There are various types of milk diets, which are designed to fulfil various purposes from weight loss to muscle gain. This post is looking at the restrictive milk diet, which featured on a recent documentary called ‘The 70 stone man’. In this documentary the restrictive milk diet was used to reduce the liver size of this man so he could be operated on.
This diet is a type of pre-op diet, which is specifically designed to part starve someone so they can have an operation on. Key points of the pre-op milk diet are:
- 3-4 pints of milk a day (just over 1000Kcals, so a massive daily deficiency of 1000-1500Kcals, for a normal healthy individual)
- A daily multi-vitamin
- No other food
- No exercise
- Usually takes place for one week
- Other fluids such as water are allowed, but no drinks which contain calories.
This diet reduces the size of the liver because is so low in calories, and it causes the body to use all of its glycogen stores for energy, much of which are found in the liver. With the body burning off glycogen from the liver, the size of the liver shrinks allowing surgery to take place. This is an extreme diet, done for a short period of time with medical supervision. This is NOT a safe diet to be doing by yourself as some sites suggest.
I was shocked to find that some sites advocate this as a weight loss diet, some suggesting it should be done for as long as 3 weeks.
This diet for normal weight loss purposes actually has all the hallmarks of a fad diet (which never work for weight loss purposes):
- Claims to have a miracle food (milk)
- Promises massive weight loss
- Incredibly restrictive
- Has a period for which the diet should be done for
Fad diets stand for Fantastical And Dangerous diets. They lure you in with the fantasy of losing weight, but are damaging to your health, and the weight loss effects never last. After following this diet for a few weeks (if you manage it and don’t get ill), you will experience rebound, where your body is so stressed from being starved for so long that it goes over the top in storing energy from what you do eat, and craving high calorie foods, in-case it gets starved again.You often end up with more body fat than before you start the diet.
If you think that it is worth trying – don’t. You might think you are strong willed now, but when the incredible hunger, weakened immune system, constant tiredness and foggy mind hits you, it will be a different story.
The restrictive milk diet is an extreme pre-operation diet, and should not be considered anything other than that. It is by no means a healthy way to lose weight.
Image courtesy of calliope
