Oxford University researchers have reported “total meal replacement” diets, which restrict participants to just 810 calories per day for eight weeks, safely enabled more patients to lose more weight – and keep it off for a year with diet support.
Total diet replacement programmes are not generally funded by the NHS in England but the authors of this study, published in the BMJ, suggest that there is now enough evidence for these programmes to be one of the treatments recommended for people who are obese.
The randomised controlled trial involved 278 adults in Oxfordshire who were substantially overweight and interested in losing weight.
