Meal Shakes: What’s your eating schedule?

ArtsieSarah

Hey everybody, I just got back into meal replacement shakes. I was trying to have them for lunch but I can barely make it through the day! If you drink meal replacement shakes, which meal do you replace? Are your other 2 meals large or do you space out the calories? TIA!

yirara

Why are you doing this? Most people don't find fluid food very filling, and if it's low calorie then that just leads to giving up.

manderson27

It sounds like the shake meal is not working for you. Maybe try making a large salad with some protein for lunch. Might keep you fuller for longer.

I have tried meal replacement shakes in the past and did not find them helpful at all as I was just as hungry after I had drunk them as I was before so ended up eating real food as well so it became pointless buying them.

Also a lot will depend on what your calorie allowance is. If you have set it to 1200 you may find that is too low and that will not help with your hunger issue.

lg013

I don’t do replacement meals with shakes. I use shakes if I have a day where I’m not hungry and I have a lot of calories to consume to maintain...it’s a quick filler for me

kevinflemming1982

I've been using Stripfast 5000 for breakfast and lunch, with 100ml skimmed milk and 200ml water. I wake at 6am most days and the first shake at 8am gets me through to lunch. I start to feel a bit hungry around 11 or so. Then the second one at 12:00 noon doesn't last as long and I tend to have a little snack (either Fibre One 90 Calorie, fruit, or something), starting dinner around 5-6pm and having a proper filling meal so I don't snack loads in the evening.

Main reason I'm using them, is to get used to having less food in my belly (I used to scoff constantly and have over-the-top meals), but eating enough throughout the day to maintain a healthy deficit. Occasionally, I've been a little below what I should be having, but that's mainly as I'm not particularly hungry or on the rest day.

This is with doing 6 days per week, 30-45 minutes hard exercise (getting a proper sweat!) with weights and cycling. 1500 calories per day, eating back most of what I work off. Using the MFP calculations is a good start, if you're not already. And as mentioned, perhaps try taking the calories that are in the shake and having something proper to eat that is roughly the same. Plenty of foods out there to test it with!

RaphaBianchi

How many calories are in your meal replacement shakes? What is the ratio of protein/fat/carbohydrate?
I'm guessing the shakes are quite low in calories if you're struggling to make it through the day. I've recently been drinking Huel. I have two scoops for breakfast (around 300kcals) and three for lunch (around 450kcals). Then I have an evening meal for around 600kcals. I'll have a few hundred more kcals of snacks throughout the day and that keeps me going.