5.5 stone to lose. DIY shake-only diet!

[Started17June2025]

I've decided to start a thread as a bit of a progress/accountability record. I've had some past success with SW, calorie counting, IF but obviously nothing that worked long term as here I am 😂

My problem is my all or nothing mentality. I have a pretty significant sugar addiction, zero off switch when eating and at the moment I find eating just some food really, really difficult, more than ever before. Plus, I'm now pre-diabetic. Back up to pretty much my heaviest weight now and I've 5.5 stone to lose.

So, I'm not going to eat food at all. I need to take my problem out of the equation completely for a while. I'm going to follow a liquid only shake diet for up to 12 weeks. I'll see how I go as to duration but hopefully it will help me get my cravings and blood sugars more under control before I try eating food again regularly, in healthier portions.

After spending hours (days!) researching meal replacement shakes and trying a couple of starter packs, none of which i liked, I've decided to go the DIY route.

I've used Chat GPT to create a DIY shake plan which is 3 x shakes a day and apparently nutritionally complete, with the support of a decent multivitamin and omega 3 supplement. I went through several iterations because I need it to be simple, with simple ingredients to chuck in my nutribullet, to stick to. I know it's unlikely that the shakes will be perfect but I'm satisfied they'll be 'good enough' for 2 or 3 months and the lesser of two evils between DIY shakes and being obese!

So...day 1: Tuesday 17th June 25
Height: 5ft 5in
Weight now: 15 stone, 10 lbs
Target: 10 stone, 3 lbs - so 5.5 stone to lose

Anyone else doing shakes/liquid only diet?

Would love to know what’s in the shakes?

I worked with a nutritionist to lose a lot of weight pre-pregnancy and one thing we did was replace one meal a day with a protein shake. So I don’t think it’s a bad idea though I think I’d find it tough to stick to for all meals for weeks/months!

Just my opinion, but I don't think this is a good idea. You can't possibly last for months on shakes alone, it's not healthy. Be careful you don't end up with a disordered view of food. Have you considered WLI?

Won't you be missing a significant amount of fibre if you blend all your food for so long? And blending releases way more fructose from fruits so it can spike your blood sugar, not a great plan to ward off diabetes.

I would never trust AI with a diet plan. Chat GPT just tells you what you want to hear, it's proven to be a "yes, and.." machine. Haven't you seen the news about it encouraging schizophrenics to stop taking their medicines and believe the hallucinations? Please don't do this without speaking to a real doctor.

I agree with @MummytoE - you will not be able to sustain this and you will relapse and feel even worse than you do now.

can you tackle your sugar addiction…… because if you can, healthy eating without binging will become sooooo much easier. I strongly recommend The Blood Sugar Solution by Dr Mark Hyman. Dr Becky Gillaspy’s short talks on YouTube are also very useful, especially as a daily reinforcement.

if you focus your diet on lean protein and fibre/vegetables, you’ll feel much more satiated than with shakes.

I completely sympathise, but in my experience shakes are not a good idea. I did a shakes-only vlcd through a clinic with weekly supervision. I lost the weight but it absolutely wrecked my metabolism. Not only did the weight go back on and more, it made it so much harder to lose it again. I know research has been done on Biggest Loser contestants showing how the very low calorie intake permanently slowed their metabolism. I also think I lost a lot of muscle as well as fat - as is inevitable to some extent on any diet, but on a crash regime like that is heightened.

Chatgpt isn't always accurate and reliable; i wouldn't let it make health decisions for me. I have regretted my own shakes experience ever since and would never recommend it. VLCDs can be really dangerous and cutting out food all together, while a tempting idea, is never a healthy choice.

I'm on Mounjaro now, eating real food and doing strength training and it has been a much better and more sustainable way to lose weight. I know how impossible it is, and I couldn't do it without the injections.

This is not a sustainable way to lose weight and is not going tk address your all or nothing mentality. Have a look at Phoebe Cartwright’s content on socials it might help.

Yeah of course! I have 6 and can mix and match any 3 a day.

I asked Chat GPT for some amendments. So originally it had some with oat milk, I asked for semi skimmed only and it adjusted. And it had some with ginger and cinnamon added (yeuch) which I asked to be removed etc.

These are the final 6 it came out with. And it stressed that a multivitamin and omega3 supplement were recommend to support and possibly a fibre supplement, but to review ongoing:

Banana Oat Shake

• 1 scoop whey protein
• 250ml semi-skimmed milk
• 30g oats
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tsp peanut butter
• 1 tsp ground flaxseed

Berry & Chia Shake

• 1 scoop whey protein
• 250ml semi-skimmed milk
• 80g frozen mixed berries
• 1 tsp peanut butter
• 2 tsp chia seeds

Cocoa Flax Shake

• 1 scoop whey protein
• 250ml semi-skimmed milk
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 10g oats

Avocado & Cucumber Shake

• 1 scoop whey protein
• 250ml semi-skimmed milk
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 tsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp oats
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed

Kale & Apple Shake

• 1 scoop whey protein
• 250ml semi-skimmed milk
• 50g fresh kale
• 1/2 medium apple
• 1 tsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed

Spinach & Tomato Shake

• 1 scoop whey protein
• 250ml semi-skimmed milk
• 30g fresh spinach
• 80g cherry tomatoes
• 1 tsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed

The shakes would need to have plenty of protein and fibre in (high-quality vegan protein powder, flax and chia, avocado, raspberries, nuts and seeds, yoghurt for eg) and they’d have to be several times a day (4?)

I think you’d actually be getting a decent amount of calories in that way - say 4x300 =1,200 kcals? And you’d need a bit of variety in terms of veg.

