Hi Billie
I can only explain about the milk diet I am on as so many places are different.
My weight management programme is 8 weeks on milk only then 8 weeks of milk and food then the final 8 weeks of food only.
The milk side of it I had to drink 5 pints of semi skimmed milk per day, with this I had to have a drink made with one stock cube (I used OXO) per day, this is for the salt content ( I found this part the most difficult and was told at the end of the 8 weeks that I could have changed this for a salt tablet). With this I also have to take a Multivitamin tablet per day which also contained minerals. I found the diet quite easy - after a few days I think I went into Ketosis as was feeling pretty crappy, but after that, no other side affects at all. I also had to drink 2 pints of water per day. So I drank tea for half of that (I drink it black, but could have used some milk from my daily quota for this). I also used some of my milk quota with sugar free jellies, this was a godsend, helped to lessen the amount of liquid I had to drink. I couldn't quite make the 5 pints per day, I ended up mostly having 4.5 pints.
I lost 16 kilos in 8 weeks.
I am now on 3 pints of milk per day with two meals, one of 200 cals and the other 400 cals. This for me is harder than the milk only, feel hungrier and have the urge to snack, thankfully I don't have anything in the house to do that, so just end up having 1/4 pint milk to get over it. Weight loss not so quick on this part for me. Have lost 4 kgs in 3 weeks.
Sometimes wish I had the money to go private as it seems a long drawn out process with NHS, I have been on this journey since July 2012 and wish I was closer to an op. than I am.
Good luck on your journey.
Pamala