# Is ensure-and-water a viable long-term weight loss regimen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414 "2005-11-04T03:20:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/1 "2005-11-04T03:20:18Z")
In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=342575), **Qadgop the Mercotan** says the following as to what would happen if someone consumed only Ensure[TM] and water: > [@](#): > > The stomach shrinks, and stools become quite infrequent, of small volume, and pretty soft. > > Then most folks just get out of the habit of eating. After a few weeks most folks don’t have anything in the way of hunger pangs or physical sensations. So, after approximately a month-long trial-by-fire, it sounds as though someone on a pure Ensure-and-water diet would stop feeling hungry. Would this make for a viable long-term weight-loss regimen, with little chance of falling off the wagon due to getting “out of the habit of eating”? ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/2 "2005-11-04T04:24:17Z")
I strongly STRONGLY doubt it. I believe they even say “not intended as a sole means of nutrition or for weightloss” on the package. Not enough calories. You colon will be sad without fiber. Not sure there’s enough protein, either. IANAD, but I feel confident in saying this is a Bad Idea. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/3 "2005-11-04T04:33:00Z")
Other issues aside, you’d pretty much have to sequester yourself to have a chance of sticking to it. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/4 "2005-11-04T04:35:45Z")
[Here](http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=weight.loss&category=diet.strategies&conitem=884a99edbbbd201099edbbbd2010cfe793cd ____ ) is a Men’s Health article about why meal replacements work. Food for further thought? ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/5 "2005-11-04T04:46:08Z")
I hate to beat the same old drum, but: The thing that got you to the weight you are now is the life you led up until now. You want to change that, you are going to have to find a new way to live. Not a diet in the sense of reduction of calories in a specific term of days/months. Not even years. Find out when, where, and why you eat. What you eat is not nearly as important as those things. Now plan yourself a new set of daily living habits that keep those things in mind. Find out when where and why you exercise. Do the same for that. Now you know the life you need to live to moderate your weight. And it will not happen fast. Note that this is the same plan for loosing, or gaining weight. It is very boring, and not at all easy. But it does actually address the cause of your particular weight problem. Calories in, versus calories used, over time. Changing one is not effective, because it causes your metabolism to adjust to conserve body mass, particularly fat. Change both, and don’t change by an extreme amount. Set up a lifetime of habits that are acceptable to you, and you can live by them for the rest of your life. Set up a crash diet, and eventually, you have to stop it. Tris ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/6 "2005-11-04T19:34:54Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > Would this make for a viable long-term weight-loss regimen, with little chance of falling off the wagon due to getting “out of the habit of eating”? Fad diets are just that. Once completed you fall back on old habits and balloon up et once again. A healthy well rounded diet with small meals more often, cadriovascular exercise three days a week BEFORE breakfas, alternating with weight lifting on alternate days three hours after breakfast or other meal, and a commitment to healty living beats any “Magic” diet. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/7 "2005-11-04T20:39:14Z")
You might be able to survive, but the reality check on doing this is that no one sane is going to do this difficult, unpleasant and somewhat expensive exercise unless they are aiming for a VERY restricted level of calories (otherwise why bother). Starvation diets are fraught with nutritional problems as the body will begin to take what it needs from your bone, teeth, muscle mass, organs etc. in addition to your fat, and this can have very serious negative health consequences. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/8 "2005-11-07T23:45:00Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > The thing that got you to the weight you are now is the life you led up until now. You want to change that, you are going to have to find a new way to live. Yeah, but I want a new way to live that’ll be _easy._ Or at least one that won’t require constant vigilance to keep from falling off the wagon. ---
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/9 "2005-11-08T01:09:22Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > Yeah, but I want a new way to live that’ll be _easy._ Or at least one that won’t require constant vigilance to keep from falling off the wagon. Man, we’d all like that, and not just for _eating_. Alas, I’m not sure it’s possible. A drastic diet might be a doctor’s recommendation in extreme obesity, but I don’t the doctor would keep you on it for any length of time. I have a hunch that a major factor in obesity is genetics. Not the only factor, to be sure, but one that we have to account for. Two people might have the same eating habits and the same non-nutritional “uses” for food but only the one with a genetic propensity for obesity is going to plump up. So, until they figure out that one, I will, you will, and everybody else that wants to keep the weight off will have to be vigilant and work harder. I hope that this _does_ sound unfair, because I think it _is_. To quote Bill Watterson’s Calvin: “I don’t care that life’s unfair, I just wish it would be unfair to _my advantage_.” Until that happens to me, I intend to work at it and be vigilant. The payoff is pretty good. I have lost about 60 lbs in 8 months using the Weight Watchers program, and the payoff is great! But WW is **completely** about being vigilant and working hard. Mebbe, though, it’s not as hard as being on a liquid diet in a world full of food… ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/10 "2005-11-08T01:21:08Z")
Drink too much ensure, and you’ll get fat too. I’ve currently got a patient whose only nutrition is an ensure-like liquid, and when he got too much, his weight rose above his ideal weight. ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/11 "2005-11-08T02:11:40Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > Changing one is not effective, because it causes your metabolism to adjust to conserve body mass, particularly fat. Change both, and don’t change by an extreme amount. Why both? Same calories + increased activity or even increased calories + greater increased activity = reduced fat and increased bone and muscle mass. And it’s really cool not to have to watch your caloric intake. Watch your food quality, yes, but not quantity. This is only possible if you can find a physical activity you can really get into. I suggest not exercise, but sport. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/12 "2005-11-08T02:29:21Z")
> [@Hoodoo Ulove](#): > > Why both? Same calories + increased activity or even increased calories + greater increased activity = reduced fat and increased bone and muscle mass. . The habits of a lifetime need to be maintainable, and reasonable. Sports are great; I have no objection there. Training yourself to a level of physical development that included very high levels of exercise is not ineffective, but it involves a lifetime commitment to high levels of exercise. Some people get old. Those people need to establish habits of diet that include reasonable, and rational levels of caloric intake that can be adjusted as daily activity levels change. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ensure-and-water-a-viable-long-term-weight-loss-regimen/329414/13 "2005-11-08T02:40:01Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > Some people get old. That would include myself. There’s age-group competition. Tris, I don’t think we have a real disagreement here, I’m just a freak for sport, and evangelizing a little.