All Liquid Diet?

Stay away from Ensure. It's loaded full of artificial sweeteners and it may aggravate the gut. But everything else you mentioned sounds good.

When I was hospitalized a few years ago, I was on a clear liquid diet for 3 days. I was in there for a swollen colon (docs really weren't sure of the cause) but it did allow my gut to rest and get better.

Sometimes doing something "healthy" has an undesired effect. Many UC'rs are low on the digestive enzyme DAO, which helps eliminate dietary histamines. Fruits or fruit smoothies would be very high in histamines. If I drank a bunch of fruit smoothie liquid I would be running to the toilet non stop, 10 times in the next few hours. Just drinking orange juice would do me in. Everyone is different but don't just assume that doing something healthy is going to be good for your UC because you could be very wrong.

Not doing it for the "healthy" aspect, more so for less formed stools to pass through my colon to give it a break. Going to try to stick to soft foods today, see how that does.

I have been on liquid diets on and off. Usually anywhere from 1 week to 1 month. I drink herbal teas, hot lemon water, make shakes (with and without spinach, kale. cooked oats, quinoa, and/or rice), drink juices that are pure, not from concentrate, and of course water. The first few days I have loose/liquid stools because its like I'm be cleaned out. Then it slows down and becomes normal soft BMs 1-3x/day. Finally, I have only 1 BM/day and then reintroduce foods slowly into my diet starting with soft foods. I do not do any processed drinks (i.e. Ensure, Nutramin, Vivonex, Peptamin, etc.) because they have lots of sugar, dairy and an imbalance of nutrients which contribute to diarrhea. A site that has been good for simple shake recipes is greenthickies.com. The shakes use non-dairy, natural food sources and provide lots of opportunities for alternatives.

Not sure what you mean by "Smoothies would kill me too".

Oh I see. Well, that's why there are alternatives. I don't use fruit and or fruit juice in my shakes. I use coconut water, almond milk, rice milk, or just plain water. I use Vega protein powders (not sure if this is in the USA) to get my nutrients and when I can tolerate it I add gluten-free cooked grains for more calories. My shakes are definitely not for health but to give my gut a rest and solid food for me, including low-residue diet) does not work. There is still too much for my body to try and process. I still have trouble during remission period even, to digest protein. Just to hard on my system.

i've done many all liquid fasts. probably 15 total. i can't say that they help my flare but at least they give me nutrients when i just have zero appetite. it's easier for me to drink calories when i'm flaring than eating them.

vomiting is a major problem for me during my flares and i tend to throw up most things i eat. i can sometimes get liquids down so that's what i'll do for a few weeks. my longest only liquid fast was 6 weeks.

i usually stick to absorb plus shakes or other whey protein shakes. absorb plus is my favorite since they are high calorie compared to plain whey protein shakes.

the disease makes what you eat a problem !