Herbalife

Sheisinlove109

@SmithsonianEmpress

I wrote twice in my short statement "in my opinion"...If I remember right the OP was asking for opinions on Herbalife.

When you write you may not have time for healthy and balanced...I hear ya! I have several kids and many huge tasks to accomplish each day also. I spent a good few months on researching ways to help me eat better in a time crunch. Most take less time and a lot less money. Of course everyone is different, I'm not judging anyone. I was simply responding to the post saying that some of the mountains we think we are going to have to climb are molehills and that before trying anything else to CONSIDER giving those few suggestions a shot. Yes, they are working for me and yes they may not be right for everyone. I have nothing against Herbalife. OP and MFP friends, I wish you all well with accomplishing your goals however you chose to do them.

psuLemon

Dazzler21 wrote: »

pacific904 wrote: »

Would not use it - an acquaintance lost most of her hair after being on it for 9 months and had to have her gallbladder removed. Might have been a coincidence but I will not take the stuff.

That's one of the myths I have heard about most supplements including creatine and even regular whey protein.

Without a doubt it was something else that caused it. Maybe she made too much of a calorie deficit or was going through stress.

No legal supplementation would cause your hair to fall out. No legal meal replacement would either.

bluval89 wrote: »

I use the herbalife F1 dutch chocolate flavor. It works for me and if you add in exercise it helps boost results from that as well. I dont know about the high cost or the business side since i order mine from amazon. I just started back on my weight loss plans monday so i cant really say how its going right now but when i used only herbalife no exercise except for a lot of walking around a OR for work last year i lost 15lbs in 6 weeks and some days i cheated. I dont plan to keep using it though after my supply runs out im just doing gym 3x am and pm workouts a week and this app. I always eat way less calories than MFP recommends and never eat back what i burn will that help as well and i doubled my water intake. Im always confused on the whole eating a deficit thing lol.

You should try to maintain a deficit so if your target at the start of the day is 1500cals (RDA is say 1800 cals) and you burn a further 500 cals doing exercise, you're now at an allowance of 2000 (which includes the deficit of 300 calories still)
So you can eat back some! During cutting fat I tend to eat back some cals, but not all (about a third to half depending on the amount - Under or equal to 500 burned eat back a thirdish, over 500 eat back halfish) to boost results from the increased deficit on such days.

psuLemon wrote: »

Dazzler21 wrote: »

Worth remembering that a lot of the coaches are also PT's.

My best mate was my coach and PT whilst I trialled it. He is also a professional Nutritionist and Exercise Physiologist.

His words to me last night were ''If you don't get a result from the products and don't feel better whilst on them, I don't want you even thinking about being part of the business''

He has trained like a machine since his teens and was stagnant at 3:15ish for years, then he started on Herbalife. He is certain that the 24 range have taken him from a 3:15 Marathon to sub 2:45 in a year. Any runners will know that's a very decent improvement. He is 29 years old so it's not just luck that has got him there.

Maybe he's brainwashed, maybe it's true. I doubt I'll join him with those kind of results, but I definitely won't berate the products as they seem to work.

The business I don't want/need to think about, I am a pretty successful Business Analyst so if I ever do think about it, I will scrutinise everything I learn.

What results are you expecting from it? It's a protein shake. Nothing more, nothing less. If your buddy got results, it certainly wasn't from his protein shake; I find it interesting that he can attribute his results from a supplement when supplementation is such a minuscule part of ones diet and exercise routine. And if you really want to be picky, I'd rather have a whey or isolate shake, rather than one that is mainly a soy based protein. The leucine content is much higher in Whey and Isolates.

I'm not trialling it anymore. I did a 21 day breakfast trial as I don't like eating breakfast and want more nutrition in the morning.
I already had been having a regular Whey Protein Isolate shake every morning and a multi vitamin, so was just switching that out the shake for the F1, the multivitamin remained.

R.e Your questioning of my friend - His results are down to replacing his old supps with the Herbalife 24 Range. Given that he is a qualified and successful Nutritionist and Exercise Physiologist for a well known private hospital, he understands the ingredients and contents far better than I. Seeing as we have been best mates since we were 13/14 I trust his input more than yours on what he believes attributed to his success. No offence intended.

Back to talking about my experience...

I had more energy after day 2, I was able to take in more nutrients and picked less throughout the day. The shake tasted a million times better than the MyProtein equivalent (MyDiet) and my in my time on it I felt a lot better. (I also replaced my cheap protein bars for HL ones which do taste better... it can't be denied!)

Now I am not on it.
It takes a bit more get up and go in the mornings and the MyDiet range tastes like crap, but hey it's about half the price.

I am still in decision mode on whether to return to using HL.

Honestly though, It tasted brilliant which is important. If stuff doesn't taste great, you won't enjoy it. FACT

So to point out, no the supplement wont' cause your hair to fallout, but a nutrition plan can. Many of these plans set calories extremely low (both from direct knowledge and from others; many in the 900-1000 calorie range). That low of calories can cause your body to react poorly and become deficient in some area which can lead to hair loss. It happens frequently with many diet plans. The gallbladder is more likely coincidence as they take a while to fail and have a variety of causes; low fat and low calorie dieting included.


It's fine if you don't believe me, it's your money. But essentially, it's just a fortified protein shake. If you look at the ingredients and look at the meta-analyses you won't see anything special (pretty much universal for all protein shakes). The additional energy could be from a variety of reasons; a previous deficiency or the belief that it's going to be beneficial because a friend recommended.

Ultimately, you should never put all your stake into a person. Expert opinion is the lowest form of opinion. Even the smartest scientist should be questioned. In fact, you have people like Dr. Layne Norton who regularly promote that. The below pic is hierarchy of evidence based practice (taken from Dr. Brad Schoenfeld website).




Either way, I wish you luck.

ETA: Also, if you want, there has been some independent analysis on the quality of these shakes:

https://labdoor.com/rankings/protein

https://labdoor.com/review/herbalife-24-rebuild-strength

https://labdoor.com/review/herbalife-formula-1

The meal replacement is actually fairly accurate in terms of labeling and purity. Their protein shake isn't as good.

Dazzler21

Hi @psuLemon

Thanks for providing some substantial evidence, these are the kind of things all brands should be forced to link to.

It's disgusting that the Rebuild Strength that was tested was clearly incorrect about what it had in its ingredients.

I am glad to hear the F1 is still highly rated as that is what I was on and it did indeed taste great, contained more nutrition than my regular skipped breakfast/ bowl of bran flakes and was enjoyable.

I'll have to share this data with my friends and see his opinion from there. As I say, these aren't products i'd ever push, but I would certainly continue with the F1 breakfast shakes and continue using My Protein's Impact Whey post exercise.

Thanks again for the data.

psuLemon

Dazzler21 wrote: »

Hi @psuLemon

Thanks for providing some substantial evidence, these are the kind of things all brands should be forced to link to.

It's disgusting that the Rebuild Strength that was tested was clearly incorrect about what it had in its ingredients.

I am glad to hear the F1 is still highly rated as that is what I was on and it did indeed taste great, contained more nutrition than my regular skipped breakfast/ bowl of bran flakes and was enjoyable.

I'll have to share this data with my friends and see his opinion from there. As I say, these aren't products i'd ever push, but I would certainly continue with the F1 breakfast shakes and continue using My Protein's Impact Whey post exercise.

Thanks again for the data.

No problem. One thing to keep in mind, many products get changed, so its possible there was a revision in the ingredients since they last tested.