

Sorry if this is hard to read I am very ill and can't think of how to say what I want clearly  

Brie2010

If your metabolism is already bad, a liquid diet will just make it worse.  It's essentially a starvation/crash diet.  It's dumb.  Don't do it.

There is no easy way to lose weight.  If there was, everyone would be skinny.  It sucks, but you just have to do it the hard way--sensible diet, exercise, etc.  It didn't take you four days to put on the weight, so it won't take you four days to lose it.  

 

 

JW28

Unfortunately I think even if you did lose a couple of pounds quickly, there's a big chance they'd come right back as soon as the next week, since it was probably water weight in the first place. I think that would probably hurt your motivation even more. Instead you just have to keep at it, try to form healthy habits, and lose weight the only way that really works - healthy eating and exercise resulting in a reasonable calorie deficit. Aim for a deficit of 500 calories per day and you'll lose one pound per week if you stick to it. That means you need to burn 500 more calories than you eat - calculate your BMR (google/bing/yahoo it) and multiply by 1.2 to find out how many you burn every day if you don't exercise.

raynes

Brie2010:

If your metabolism is already bad, a liquid diet will just make it worse.  It's essentially a starvation/crash diet.  It's dumb.  Don't do it.

There is no easy way to lose weight.  If there was, everyone would be skinny.  It sucks, but you just have to do it the hard way--sensible diet, exercise, etc.  It didn't take you four days to put on the weight, so it won't take you four days to lose it.  

This, a million times.  True metabolic repair, the kind you need after long periods of undereating, comes from eating at or above maintenance for a good deal of time.  

The best "diet" you can follow is one that you will stick with.  Restricting yourself too far (either with too few calories or by cutting out too many of the foods you love) is just a recipe for disaster, and last time I checked, most people are pretty keen on solids.

There's no need to "jump start" your weight loss or metabolism.  Just get goin' with it!

MayFlowers22

NO! Don't do it! You'll lose muscle and your metabolism will worsen.

+v+

raynes:

Brie2010:

If your metabolism is already bad, a liquid diet will just make it worse.  It's essentially a starvation/crash diet.  It's dumb.  Don't do it.

There is no easy way to lose weight.  If there was, everyone would be skinny.  It sucks, but you just have to do it the hard way--sensible diet, exercise, etc.  It didn't take you four days to put on the weight, so it won't take you four days to lose it.  

This, a million times.  True metabolic repair, the kind you need after long periods of undereating, comes from eating at or above maintenance for a good deal of time.  

The best "diet" you can follow is one that you will stick with.  Restricting yourself too far (either with too few calories or by cutting out too many of the foods you love) is just a recipe for disaster, and last time I checked, most people are pretty keen on solids.

There's no need to "jump start" your weight loss or metabolism.  Just get goin' with it!

Doesn't it depend on the number of calories on a liquid diet?  They aren't all the same.  I know I'll be flamed to high hell for this, but I do three-day juice cleanses from time to time and when I do, I take in about 1400 calories a day (there are high calorie nut milks involved).  Which is lower than normal for me, but I've never heard that that number of calories is dangerous/puts you into starvation mode/etc. 

(And before I get all of the "your colon can clean itself" comments -- that's not why I do it either, nor is that a side effect of the cleanse I do.  I do it to break sugar/grease cravings and force myself to be clean for a few days.  With solid foods it is too easy for me to start eating clean tomorrow.)

Brie2010

+v+:

raynes:

Brie2010:

If your metabolism is already bad, a liquid diet will just make it worse.  It's essentially a starvation/crash diet.  It's dumb.  Don't do it.

There is no easy way to lose weight.  If there was, everyone would be skinny.  It sucks, but you just have to do it the hard way--sensible diet, exercise, etc.  It didn't take you four days to put on the weight, so it won't take you four days to lose it.  

This, a million times.  True metabolic repair, the kind you need after long periods of undereating, comes from eating at or above maintenance for a good deal of time.  

The best "diet" you can follow is one that you will stick with.  Restricting yourself too far (either with too few calories or by cutting out too many of the foods you love) is just a recipe for disaster, and last time I checked, most people are pretty keen on solids.

There's no need to "jump start" your weight loss or metabolism.  Just get goin' with it!

Doesn't it depend on the number of calories on a liquid diet?  They aren't all the same.  I know I'll be flamed to high hell for this, but I do three-day juice cleanses from time to time and when I do, I take in about 1400 calories a day (there are high calorie nut milks involved).  Which is lower than normal for me, but I've never heard that that number of calories is dangerous/puts you into starvation mode/etc. 

(And before I get all of the "your colon can clean itself" comments -- that's not why I do it either, nor is that a side effect of the cleanse I do.  I do it to break sugar/grease cravings and force myself to be clean for a few days.  With solid foods it is too easy for me to start eating clean tomorrow.)

Well, sure.  But most people who are looking for liquid diets are looking for a quick fix (like the OP, given that she's pitching this basically as "I need to lose a bunch of weight quickly"), which means they're probably not going to taking in an adequate number of calories.  And that will usually lead to the opposite of the intended effect--they'll be so starving by the time the cleanse is up that they'll binge like crazy once it's over, not feel motivated to eat healthier.

Most of the posts over here about cleanses/juice fasts/etc tend to be of the impractical, unhealthy variety, which is why I usually just jump to that assumption from the get-go.