Loving the Liquid Diet

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The dreaded liquid diet. It involves days or weeks of skipping solid foods and relying on liquids for all of your nourishment. It may take all of your willpower to keep from cheating. But if you succeed, you may be a big step closer to achieving your weight loss goals.

Here is some information about the liquid diet for pre-op and post-op weight loss surgery patients, as well as people who are going on a liquid diet as a way to get a weight loss boost. We’ll also give you a few tips to make the diet easier.

Pre-Op Prep

Your doctor may put you on a liquid diet as part of your pre-op prep if you are scheduled to get weight loss surgery. You may be on liquids for 3 days to 2 weeks or more before surgery. The diet helps shrink your liver to make surgery a little safer, and helps you lose a little weight to give you a little head start towards your ultimate goal weight.

At this stage, you can learn a lot about yourself and your ability to succeed on a strict diet, which will be necessary after bariatric surgery. We suggest trying a variety of flavors of protein shakes so you can figure out which ones taste best for you. You might also want to stock up on some protein powder tubs so you can be sure you’ll have plenty of protein waiting for you when you come home after surgery.

Post-Op Recovery

The liquid diet lets you get your protein and calories while your surgery wounds heal. Solid foods would be too damaging to your new pouch, stoma, or sleeve. This diet stage can last a few days if you get the adjustable gastric band (lap-band), or a couple of weeks or more if you have the gastric sleeve or gastric bypass surgery.

Since eating solid foods would be too painful, you might as well look at the liquid diet in a positive light. It may be difficult, but try to remind yourself how grateful you are for the liquid protein sources that can keep you nourished. Without them, your recovery would be slower and more painful.

Jumpstarting and Cleansing Diets

We always suggest a balanced diet for general weight loss purposes, but there are times when you and your doctor might agree that a liquid diet could help you get your weight loss going. You might even opt for a semi-liquid diet, where you use 1 or 2 liquid meal replacements each day instead of 1 or 2 meals, and eat solid foods at your other 1 or 2 meals. You can also use liquids to substitute for higher-calorie solids, such as choosing an 80-calorie protein mocha shake for dessert instead of a 400-calorie bowl of coffee-flavored ice cream.

Keeping It Interesting.

An important part of any meal plan is keeping it interesting. That’s a challenge on a liquid diet, but The BariatricPal Store has high-protein liquids for all tastes and occasions. We have hot cocoa, iced teas, fruity smoothies, and chocolate and vanilla shakes, for starters. When you get sick of sweet tastes, try any of our delicious and instant high-protein soups.

We are not claiming that a liquid diet is easy to follow – and if anyone does, we suggest that you do not believe them! However, you can definitely make it easier by choosing a variety of great-tasting and nourishing meal replacements and other products, and by keeping yourself mentally prepared. We can’t wait to help you reach your goals – and here’s a coupon to get you started. When you enter coupon code 10BPBroth at checkout, you can get 10% off of all BariatricPal soups and bouillons! The coupon expires June 30.