Do meal replacement drinks work
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Often, people who have success with these products, don't know WHY they did (which is important if you want weight loss to be long term) and think it's the product that is magical.chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »@ceiswyn because I wanted actaull advice from people that have done the diet or knew people what have or had any sort of helpful advice, not people who have never even tried the diet telling me that I won’t be able to do it
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I’ve done 2 shakes a day for most days for the last 4 years. I use a great quality brand that balances my macros that is super clean without added color and artificial flavorings, non gmo... The bottom line is counting your macros and getting your vitamins and minerals. You can do it. It’s sustainable. Your body doesn’t discriminate “real food” or shakes. It recognizes nutrients. Get them, in the right amounts and you’ll be good. I seriously suggest getting something better than Slim Fast though! Super processed!12
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chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »
Just curious, if you're seeing people recommending these products on YouTube, are they disclosing if they are being paid for the promotion? A lot of the YouTubers now are doing side deals for product promotion since they don't make that much money from the actual view monetization.11 -
chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »@ceiswyn because I wanted actaull advice from people that have done the diet or knew people what have or had any sort of helpful advice, not people who have never even tried the diet telling me that I won’t be able to do it
I, for one, will be fascinated to see how many responses you get from Slim Fast users about their long-term success with weight management.
While we're waiting for Slim Fast users with long-term success with weight management, I will add that I did some other brand of meal replacement drinks for a week and only a week, and the weight I lost that week came right back over the next few weeks.
I do make my own meal replacement smoothies, but they have considerably more calories than 150-200, which is a snack as far as I'm concerned, not a meal.5 -
chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »@ceiswyn because I wanted actaull advice from people that have done the diet or knew people what have or had any sort of helpful advice, not people who have never even tried the diet telling me that I won’t be able to do it
I, for one, will be fascinated to see how many responses you get from Slim Fast users about their long-term success with weight management.
I stuck it out for 2 weeks (back in 2015). I was starving half the time and a raving lunatic the other half. I was miserable to be around and my boss warmly recommended I take my attitude problem else where or they'd arrange for that one way trip themselves.
I'm also nearly 100% certain that that very low calorie and very low fat piece of garbage caused me to lose my gallbladder.
Honestly, anyone thinking of chugging those gross drinks, just don't. They're not worth the time or money you invest in them.
So my long-term success with those? Non-existant.11 -
chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »because I wanted actaull advice from people that have done the diet or knew people what have or had any sort of helpful advice, not people who have never even tried the diet telling me that I won’t be able to do it
My sister-in-law did it using "HorribleLife" products.
She was quite frankly a misery guts, lost weight as you would expect (she's very determined and stuck to it).
But also looked like death warmed up with lank hair and dull and saggy skin, very low energy levels.
Regained all the weight lost when she started eating proper food again.
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chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »
Might they have a financial incentive to be less than truthful about their experience?
Also, there are videos on youtube "proving" the earth is flat, so you may wish to look for a more reputable source of information.12 -
chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »@missysippy930 @TavistockToad because that’s the slimfast diet. 2 shakes a day and 600 calorie meal. You didn’t answer anything i asked lol
I have done Slim Fast......so I guess I'm actually "qualified" to give advice. You're not going to like it though.
Slim Fast is designed so you don't have to bother with logging calories, or learning portion control. This is a website for users to measure and log food, learn portion control.
You are taking the easy way out and I guess we're a bunch of dummies. Here's what I figured out. Weight loss is just the first step. To maintain the weight I lost, I had to figure a few things out, or repeat the weight loss process over and over again. Meal replacement shake sellers love this. They get repeat customers.
Drinking my calories - Slim Fast or other shakes didn't give me the same satisfaction as eating, as chewing, as picking out food I actually wanted.
The shakes "work" ONLY because you are taking in fewer calories. Nothing more. You can eat food you enjoy and lose weight. Slim Fast left me hungry and I got bored with the same shakes over and over.
Because you aren't going to bother with portion control or logging actual food (for the most part) you won't know how many calories you are eating. There is a minimum for meeting nutritional guidelines. Losing fast isn't a good thing.
Drink Slim fast for as long as you can stand it, but have a game plan in place for when you get sick of shakes, and especially for maintenance. A smaller you is going to require (somewhat) fewer calories forever.11 -
They aren't filling at all past about 30 minutes to an hour. I ended up starving trying to wait for dinner. This was years ago. I didn't lose much because it's so difficult to stick to such a strict liquid diet.
There are plenty of low calorie foods that you could have for meals instead. If you have breakfast at all you could do egg white omelette and/or turkey sausage. Real food that can keep you full. There are other options too.
A lot of days I don't eat OR drink anything at all not even coffee or water until lunch time. I have found once I eat or drink anything, even water, I am hungry soon after.
Editing to add: I make sure I get a healthy amount of calories each day. Delaying my intake helps me because I can do 2 bigger meals and some snacks for the rest of the day. I'm having no problems staying in my calories alottment and I eat delicious foods.4 -
Before I started eating LCHF, I used weight loss drinks 2 ways. (1) Hubs & I would take them on road trips in case we couldn't find a place to eat right away and (2) I wasn't very good at portion control, so I would have a canned shake about a 1/2 hour before dinner. So, not starving when I sat down for my meal, I would eat less.
