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Drinking diet for 30 days

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 03.07.2025
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The phrase "30-day drinking diet" seems to the uninitiated to be a way to lose weight with the help of ordinary water. It is with water that the words "drink" and "drinking" are primarily associated. In fact, we are talking about a variety of liquid foods: homogenized soups, juices with pulp, decoctions and broths. Is it easy to eat "light dishes", what does it cost and what does it give in the end?

Water makes up 75% of body weight in infants to 55% in older adults and is essential for cellular homeostasis and life. [ 1 ] However, there are many unanswered questions about this most important component of our bodies and our diets.

When we talk about water, we primarily pay attention to all types of water, whether soft or hard, spring or well, carbonated or distilled. In addition, we get water not only directly from the drink, but also from food and, to a very small extent, also from the oxidation of macronutrients (metabolic water). The proportion of water supplied by drinks and food depends on the proportion of fruits and vegetables in the diet. In the United States, it is estimated that about 22% of water comes from food, while in European countries, especially in countries such as Greece, where fruit and vegetable consumption is higher, or in South Korea, this figure is much higher. [ 2 ], [ 3 ]

Percentage of water content in various foods.

  • 100% - water
  • 90–99% - Skim milk, cantaloupe, strawberries, watermelon, lettuce, cabbage, celery, spinach, pickles, zucchini (cooked)
  • 80–89% - Fruit juice, yogurt, apples, grapes, oranges, carrots, broccoli (cooked), pears, pineapple
  • 70–79% - Bananas, avocado, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, potatoes (baked), corn (cooked), shrimp
  • 60–69% - Pasta, beans, salmon, ice cream, chicken breast
  • 50-59% - Ground beef, hot dogs, feta cheese, sirloin steak (cooked)
  • 40–49% - Pizza
  • 30-39% - Cheddar cheese, bagels, bread
  • 20–29% - Pepperoni, cake, cookies
  • 10–19% - Butter, margarine, raisins
  • 1-9% - Walnuts, peanuts (dry roasted), chocolate chip cookies, crackers, cereal, pretzels, taco shells, peanut butter
  • 0% - Oils, sugars

*Source: USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21 provided by Altman.[ 4 ]

Indications

Losing weight on a drinking diet for 30 days is a super-extreme way to correct weight. With this diet, you can lose 15+ kg in a month. Optimists believe that you don’t have to starve, realists say that eating this way for a whole month is not an easy task.

There is no information about the therapeutic indications for the appointment. Usually, a person initiates the extreme option himself, having despaired of losing weight in a more gentle way. Sometimes a month-long diet is followed by those who can relatively easily withstand the drinking regime for one or two weeks.

The diet helps to reduce the load on the digestive organs, cleanse the body, stimulate metabolism. All this brings the person losing weight closer to achieving the main goal - weight loss.

General information drinking diet

The 30-day drinking diet method is not a water fast, unloading or treatment, as you might think after reading the name. The system provides for the refusal of chewing as a reflex given by nature. The essence of the diet is to convert solid food into a homogeneous liquid state - puree, porridge, smoothie. The difference between a long-term drinking diet and short-term ones is that there is a real threat of serious metabolic disorders.

  • To avoid this condition, it is recommended to eat pureed soups not only at lunch, but three times a day, during main meals.

The concept of the diet is also based on the fact that liquid low-calorie food helps reduce the space of the stomach. Allegedly, it is the increased volume that is the cause of problems for overweight people, because it constantly provokes an increased appetite. Excess food again stretches the walls - and everything moves in a vicious circle.

By eating liquid dishes, a person learns to be satisfied with a smaller amount of food, due to which the walls of the stomach contract and the lumen of the stomach decreases. As a result, excess weight gradually decreases, approaching optimal values.

The method is designed to reduce the load on the digestive organs, while most of the necessary nutritional components still enter the body. Food is quickly digested, without storing fat. Instead, positive processes occur: cleansing from poisons and slags, activating metabolism. All this contributes to weight loss.

