Liquid Diets

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Losing weight with minimal effort sounds like a win-win situation. With ads promising that you can drink your way to a slimmer figure and detoxify your body to boot, liquid diets sound too good to be true -- and often, they are.

What Are Liquid Diets?

Liquid diets control calorie intake by restricting what you eat to mostly or all liquids. How they work varies from product to product. Some liquid diets are fluid only -- fruit or vegetable juices juices or shakes -- that replace all of your meals, taken three or four times a day. These programs are either do-it-yourself options sold over the counter, or medically supervised plans available only through doctors' offices or hospitals.

Other types of liquid diets replace just one or two meals (usually breakfast and lunch) with drinks, but let you eat a healthy, balanced dinner. These diets may also include snack bars for in-between meals.

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