I think it all depends what’s in them! Need more info OP!

But I do understand the addiction part - finding a way to go ‘cold turkey’ from food was something I used to long for. Fully agree with PPs that upping protein and fibre resets your blood sugar / addiction and keeps you satiated for longer. Plus I am now on WLI and it’s pretty miraculous - second another PP there too!

The NHS prescribes shake only diets for obesity. So that was a green light for me because liquid only diets are already a thing...I'm just doing them myself rather than buying bags of pre-made powder.

I have considered WLI but decided they're really not for me, for many reasons.

Cross posted.

I think those sound pretty good and delicious!

Still think I might get bored after a few weeks, but good luck to you. You can always experiment with new combos and that might keep things interesting.

I have the same mentality around food as you and did similar a while back with slimfast. It was OK for a week or so, but I completely crashed and burned and ended up binging and putting on more weight. Also had some tummy issues...but they may be because of the processed stuff in slimfast. I've had great success with WLI...lost 3.5 stones and my mindset has completely changed. I will probably be on them long term. Good luck with whatever you decide to try x

There are 3 issues here -

1. What the likelihood is that you will be able to stick to this extreme diet for any length of time (nothing but time will tell).
2. Should number 1 succeed -What the likelihood is that you will be able to keep any weight loss off for a sustainable length of time after you come off the diet (heavy likelihood that it will come straight back on)
3. The health impacts of doing such an extreme diet using an AI service (again, only time will tell).

Having been there done that with shake only diets I really really do not recommend it.
I "succeeded" stuck to it religiously and lost 5 stone.

It is one of the very few things I would go back and undo if I could have a do over because I truly believe I wrecked my body so much by doing it.
It also did not help me reset my relationship with food ,(like you i tohught it would)... in reality it made my eating much more disordered...

I second the poster upthread who suggested swap one meal a day for one of these shakes (dinner is a good one as then the "kitchen is closed" and there's no snacks)

I'd also just add a bowl of steamed veg to your lunch everyday and eat it before or with your sandwich /salad / omelette/ whatever.
Look at adding high quality low cal density foods, not restricting volumes.

Just to put some minds at rest...I haven't just relied on Chat GPT and taken it's word as gospel. I actually work with AI so I'm fully aware of the pitfalls, risk of hallucinations and wrong info etc.

Chat GPT absolutely did the heavy lifting and came up with the recipes but I've done a lot of reading about shake only diets and also looked at the ingredient list of popular brands like huel etc. So I've cross checked the AI output with info on a number of nutrition and fitness blogs to make sure it makes sense. It seems to me that, more or less, it does.

I've wasted more hours than I care to admit 😂 but I did want to make sure I wouldn't just drop dead after a month!

I did it with a private medical clinic, but I believe the NHS soups and shakes programme is the same. Patients do it under medical supervision though and the shakes are all fortified to be nutritionally complete. The NHS programme has twelve weeks on the liquid diet and then offers support reintroducing food and maintenance for a year.

Even with all the monitoring and support, it's one of the worst things I have ever done in terms of my health and my ongoing relationship with food and my body. My clinic offered no follow up care so after the twelve weeks I was on my own; perhaps it goes better with the full NHS programme.The idea of going it alone from the start without medical supervision sounds concerning to me. I hope whatever you do goes really well for you. Other people may have much better long term experiences with it than me.

Thanks...reading your cross post about what the shakes would need was actually really reassuring! It's good to see so many things you included did make Chat GPT's list!

Totally appreciate this wouldn't be for everyone and can see in general it's quite controversial. However, I'm going to give it a go and will report back whether I crash and burn, keep it going with success or eventually keel over from a flaxseed overdose 👀😂

And what are you going to do once you’ve lost the weight having been liquid only for two years or whatever? Go back to eating solid food, find out you haven’t addressed your issues and pile the weight straight back on. Sorry but you’re setting yourself up to fail. Diets do not work. Making permanent, ie lifelong, changes to what you eat is the only thing that works.

What about some thick soups also, chicken, ham, lentil, put in things like tahini or peanut butter etc. You could do a nice fish soup.

Good lord, I'm not going to try going liquid only for two years! 😳 😂

I said in my op, I'll do it for up to 12 weeks. That's the max the NHS liquid-only diet would allow so I thought I'll keep that as an absolute cut off.

It might be that I only manage a week or two before having to introduce some food. We'll see.

I would suggest , swap breakfast for one of these above - have a large carton of high end soup at lunch with a couple of whole grain oat cakes plus a banana or a few grapes - and a 600 cal max protein and just veg or salad meal at night ( no rice, no potatoes etc) - I think these pure liquid diets seem to play havoc with metabolism from people I’ve known who did it and do nothing to re educate habits long term or get you into foods that really help with long term weight management

And I say this as someone who has 4.5 stone to lose and doing it without WLI ( which I did 6 weeks of) this is kind of how I eat - I’m 1 and a half stone down in 11 weeks - not speedy , but consistent and very doable - 1 shake a day , soup or 3 oatcakes with Longley farm cottage cheese and a piece of fruit, protein and salad or veg most nights - occasional Thai curry or stir fry with cauliflower rice

I think the shakes will fail as they won't be satisfying enough and give you the 'mouth feel' of food.

I would go for 1 protein shake a day, plus 2 protein meals such as:

• 3-egg omelette with spinach and ham
• chicken thigh chilli
• chicken and vegetable tagine

You’re better off on the injections.

I bit the M& S high protein chocolate shakes - very thick , but delicious and make me feel very full for hours - totally nutritionally complete .