Entering the 30-day drinking diet

They write that the most difficult period of the 30-day drinking diet is the beginning. Especially the first day. And this is understandable, since it is always difficult for the body to adapt to a new diet. To help it do this, you need to properly organize the entry into the 30-day drinking diet.

A competent approach consists of a week of preparation for the upcoming regime: during this time, it is necessary to exclude harmful food (fast food, fatty, spicy, sweet dishes), cut portions and increase the amount of water you drink. Sweet, carbonated, alcoholic drinks are excluded from the usual list of drinks.

  • This will help you adapt to the new diet faster.

During the preparation process, adjustments should be made to the daily routine. Those who work out on exercise machines should prevent muscle burning, which is likely in such cases. For this purpose, intensive training, if any, is temporarily stopped.

  • It is known that you cannot forbid yourself from chewing immediately and for a long time.

Preliminary preparation takes this into account as well. A week before the start of the diet program, they begin to limit the portion size and include more liquid dishes in the diet. They develop the habit of drinking a bottle of water per day. These simple rules help to achieve maximum efficiency and avoid harmful consequences for the body.

Exit from the drinking diet for 30 days

The correct way to exit the 30-day drinking diet lasts longer than the diet itself. The goal of exiting is to consolidate the results, help the digestive system reorient itself to standard food, and prevent the return of weight. Otherwise, a sharp transition from a 30-day drinking diet to eating solid foods causes food rejection, constipation, and flatulence.

  • The first seven days include the inclusion of mucous porridge for breakfast. Usually oatmeal is chosen.

The second week starts differently. Breakfast consists of a steamed omelet, hard-boiled eggs or cheese, lunch is porridge, and dinner continues to be a drink.

In the third week, the fruit and vegetable group of products appears on the menu. They have them for dinner (fresh). They make breakfast a drink, and continue to have porridge for lunch.

In the fourth week, radical changes occur. The dieter's lunch menu includes lean meats and fish, boiled if possible. Dinner consists of salads, fruits, and breakfast remains a drink.

The fifth and subsequent weeks recommend the following: arrange one drinking day every week. Or make your dinner a drinking day, drinking kefir, cream soup, jelly in the evening. You should develop healthy habits: do not overeat, do not abuse sweets, do not eat unhealthy food. And also do sports every day, walk or do physical work.

Benefits

The goals of the 30-day drinking diet are to reduce body weight, remove visceral fat that impedes the functioning of the digestive organs, and redistribute the released energy to other activities.

The diet's benefits are determined, among other things, by the lower caloric content of liquid food compared to solid food: if you drink only various drinks throughout the day, the total caloric content will not exceed 1200 kcal. And this is guaranteed to promote weight loss.

And if later, returning to normal food, you do not exceed the calorie figure, then the result will stabilize at the achieved indicator. In addition, with such a system, a useful habit of not eating a lot of food at one time is developed.

  • Not everyone can endure a whole month on liquid food. Even for healthy people, this is a severe test; some nutritionists directly call it torture.

Of course, minus 20 kg is a great motivation, and those who have lost weight confirm this. Doctors warn about the risks and contraindications that are dangerous for the digestive system and health in general. It has happened that new pathologies were discovered in a person as a result of drinking food. Therefore, experts emphasize that it is safer to repeat a short-term course than to "sit" on a monotonous diet for a long time. The result can be just as optimistic, and the harm is definitely less.

What can and what can not?

Before answering the question in more detail: what can you eat? – it is necessary to emphasize the importance of clean water in the daily diet of a person losing weight. It is with this that every morning begins: on an empty stomach, drink a glass of quality water, acidified with a few drops of lemon juice. During the day, the total volume should be brought to 1.5 liters.

  • If it is mineral water, then it must be still.

