Why Liquid diets are not recommended for long-term weight loss

Dr. Mohit Bhandari
2 min readDec 30, 2017

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Often, when one takes on to the road to fitness, taking up liquid diets or other fad diets top the list of must-dos. One reason for the popularity of liquid diets is that they are extremely low in calories. Liquid diets involve our daily intake of calories only from liquids and not solid foods. There can be various categories of liquid diets, where some of them are medically prescribed, others are meant for detox and others are focused on the daily recommended calorie intake for weight loss.

Disadvantages of going on a liquid diet

1. They are not good weight loss strategies
Liquid diets are not beneficial for weight loss in the long run. While they aid quicker loss of weight, the weight gain after switching to solid food diet is equally quicker. Moreover, solid foods contain some essential nutrients which are important for the healthy functioning of the body. Hence having a diet in moderation, which is simpler to follow, is helpful for sustaining your weight reduction for a long period of time.

2. Not everyone can follow liquid diets
Meal replacement liquid diets or even the detox liquid diets might not be helpful for people who feel more hungry when the consume liquids instead of a small healthy meal or a snack. What’s more is that meal replacement shakes are more expensive than your healthy solid foods.

3. Side effects of liquid diets
Since most liquids are low in fiber, it is quite likely that one might get constipated when on a liquid diet. Also, liquid diets increase chances of gallstones. Increased risk of nutrient deficiencies is another possible side effect of following a liquid diet. Hence, as stated above, including small amounts of healthy foods in your diet is a good and more sustaining idea.

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Dr. Mohit Bhandari

Bariatric and Metabolic surgeon in India, performed 10000+ bariatric surgeries & 500+ robotic surgeries. http://www.indiaobesity.in/about-us/dr-mohit-bhandari/