Why the soup and shake diet really works (if you can stick to it)

There are plenty of lessons that every dieter can take from this low-calorie plan – without relying only on liquids

After decades of fad diets ruling the roost, the modern weight loss establishment has turned its back on the concept in recent years. Diets don’t work, diets promote eating disorders, diets make you fatter, we’re told. Yet the NHS are rolling out a “soup and shake” diet, which studies show to be effective in combating obesity and even reversing Type 2 diabetes. 
The soup and shake diet is not for the faint of heart. Dieters must endure eight to 12 weeks of consuming nothing but soups, milkshakes and meal replacement bars, only gradually reintroducing ‘normal’ food afterwards. It’s currently available on the NHS to adults under 65 with a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes in the last six years, and a BMI of over 27.
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It introduces a large calorie deficit, with people only consuming 800 to 1,000kcal per day. Despite the difficulty of the diet, of the 1,740 people who had seen it through, 54 per cent managed to complete the gruelling months of eating soups and shakes. I’m not sure how well I would have coped with it myself. Having tried one of the shakes, I wasn’t impressed. What was allegedly ‘banana’ flavour tasted more like liquified wood chips. The meal replacement snack bar wasn’t much better, a cloying and stodgy thing which hurt my jaw to chew through.
However, the results are astounding. Of the hundreds of people who completed the diet, a third lost a lot of weight: two and a half stone (16kg) on average. They were also able to put their Type 2 diabetes into remission. 
Roy Taylor, a professor of medicine and metabolism at the University of Newcastle, devised the diet after having spent “decades listening to people explain why they found dieting difficult”. There were two major problems to solve. Firstly, the issue of hunger, and secondly, the “cumulative day-to-day burden of having to choose what to eat and how much to eat”.
His solution? Packet food sent directly to dieters providing just the right calorie intake to keep hunger at bay. And there are plenty of worthwhile lessons that every dieter can take from his plan – without relying only on soups and shakes. 
The average weight loss in the first week of the soup and shake diet was around half a stone (3.5kg) according to results published in The Lancet. “Getting people feeling better right at the beginning helps boost their confidence and maintain their compliance,” says Prof Taylor. 
Fast results is one of the strengths of the soup and shake diet, says Dr Aneesa Shariff, a member of the Association of Clinical Psychologists UK (ACP-UK). 
“Seeing the progress up front motivates us to continue going with it,” she says. “On more gradual diets which aren’t so drastic, sometimes we see people losing momentum because they aren’t seeing progress, they think it isn’t working, and they stop doing it.” 
“Don’t start a new exercise programme while dieting if you want to lose weight,” Prof Taylor advises. “We did studies to see if we could increase weight loss through exercise, but we soon realised people weren’t losing weight despite getting fitter. I questioned volunteers about it and they told me once they came back from training sessions they felt they’d earned that extra pie.”
Compared to a lot of diets which introduce strict rules, calorie counting, and require dieters to cook a lot of specific recipes or ingredients, having the week’s worth of packet food delivered to you is notably easy. 
“If you take the choice out of it, it becomes a lot more accessible and easier,” says Dr Shariff. “What I hear a lot with clients that I work with is that the effort required to plan meals, go food shopping, buy all the things they need for their particular diet is another job in itself and can be time-consuming; that becomes another barrier.”
“If you’re starting on a diet, it’s a good idea to clear the cupboards, purge the kitchen of any foods that you’re tempted to go and eat which aren’t nutritious. Anything you do to make it harder to access the kinds of foods which you’re trying to reduce will help. If you can’t eat something on an impulse then you might realise you don’t need to eat it at all.” 
The soup and shake diet, despite removing some element of choice, still gives dieters a range of flavours. 
Maintaining your enjoyment of food by ensuring it’s flavoursome and tasty is a key factor of any successful diet, says Jenna Hope, a registered nutritionist and the author of How To Be Healthy. 
“Taking away an individual’s enjoyment of food and the social aspect of eating is unrealistic in the long-term,” Hope explains. “It’ll work in the short term, but so many people drop out because they realise they can’t sustain it. They fall victim to cravings and actually just want to enjoy food again. If you can educate yourself and try to make sure you’re enjoying the diet food as much as your ordinary diet, it becomes much easier to incorporate it into your life.” 
The social aspect of eating is something that Prof Taylor spent a great deal of time considering while he was developing the diet. 
“People need a lot of support during this period of really quite strange behaviour,” says Prof Taylor. “You’re not eating at the table, you’re concentrating on the matter of weight loss. Family support is one of the most important ingredients of success.”
Not just important, but vital, thinks Hope. “If you’ve got someone encouraging you to go to the pub, or someone who is bringing home cakes and chocolate because that’s their way of showing you love, that’ll make it so much more difficult for you.” 
“Be aware that they might need support too,” Hope adds. “If you’re busy, or ‘hangry’, or more invested in changing yourself than you have been, they might not know how to deal with that. Any diet requires the whole family to be on board.”
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People who’ve had success on the soup and shake diet also had the support of NHS professionals. 
“A professional can work with you to tweak things if you’re encountering problems or difficulties,” says Dr Shariff. “You’re accountable to someone in charge, which can be very motivating. There’s somebody else who is invested in your progress.” 
Perhaps the most important element of the soup and shake diet is that it doesn’t end once you’ve finished your eight to 12 weeks of packet food. 
“After the weight loss period, dieters embark on a very careful return to normal eating,” explains Prof Taylor. “Instead of taking three liquid meals per day, they’d drop the evening liquid meal and have a carefully specified normal evening meal: two small new potatoes, 3oz of salmon, and as much broccoli as they like – something like that. We give very clear directions as to this return to normal eating.” 
Having that aftercare and guidance as to how, when, and what to start to reintroduce is the education dieters need to be able to keep the weight off, thinks Dr Shariff. “Having support in place, no matter what diet you’re on is useful,” she says. 
While there are some support counties and councils who offer support for dieters after they’ve finished their programmes, it’s a postcode lottery, Hope explains. “Private nutritionists and dietitians can help people get to a healthier place where they’re better educated about what they’re eating, but I realise that’s not accessible to everyone,” she says. “There’s a lot of information out there, including my book, which cover some of the practical elements of a phased return and make it a bit more accessible. 
“Ideally dieters should start thinking about whether a diet is sustainable, and whether they can keep it up in the long term before they even start it.”
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