By Introduction
Liquid diets provide you with fast and impressive results in terms of weight loss. As a result, many individuals are looking up 7-day Liquid Diet Weight Loss Results before trying one. The principle is to consume liquids instead of solid foods; therefore, you should see a substantial change in weight soon after starting.
However, the actual results of a 7-day liquid diet are usually much more difficult to determine from just the before and after pictures. The initial weight loss during the first week is often attributed to loss of water and glycogen stores rather than actual weight loss.
Therefore, although your weight might drop quickly, your actual body composition may not show a similar result for some time.
In addition, there is a safety aspect to liquid diets. Liquid diets are generally prescribed for short-term use for a specific medical purpose, not intended for lengthy periods.
If you have an understanding of what is actually going on in your body, you will have a better perspective on what to expect from a liquid diet and will ultimately be able to make a more informed decision.
Sometimes the real challenge isn’t effort, but understanding what your body actually needs to stay consistent and energized throughout the day. If you’re curious, you can explore a simple way to support metabolism and reduce daily cravings naturally to make your routine feel easier.
What a 7-Day Liquid Diet Really Means
Not all liquid diets are the same. A clear liquid diet consists of beverages like water, broth, tea, coffee (without creamer), and gelatin.
According to the Mayo Clinic, this type of diet is intended for short periods before or after some specific medical procedure or in cases of gastrointestinal distress; however, it cannot provide all of the calories and nutrients your body needs.
The opposite of a clear liquid diet is called a full-liquid diet. A full-liquid diet has larger portions and includes items that can be consumed liquid at room temperature such as milkshakes, pureed soups, pudding, juices etc. Neither of these types of liquid diets include sufficient fiber or potentially enough vitamins and minerals your body requires.
Because of this, it would be inappropriate to think about a 7-day liquid diet as a hot new wellness trend; rather, it should be viewed as a temporary dietary option.
The success you have from following this plan is determined by the liquids consumed while on this 7-day plan. For example, if you use a medically designed protein focus liquid diet versus just drinking juice; the results achieved will differ for both of these diets.
7 Day Liquid Diet Weight Loss Results Overview
It is common for your weight to drop dramatically during the first few days of a liquid diet. While seeing this quick drop on the scale may be exciting, it should be noted that much of this quick drop will not have been due to fat loss.
The initial weight lost on a liquid diet is generally a result of glycogen (carbohydrates your body uses for energy) being converted to energy with by-products of water. When your body’s glycogen is depleted, water will be utilized as well, resulting in a rapid initial drop in weight, primarily due to losing water weight.
In addition to losing water weight, the amount of food consumed during the liquid diet is normally significantly reduced compared to what you normally would consume, which will also result in lighter digestion processes and reduced flatulence (bloating).
These two factors are why in the first week of a liquid diet the individual experiences such great fluctuations of weight, while not experiencing fat loss.
As you start to reach the end of the first week on a liquid diet you will most likely begin to have some of the following experiences: You may not feel as hungry, you may feel tired and there may be a change in your actual body weight from day-to-day but fluctuating from blood-sodium and fluid intake. A good rule of thumb is to read about short term scale changes with caution.
So if you do a liquid diet for seven days, what should you expect from a liquid diet before/after the 7 days? More than likely you will experience a lightness in your body, a lower number on the scale and reduced bloating in your abdomen.
Some individuals will find these experiences motivating while others may still find it difficult to make it through the entire seven-day period. Both experiences are common among those on liquid diets.
Just how much weight can you lose on a liquid diet?
A lot of people want an answer to this question and unfortunately, there is no definitive answer to the dilemma; there are many factors that will alter the end result, such as initial weight and fluid levels, amount of calories consumed, amount of sodium consumed, level of exercise, and whether protein is included in the diet. The primary cause for the uncertainty is that individual people are different.
At zero-calorie total meal replacement (TDR) programs in controlled settings under the guidance of a physician, you may have all your normal meals replaced with specially designed liquids for several weeks, not just 7 days.
By way of example, the NHS has been using low-calorie TDR (800 to 900 kcal/d) for Type 2 Diabetics who are also overweight or obese (12 weeks), plus providing support and reintroduction to food.
This type of diet/ cleans has been reported to work well by the NIHR (the National Institute for Bioproducts and Biomaterials) as a viable treatment for an overweight or obese patient using structured meal replacements (liquid-based products) in outpatient settings and thus demonstrating that somewhere between 12 and 25% of patients who had replaced 50% of daily caloric intake with structured meal replacement versus receiving lines of typical (exceptions) care had more total body weight loss at the end of 12 months than those upon whom no structured meal replacement were used (the key here is structured).
These programs should include structure in terms of monitoring, gradual reintroduction of food, and behavioral modification support.
Therefore, if you were to create your own “liquid” diet for 7 days without following the guidelines listed above, your expectations should be limited to how much weight you will have loss (in terms of fat) and how much water (possible).
Some of your lost body weight will be fat, some will be Glycogen, and when you return to your regular diet after this type of liquid or cleans and try to go back to “normal” eating will cause you to gain some of your weight back again relatively quickly.
Helpful Tips to Get Better Results Without Rebound
You can get great results from your 7-day detox liquid diet (or any type of liquid diet) if you have a structured plan. Your goal should be to not win the week. In fact, you may feel bad for a week and then gain all of it back; so your goal should be to feel better and not have to deal with that.
Some tips that can help you achieve your goal:
- Use liquids that are not just plain water with sugar in them (i.e., soda).
- Use protein when needed (i.e., meal replacement powders/shakes or soups that are medically designed).
- Drink enough fluids so you do not become dehydrated; this will help the scale show a better number than you may feel, due to dehydration.
- When you return to eating regular food, do so slowly. Do not treat day 8 like it’s Christmas; treat it like a regular day of eating (not a gluttonous part of your life).
This is important because in structured-replacement products, you introduce food into your diet after the liquid diet over a period of time. This helps keep more of the weight you lost, and makes re-establishing normal eating much easier – because you aren’t going from a solid-foods diet to a liquid-diet and back.
Another way to think of this is; a liquid diet will give you short-term success, but long-term success comes from what you do after day 7 with that success; if you fail to plan for your exit from the liquid diet, your rebounding will be very rapid.
Final Thoughts
A 7-day liquid diet is a way to lose weight quickly while reducing your bloat and water retention. These are good, encouraging signs, but the actual amount of body fat lost will not be significant.
Unless you are undergoing medical treatment or using a very well-structured plan that provides adequate nutrition, you should not consider the liquid diet to be an effective crash diet.
Should you choose to do a liquid diet, you should plan to lose weight in the short term, protect your nutrition, and establish a plan for transitioning back to solid foods at the start.