A low-calorie liquid diet, that is, based on at least two replacement meals a day for an amount of about 1000 calories , can make you lose weight without regaining it. This conclusion was reached by Danish researchers, who subjected 153 very sedentary patients over 60 years of age , with joint problems (and in particular with knee problems) and blood sugar problems, to a low-calorie liquid diet, with two out of three liquid replacement meals . .

So a substitute meal for breakfast and one for lunch or dinner. 
The key, according to the researchers, to maintaining the results was to follow a maintenance plan with one in three liquid meal replacements before returning to normal nutrition.

In particular, the patients followed a liquid diet of about 800/1000 calories for 16 weeks , thus losing 10 kilos in 4 months.

Subsequently, half of the patients followed a maintenance diet with one liquid meal replacement per day instead of lunch or dinner for an additional 4 months. The remaining half ate a maintenance diet with the same calories, but with solid meals and a few replacement meals every now and then, for example on weekends or alternate weeks .

For the duration of the observation, ie for three years, 70 percent of patients maintained the new body weight achieved in the first phase of the diet, ie ten kilos less. Diabetic patients experienced type 2 diabetes remission.

So the mistake that people gain weight after eating a liquid diet with 2 out of 3 meal replacements per day, according to the researchers,  is to return to a normal diet right away. As long as we can maintain ourselves at the table, it is necessary to follow a maintenance plan of the same duration as the diet period.

And if a meal replacement is used in maintenance to support lunch or dinner, the weight does not regain in most cases.