Meal Replacement Strategy?

jenathp

Living in a house full of skinny teenagers and a fiance that is also skinny is a real challenge! They can all eat junk food, candy, and fatty snacks and never gain a pound...so trying to cook healthy is getting me dirty looks! The finace is a mechanic so he burns calories all day long and man does he have a sweet tooth. He's trying really hard to support me in my mission to lose weight, but at the same time he does love a chunky girl. It's quite the predicament...

So, instead of trying to manage my calories for the first two meals of the day when I'm home alone and working I'm trying meal replacements. Shakes and bars is where I'm starting out. I'm trying the "Lean1 Fat Burning Meal Replacement Shake" in the chocolate flavor right now. It's actually pretty good. I add a tablespoon of peanut butter with the ice and turn it into something different and other days I'm adding peppermint so it's like a chocolate peppermint drink. Anything to keep me interested.

Then for dinner I can cook whatever the family wants (Pasta, meatloaf, steaks and potatoes, etc) and then I can just do portion control by filling the plate with veggies. So I get to eat what I cook, everyone is happy and I don't go over in the calorie department.

So far that's going really well as I've lost 2 pounds this week doing that method instead of .5 pound a week before.

My fingers are crossed that I can continue with this strategy while I lose the weight I want....Have any of you tried this strategy before? Were you able to continue with it? Was it something that you had success in?

I'm trying to lose 70 pounds or so....which would put me at a size 10 (I think) ....so this is a long haul since I've lost a little over 5 pounds. I just started a month ago, so I'm doing good I just want to do BETTER. I've also joined the "Biggest Loser" competition through Work which I'm hoping will add a little competitive edge? It just seems like such a big daunting goal!

dubird

The problem with doing it that way is that what happens when you hit your goal? Will you keep drinking the meal replacement shakes or go back to eating real meals instead? If you're home alone, you can make your own meals however you want to, so I don't see the need to do the meal replacement drinks. If you want to, there's nothing wrong with it, but I know a lot of people will end up not following through because drinking their calories doesn't fill them up as well as eating them. You're probably better off just adjusting your calorie allotment for each meal so most of them are available at night. That's what I ended up doing, and that means I can eat dinner with my husband and have room for a snack since I tend to stay up late.

As for cooking healthy at night, you're the one cooking, not them. It's ok to cook some meals they want, but start researching lower-calorie recipes for what they like. It's better for you, better for them, and if they don't like it, well, they know where the kitchen is. If they want to cook their favorite dinners, let them do it. You'll still have to be careful with portion control, but if it means it gives you time off and teaches your teens how to cook, I'd say it's worth it!

Another thing, if you find the big goal daunting, set smaller mini-goals. Like, 10lbs. You need to recalculate your daily calories every 10 pounds or so, so why not make that a mini goal? Celebrate a little, then set a new goal. You'll have several more smaller accomplishments that might make you feel better about your overall progress.

jenathp

I'm almost 40 so everything is slowing down, it's just part of life. My whole family on my MOm's side is overweight. My sister has to do 4 hours of CrossFit every day just to stay thin-ish. So, ultimately I don't know what I will do when I hit the weight I want to hit...How will I keep it off? I'll either have to do massive amounts of exercise like my sister or stay on a super low calorie diet. Both options kind of suck

The teens won't cook for themselves, they will simply walk to the nearest fast food joint and bring that food back. Or get something out of the freezer that they can microwave .... I have to crack down on that ... they won't even heat up leftovers that are in the fridge!

I'm going to see how long I can last on the MR plan and then see if I can learn to make better choices when I'm at home by myself. Carbs are such a horrible, horrible thing and I have a hard time staying away from them when I make my own food

Obnoxa

dubird wrote: »

The problem with doing it that way is that what happens when you hit your goal?

And that's the problem; even if you do find success with the meal replacements you have to ask yourself if that's a viable solution permenantly. Once you're at goal you still won't have the luxury of eating in a similar pattern to them so where do you go from there?
Boxing yourself in to drinks for good seems a bit risky, but only you can determine if you can commit to that.

Maybe continue with the meal replacements for now, but work towards dropping down to one and then none so it will give your family a little more time to adapt to your eating habits. It will also allow you more time to play around with long term solutions (like making protein dense suppers for the fiance to fill him up while still having easy portion control for yourself).

Regardless of how you choose to do it, good luck!

dubird

jenathp wrote: »

I'm almost 40 so everything is slowing down, it's just part of life. My whole family on my MOm's side is overweight. My sister has to do 4 hours of CrossFit every day just to stay thin-ish. So, ultimately I don't know what I will do when I hit the weight I want to hit...How will I keep it off? I'll either have to do massive amounts of exercise like my sister or stay on a super low calorie diet. Both options kind of suck

The teens won't cook for themselves, they will simply walk to the nearest fast food joint and bring that food back. Or get something out of the freezer that they can microwave .... I have to crack down on that ... they won't even heat up leftovers that are in the fridge!