The rest of the drinks during the 30-day drinking diet consist of the following components: dairy and fermented milk products, broth, fish soup, pureed soups and vegetable infusions, fresh juices, including those with pulp, fruit drinks, herbal or regular teas, compotes, kissels - from berries, fruits, cereals. This is half of the diet. The other half, one and a half liters, is pure water, without gas and sweet impurities.

Recommendations for choosing products and preparing liquid food:

  • Fermented milk products should be prepared at home, if possible. They should be of minimal fat content and have no impurities.
  • Prepare broths not from cubes, but natural ones, with the same seasonings. Filter the finished dish.
  • Juices and smoothies from unsweetened fruits and non-starchy vegetables should be prepared immediately before consumption.
  • Unsweetened coffee and cocoa are allowed in limited quantities.
  • Blend vegetable soups until smooth.

In order to maintain the achieved result, after the completion of the main period, the exit process begins. And in the future, to prevent excess weight, it is recommended to arrange weekly fasting drinking days. Fatty, floury and fried foods should be minimized, overeating should be forgotten, and physical activity should be increased.

What should you not eat? Almost all diets exclude alcohol, carbonated and other sweet drinks, industrial juices with a high concentration of sweet components and all sorts of fillers. The 30-day drinking diet also "does not like" such food. In addition, overeating, late dinners, and eating out of schedule are not recommended. And, of course, the intake of solid foods.

It is important not only what you can't eat, but also when and how much. Thus, a portion of a drink should not exceed a glass, the daily norm should be divided into five meals, and dinner should be eaten no later than three hours before bed. Otherwise, the body may react with swelling.

  • The diet program prohibits eating fat- and sugar-rich, high-calorie and alcoholic drinks. Coffee is not recommended, cocoa is limited and then with the addition of skim milk.

You cannot drink sweet waters and canned juices, rich broths, alcohol, and high-fat dairy products. Even after returning to your normal diet, it is best to avoid these drinks. [ 5 ]

Spicy, fried, smoked, too fatty foods are undesirable both after the complete completion of the diet and after a 2-month exit from it. They, along with overeating and insufficient activity, are the main causes of excess weight.

Contraindications

During a long course of a drinking diet for 30 days, the body becomes unbalanced. The reason is that not all food products can be converted into a liquid state, as a result of which one group of nutritional components may be lacking, while others are present in excess. This is the basis for contraindications that apply to the following groups of people:

  • pregnant and lactating women;
  • having serious digestive problems;
  • diabetics of any type;
  • kidney patients prone to swelling;
  • with thyroid disorders;
  • heart patients, hyper- and hypotensive patients;
  • in case of physical and mental exhaustion, weakened immunity.

It is important to know that rapid weight loss is contraindicated for the body. If you lose 15 or more kilograms in a month, as the drinking diet promises, then this poses a health risk, and due to metabolic disorders, the weight may, on the contrary, increase.

Possible risks

One of the risks associated with the diet is the high probability of failure. With such strict restrictions and a long period, the desire to chew something can become irresistible. This desire can be suppressed in a simple way: chew an apple or some vegetable, but do not swallow the "mush" but spit it out.

  • Distracting yourself with something interesting from thoughts about food is another way to calmly endure the 30-day drinking diet.

A drinking diet provokes the risks of diseases - gastritis and anemia, renal failure and edema. Problems with the skin, heart and blood formation, a decrease in hemoglobin are possible. It can be very difficult for a person losing weight to fight hunger, and an incorrect exit is fraught with anorexia.

Complications

At first, the 30-day drinking diet makes you very hungry and also wants to satisfy your chewing reflex. That is, eat in the usual way, forgetting about the caloric content and consistency of food. Possible complications manifest themselves in the form of hunger attacks, loss of strength, bad mood, drowsiness.

  • There is a bad smell from the mouth and a characteristic coating forms on the tongue.

As a result of a long course, an imbalance of nutritional components occurs in the body. Gastritis, anemia, various complications up to anorexia may develop. The body becomes very susceptible to various diseases. The mental state changes: apathy or irritability is noted.