I have been LCHF for 4 months, lost 30lbs., A1c (diabetic) went from dangerous at 10 to normal under 5. I am 72yo and feel great. No bloating, no hunger pangs, no cravings, no crazy moods, no brain fog and plenty of nutrients. (Lots of good advice about low carb on YouTube
) Shakes are not bad of themselves, they are just not good instead of meals. 5 -
chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »@missysippy930 @TavistockToad because that’s the slimfast diet. 2 shakes a day and 600 calorie meal. You didn’t answer anything i asked lol
If you're going to eat a 600 calorie meal then fine, but you said a bowl of fruit - which is not the same thing.
You'll get results if you eat in a calorie deficit consistently. You don't need shakes to do that.11 -
@TavistockToad I said bowl of fruit or a meal.11
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chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »
There are also people who jump off bridges...? In other words, just because someone else did it, doesn't mean it's a good, or healthy idea.
This really isn't a good plan. You may lose weight, but what are you going to do to keep it off afterwards?2 -
chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »@TavistockToad I said bowl of fruit or a meal.
Those two things are not remotely equivalent, and frankly the fact that you seem to think that a bowl of fruit is a reasonable substitute for a 600-calorie meal on what is already a worryingly low-calorie plan is ringing alarm bells for me.14 -
chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »@TavistockToad I said bowl of fruit or a meal.
That's a lot of fruit for 600 cals! :laugh:
Good luck on your journey anyway.5 -
I've tried using meal replacement drinks for weight loss in the past, but they aren't ever as satisfying as real food, so then I also hungry I binge on too many calories. I've had more success finding a reasonable calorie goal on the MFP calculator and planning my food to fit those calories. It's a little extreme feeling at first to weight everything I eat on a food scale, but after a week or so, it became routine. I lost 100lbs this way and kept it off for almost two years. I eat all kinds of foods from all kinds of food groups.
Maybe some people have had luck with meal replacement shakes, but I don't know of anyone personally who has.
Gooduck with your journey.5 -
Very low caloric intakes are not an extremely effective method to create and b promote the conditions that will ensure rebound binge eating--or, just, maybe they are!!!
By all means avoid a reasonable and long term sustainable deficit that will get you to your goal and allow you to experiment and educate yourself as to how you might go about maintaining your weight.
Blunt force always works better than feathering in achieving our goals 1 -
-they don’t taste good. Really hard to get them down after a week or two. Chugging something that tastes gross to get it over with is a really unsatisfying way of “eating”.
- i started craving real food like crazy. Like, fantasizing about food was the only thing getting me through choking them down.
- I lost about 4 pounds. Within a week I was back where I started, except hungrier.
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In high school when I had no idea about weight loss I tried slim fast, I thought all I had to do was have a drink and the weight would come off magically while eating the same exact way. Don’t be silly like me. Just make sure you don’t go over your calories like I did while drinking slim fast and it will work.
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chloerebeccaxx125 wrote: »@missysippy930 @TavistockToad because that’s the slimfast diet. 2 shakes a day and 600 calorie meal. You didn’t answer anything i asked lol
I have done Slim Fast......so I guess I'm actually "qualified" to give advice. You're not going to like it though.
Slim Fast is designed so you don't have to bother with logging calories, or learning portion control. This is a website for users to measure and log food, learn portion control.
You are taking the easy way out and I guess we're a bunch of dummies. Here's what I figured out. Weight loss is just the first step. To maintain the weight I lost, I had to figure a few things out, or repeat the weight loss process over and over again. Meal replacement shake sellers love this. They get repeat customers.
Drinking my calories - Slim Fast or other shakes didn't give me the same satisfaction as eating, as chewing, as picking out food I actually wanted.
The shakes "work" ONLY because you are taking in fewer calories. Nothing more. You can eat food you enjoy and lose weight. Slim Fast left me hungry and I got bored with the same shakes over and over.
Because you aren't going to bother with portion control or logging actual food (for the most part) you won't know how many calories you are eating. There is a minimum for meeting nutritional guidelines. Losing fast isn't a good thing.
Drink Slim fast for as long as you can stand it, but have a game plan in place for when you get sick of shakes, and especially for maintenance. A smaller you is going to require (somewhat) fewer calories forever.
I didn't use Slim-Fast, but I did use another branded "wellness" meal replacement product for close to a year. Yes, I lost weight. But I had the same issue as bolded above - they were not satisfying, and I needed to have a salad or something else on the side so that I felt like I'd "had a meal", since apparently my mind equates eating with actually chewing something rather than drinking.
I stopped using them after a while due to the high cost of the product, and because I'd learned absolutely nothing about portion control or calories I regained all the weight I'd lost - and much more! - within another couple of years or so.
If you really want to use something like this, make sure you choose one with adequate nutrition and make sure you do eat some solid food each day (more than a bowl of fruit!). And, as mentioned, have a plan for when you reach your goal.3
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