I'm going to see how long I can last on the MR plan and then see if I can learn to make better choices when I'm at home by myself. Carbs are such a horrible, horrible thing and I have a hard time staying away from them when I make my own food

The reason I'm suggesting not doing the MR shakes is that you need to relearn eating habits. THAT is what will help you keep the weight off when you hit your target. You don't have to jump all in, either. Try changing a couple things at once until you get used to them, then change something else. That worked best for me, YMMV.

Carbs aren't a horrible thing unless you have a medical issue with them (IBS, Chrons, etc.) I eat what most would consider a large amount of carbs most days and have lost weight just fine. So don't feel you HAVE to cut carbs to lose weight. If you WANT to cut carbs, that's up to you. But it's not necessary. Same with exercise. The reason your sister has to do a lot of crossfit is that it makes her burn more calories than she's consuming. Some people do that by lowering the amount they consume, some by upping the calories they burn, most people do a combination of the two. If you focus on lowering the calories you consume, adding exercise in later for other health reasons might be an easier transition.

As for your teens, do they understand that going that route will catch up to them when they're older? I didn't, and once I got a desk job, hello pounds! Besides that, learning to cook is a basic skill everyone should know, and you may have to put your foot down to get them to learn if they don't already.

BZAH10

jenathp wrote: »

I'm almost 40 so everything is slowing down, it's just part of life. My whole family on my MOm's side is overweight. My sister has to do 4 hours of CrossFit every day just to stay thin-ish. So, ultimately I don't know what I will do when I hit the weight I want to hit...How will I keep it off? I'll either have to do massive amounts of exercise like my sister or stay on a super low calorie diet. Both options kind of suck

The teens won't cook for themselves, they will simply walk to the nearest fast food joint and bring that food back. Or get something out of the freezer that they can microwave .... I have to crack down on that ... they won't even heat up leftovers that are in the fridge!

I'm going to see how long I can last on the MR plan and then see if I can learn to make better choices when I'm at home by myself. Carbs are such a horrible, horrible thing and I have a hard time staying away from them when I make my own food

Ouch. I didn't think that was even possible! No, please don't think you need to do that. Also, don't resign yourself to genetics. I can say the same thing. Almost everyone on my mom's side of the family is overweight. I choose not to be. You CAN lose weight without going to unsustainable measures.

Try the meal replacement thing for a while if it works for you. Weight loss and maintenance is an ever-evolving process. What works initially may not work later down the road. Just be consistent with your food logging so that you can track patterns and adjust as needed. Set a good example for your family, but at this late stage of the game, don't expect them to change with you. Later down the road they may learn from your good example. Good luck and stick with it!

ninerbuff

If the intent is to find out how to do it without MR anyway, then do it now. Let's be honest here. If for some reason you do it with MR's and then can't figure out how to do it without them, you'll go back on the MR's. That's "classic" yo-yo dieting.
Create good habitual behavior with your eating and the MR's won't be needed. Don't do it drastically. Just learn a little at a time.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

luvmybee

I agree with the above poster...it's a process and I say to do whatever works for you for now. Maybe it'll help you get the first 20 pounds off. Then maybe you'll tire of it and move to something else. I've lost my weight by rotating between weight watchers and calorie counting. I like to change things up! I'm glad you've found something that's working for you!

jenathp

I'm definately wanting to get off the MR at some point. Right now I'm switching between the shakes and the Atkins bars. The problems I have with carbs is that when I eat them I get MORE and MORE hungry. When I protein load I can do less food and find the urge to snack between meals is gone.

My sister does the Paleo diet and watches what she eats but she also stays at home most of time and only works 3 days a week as a massage therapist. She found the only way to keep the weight off was Paleo and Crossfit. I'm just not that into either one tbh.

I have never been a yo-yo dieter. I have been pretty OK with my size and weight, resigned is more like it. I haven't really put much effort into changing over the years. Now I want to change.

I am counting calories and everything that goes into my mouth with the use of this app (which I LOVE!). I just didn't find that I was able to drop the weight as fast as I'd like. Granted, I've lost 5 pounds in 4 weeks so I'm not doing that bad but since the MR I've lost 2 of those 5 in the last 5 days. Obviously hitting my goal of 1200 calories was too many calories, or not the right type. Who knows. Thanks for all the comments and I'm going to work on getting off the MR once they stop working or I've hit a point where I have enough energy to feel like exercise isn't the bain of my existence.