Detailed menu for every day

When creating a detailed menu for each day, it is necessary to start from the principles of the system. They are as follows:

  • Drinks should be unsweetened and low in fat.
  • The norm for liquid products is 1.5 liters of food and the same amount of clean water.
  • This volume is consumed fractionally: one glass at a time.
  • The last dose should be taken three hours before bed.
  • The diet may be followed no more than once a year.

The 30-day drinking diet almost does not limit the range of traditional products. The main thing is to cook dishes from them according to its requirements: liquid, homogeneous consistency, without fats, hot spices, sweet components. For maximum benefit, it is advisable to refuse industrial carbonated drinks, alcohol, strong coffee.

The daily menu should include:

  • fresh juices in assortment;
  • compotes, fruit drinks, kissels;
  • herbal and industrial teas;
  • meat broths, fish soup;
  • soups and broths from vegetables, meat, milk;
  • milk and fermented milk products.

Liquid diet is digested easier than solid. In a month, the digestive organs get used to solid food, so after completing the diet, it is necessary to retrain them to eat traditionally. In the first week, add one product to one of the meals (for example, an egg, oatmeal or salad). Then the set of dishes is gradually expanded to a normal diet.

Recipes

The diet does not require exotic products and complex recipes. One of its advantages is the ability to cook to your taste, without restrictions and strict recommendations regarding the daily menu. For example, let's take the various types of dishes recommended by the 30-day drinking diet.

  • A popular food for those losing weight is oatmeal jelly.

It is prepared from 0.5 kg of flakes, 100 ml of 1% kefir, 1.5 l of water. All ingredients are placed in a 3 l jar (water at room temperature), closed with a lid and placed in a dark place for two to three days. Bubbles and a characteristic smell are signs that the fermented mass is ready to be transformed into jelly. It is filtered through a colander and cooled in the jar in the refrigerator.

Five spoons of concentrate diluted in 2 glasses of water are brought to a boil and cooked on minimum heat until thickened. To do this, you have to stir the mass for about 5-10 minutes.

  • It is difficult to imagine a drinking diet without fruit drinks.

It is prepared from the pulp of berries, squeezed through cheesecloth. The pulp is poured with boiling water and boiled for 10 minutes. The broth is filtered, cooled, mixed with clean juice. For a liter of water take 50 g of raspberries, red and black currants. A delicious tonic drink is an excellent dietary afternoon snack.

Avocado-cucumber smoothie is prepared in a blender, adding oil and water. For a serving you need half an avocado, 2 cucumbers, 2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil, 0.5 cups of water. The thick drink is quite filling, satisfies hunger well.

Reviews

In positive reviews, women emphasize the effectiveness of the method. 30-year-old Anna lost 8 kg in a month, then, to maintain the result, she organizes drinking weekends once a month. 26-year-old Olga feels great after 10 days of a drinking diet for 30 days; she lost only 2 kg, but she does not stop there and intends to endure 30 days. 41-year-old Inga is happy with the result, as well as the fact that during the diet she fell in love with tea and began to understand the intricacies of tea "no worse than a geisha."

Results

No one can predict the result reliably. We are talking about average indicators, and more specific ones largely depend on individual nuances. In particular, obese people lose weight more intensively.

  • The effectiveness also depends on the volume of liquid drunk, physical activity, and duration of the course.

Usually, during a 30-day drinking diet, the weight decreases by 2–2.5 kg per week. In a month, it comes out to 8 to 10 kg. But these are, again, average figures, the maximum, according to data from various publications, can reach 15 kg.

To maintain the achieved results, a particularly careful and gradual exit from the liquid nutrition system is provided. Without taking precautions, the lost kilograms can return in no less quantity than before the diet.

People who want to follow a drinking diet for 30 days should first try themselves on easier options. This can be a week-long or 14-day course, which gives good results. After successfully completing them, you can start a longer program, but only if you have a strong will and no contraindications. Given the likelihood of complications, it is risky to lose weight on a drinking diet without medical supervision.

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