Meal Replacement shakes - yay or nay?
 

Hi all, whats everyones opinion on Meal replacement shakes?

I was thinking of maybe replacing just my dinner every 2nd day with this...

http://www.usnireland.ie/Diet-Shake.asp

Silly idea or a clever way of aiding fat loss?. I'm abit on the fence with this one, any advice??

I don't use them because I am cheap and do not want to spend lots of money on losing weight. Diet foods are $$$. I just make do with eating a lot less and skipping the junk and cutting back big time on the sugar and fats.

So, instead of that shake I would eat a salad.

But if they work for you, then go for it.

After all, the biggest lesson from my dieting experience so far is that there is no one-size-fits-all and what works for you is what you have to do, regardless of what anyone else says (in my case, even the doctor!).

What I;ve been doing (mind that I am counting calories) is eating all my protein during the day then eating veggies at night or vegetarian dished. The benefit to this is: Low calorie, I can eat a lot without it costing me a lot of money nor calories, it sits light in my stomach. Also I do my best to avoid breads at dinner.

I say go buy a bag of frozen broccoli (my favorite) and just eat that with a little salt and pepper. if you're not into the green veggies I "got used to it" by first putting a portion (real portion) of butter in them with a sprinkle of cheese until i appreciated the flavor for the sake of it without all the help.

A bag of veggies is like 1.50 (US) versus however much a shake costs and it's better for you and allows more variety.

As for vegitarian meals lately I've been frying or microwaving bean patties (beef substitutes ones for vegetarian) and putting slices of avocado on them with some kind of low-cal gravy (1/4 a cup turkey is only 25 cal for that portion). with a pile (2 cups) of broccoli usually cut in half so I can eat them by hand cuz' its the manly thing to do LOL.

I've been doing the frozen veggies thing a lot more often now as well. You put it perfectly - I kind of "got used to it". I was NEVER a veggie guy. Restrict carbs? Fine - but I'll take all my calories in meat/cheese/nuts thank you. But now, I'd say I'm beyond "use to" it, and actually like it. 1/2 to 2/3 of my plate is filled with things like broccoli/beans/corn/pea pods/, and the other 1/2 or 1/3 is my typical meat/cheese/nuts/cottage cheese. I'm more full and satisfied than I've ever been, and keeping my calories right around 1800 every day no problem.

I tried the meal replacement shake thing this time last year, and I was a lot hungrier, and cheated a lot more, even with the same calorie target I have now.

Im using opti/medi fast as a meal replacement. I drink 1 shake every 3 hrs and have one low carb man sized meal in the evening. I plan on doing this only for 3 weeks then switching to a lower carb paleo style diet.

Why only 3 weeks? I felt I needed something drastic to break the addiction to sugar that I developed over the past 5 yrs. Will it work who knows, but I lost 5lbs so far.

That's a good idea to break the sugar addiction! I never really thought about that.

I went ahead and bought a tub for €25, sounds like a handy thing to have for breakfast when running late and i will be using it for the odd dinner too so we'll soon find out.

Updates to come..

Well i have to say i'm definately glad i bought this, its preventing my blood sugars from dipping and spiking which help aid slower digestion giving me more energy and also making me feel more satisfied throughout the day.

Oh it also has 5g of fibre per shake which as some of you know will help me alot!..i mix it with water and it tastes great.

Hi,

At the risk of being out of place because I am a woman in the men's corner ;), here's my humble opinion...

I used to drink a lot of meal replacement shakes, not this brand but a different one called Medifast at the recommendation of a doctor. Some of the shakes tasted better than others, most were quite filling but also expensive financially and I was replacing two meals a day with the shakes. I eventually ditched the plan because I craved real food. I did lose some weight with Medifast and I gained some of it back. I personally think it is more important to eat nutritiously. It did help me get rid of some pounds and for some people it can work great but everyone is different.

Good luck!

There is one that I have that is called Metabolic Reset. I mix it with soy or rice milk. I really like it, it helps keeps me full for a while.