An extremely low calorie liquid diet can help severely obese people shed almost half their body fat, experts have found.
Specialists have helped a Victorian man lose more than 70kg in a year by putting him on a strict portion-controlled, calorie-precise diet.
Reporting the case in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, endocrinologists from the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne said the 59-year-old man suffered from diabetes and hypertension and weighed 170kg.
The morbidly obese man was given meal replacement formulas for five months, and slowly added in low-fat meals over the following seven months.
"Over the 12 months, the patient's weight fell steadily," wrote lead author Priya Sumithran.
"At one-year follow-up he had lost 43 per cent of his initial weight."
His body mass index (BMI) dropped from 47 to 27, in the "overweight" range, a loss comparable to bariatric surgery, regarded as the current most effective long-term weight loss treatment option for obesity.
The specialists said the trial was the first proof very low calorie diets could be used safely and effectively beyond the usual two to four month diet period.
However, they warned it could only be undertaken under close medical supervision and they could not be certain that he would be able to maintain his new slimmer shape.
"Weight maintenance will be his next major challenge," Dr Sumithran said.
Statistics show 2.4 million Australian adults have a BMI over 30. Most are regarded as "obese", with smaller but growing numbers fitting the morbidly obese or even super obese category for BMIs over 40 and 50, respectively.
Very low calorie diets have had safety concerns in the past, mostly stemming from the deaths of more than 60 people on one popular diet liquid protein diet in the 1970s.
Dr Sumithran said the diets in current use "contain high-quality protein and appear to be safe".
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