Today i have started a meal replacement shake diet. Planning on taking it morning and lunch and having a healthy meal for dinner with my partner and kids. Has any one done this and what were your results? I also attend the gym 4 times a week.

During the work week it is extremely easy, convenient and simple to replace breakfast at work, at my desk, with a Glucerna diabetic meal replacement shake. 200 calories, well balanced, no sugar spikes and crashes. Then a snack before lunch and sometimes if I'm so busy its hard to get away for a proper lunch, I will have another Glucerna (sometimes by design) and another afternoon snack. The results are good. I never use them on the weekend--I bring them to and leave them at work.

Then, there are other times when I rationalize that 200 calories of real food, actual chewing, metabolizing, breaking down and digesting is an optimal choice.

The meal replacement shakes have their place in a diet in that the work is done for you and they are a "mindless" enough. You should get good results so long as you calorie wise fit them into your day. I do like to have a fruit 2 hours later tho.

I have been using shakes as an aid to get the calories i cant stand to eat. I was a one meal a day late eater. getting in the amount of calories i needed each day was very hard as my drinks were 0 cal and most of my food that i wanted (not that i forced) was from salads. so i would eat a huge salad and my whole meal would be under 100 cal, i found myself full and wondering how in the heck was i ever going to get 1800 cals in in a day like this.. so i found shakes which when made with milk added 200+ cals when drank between meals two or three times a day.. i reached 1750 or so in cals before I knew it. they have been a huge help also if youre like me and enjoy ice cream or a late night snack. i will make my shakes with milk and add some ice to my single serve blender. the blender fluffs up the product making it fill you easier and faster and the ice/milk reminds me of ice cream or a milkshake. ive had no cravings to slip back to real ice cream... so far so good!

I still use protein shakes, usually first thing in AM, helps me get started on the day.

Protein shakes have really helped me get the calories I need too. I don't want a lot of the higher calorie food I used to eat and I find that the lower calorie, not-processed food I eat now doesn't quite get me to where I need to maintain.

I never thought I would like protein shakes...but I throw a bunch of PB2 in mine and they taste HEAVENLY. And like you said, if you throw enough ice in there it reminds you of ice cream yet it's a whole lot healthier for you

I drink a Myoplex lite shake every lunch at work. It fills me up when I'm not extremely hungry and if I am, I just eat some tuna and use it as extra protein.

I've never used them exclusively on a diet, but I use them as the supplements they are. For me:

Pros: Relatively cheap in bulk, somewhat tasty, convenient, can get a ton of protein quickly
Cons: Not satiating for the calories, too easy to drink quickly

the body by vi shake is misleading. i was going to try it bec a friend of mine is a distributor but when i investigated, i found that the shake itself only has 12g protein - the only way to get the claimed 22g protein is to mix it with milk so now it's not 90cal per serving any more, but closer to (181 if you use skim milk).

i use fitsmart fibre35 - available in normal health stores, not through a special distributor who's looking to make a commission - and one 140cal serving has 10gr fibre and 20gr protein when mixed with water.

the other issue i have is that it is the devil's own luck to find actual information - usually, you find charts that say things like "as much calcium as 'x' glasses of milk" or "as much fibre as [so many] prunes" which smacks of puffery and snake oil to me. they shouldn't make it so hard to find actual numbers.

btw, sandraz: you've posted twice only and both times you promote your body by vi business. if i'm not allowed to mention my own straight-up, normal, ordinary business, i don't think you're allowed to recruit for MLM.

I drink protein shakes after my workouts and with breakfast in the morning. I don't replace meals with them, because I mix them with water and I don't find them very filling or satisfying. But they are a great way to get lots of extra protein and they are excellent after a workout. They are especially useful on high-calorie days, as I have no idea how to get 1680 calories in a day without resorting to fast-food.

On the other hand, the one I drink doesn't taste very well (I'm too afraid to try different flavors, so I just get the one that's supposed to taste like chocolate). I also drink it too fast because I don't like it a lot and it makes me a bit gassy.

steak is great for filling in caloric gaps, lol

I just posted a thread yesterday before seeing this. I am on my fourth day of drinking Ideal Shape shakes twice a day (replacing breakfast and lunch). I'm using it to kick off my weight loss. I'm chasing after two toddlers all day and I love the fact that they're mindless nutrition.

that's the scary part - i'm at the point now where my alarm goes off and i'm all "*sigh* now i have to think what to eat again...." and start reaching for the shake. if i didn't keep on top of myself, it'd be shakes all day.