I've read that some do a short time of liquids only for a few days to get their restriction back on track. What do you include when you do this? Just protein shakes? What else do you eat? Thanks for your help!

I didn't know about this "trick". Is this really so?

I have been following the 5:2 intermittent fast for about a month and it helps my restriction. Google it for some info. Basically to give you a simple summary, I eat regular healthy food aiming for 1200 calories five days a week. Two days a week on Mondays and Thursdays I do a modified fast. That means for me, nothing at all but water or coffee up to 1pm. At 1pm a lunch of 500 calories, heavy on solid protein. Then nothing but water or coffee until my normal breakfast the next day. That's it. Two days of 500 calorie days. No snacking. It snapped me out of a rut I was in and my weight loss started up again. I also feel much better restriction with doing this. Good luck.

Regarding the liquid diet- you can have broth, sugar free jello and Popsicles, teas. I often include plain greek yogurt too.

Good morning! I work for a Bariatric Surgeon with over 25 years experience of successful weight loss surgeries and I sent him your question. Ara Keshishian, MD wants to provide you guys with more resources to learn about your procedures and lifestyle post-procedure. Here is his reply:

“I do not recommend this, since there is no scientific evidence that placing the patient on a liquid diet for any period of time, does anything to distorted anatomy after the band. In general Protein shakes are good food replacement- substitute, as long as the carb to protein ration is better than 1:3 (a Protein shake with 5 g CHO:20g protein is better than 10 g of CHO with 40grams of protein)”

If you have any other questions you'd like answered, please let me know and I'll send them to him!

I did it for a day and I don't know if it helped my physical restriction but it did help me mentally. I was able to leave snacks alone all week. It just seemed to help me refocus. I don't see that it can hurt so I will be doing it every so often.

My surgeon has had me go on Boost (nutrition drink) for 3 weeks to cut the carbs craving. I find it works and I can get back to losing weight again. I drink 4 ounces every other hour.