Gallstones take years to develop. At least 50% of people do have at least 1 gallstone, and most never produce symptoms. People who go on unbalanced diets and lose weight rapidly have developed symptoms and been found to have gallstones. It is thought that the associated loss of muscle, protein, electrolytes, etc. during an unbalanced diet causes precipitation of minerals in the gallbladder and aggravates stone formation as well as colic or pain. It should be noted that diets that are balanced and result in only fat loss, and not in the loss of normal healthy tissue, are not associated with stone formation or colic.
When someone is on a low fat diet, the gallbladder rests and does not pass bile into the intestinal tract. But if someone does have an existing stone, and then has a fatty meal, the gallbladder does force bile out into the intestinal tract and may lodge an existing stone into the bile duct and cause colic or pain.
Because gallstones take years to develop, and because our patients lose fatty tissue and not healthy lean tissue, it is not possible for a patient to develop a stone as a result of being on our diet.