I’ve tried them all riding the yo-yo dieting circuit for years. I’ve finally lost approximately 100 pounds and am in the best shape of my life, and I’d like to offer you my take on meal replacement diets.
You can certainly lose weight using meal replacement. Losing weight using meal replacement diets is often quick, but it is ineffective for long term weight loss and dangerous for your health.
Meal replacements diets, like Slimfast and the Cookie Diet, are problematic and weight loss for a myriad of reasons.
Meal Replacement Diets and Nutrition
One of the benefits of meal replacement diets is that meal replacements, such as shakes or cookies, are generally formulated with a lot of the nutrients your body needs. This helps offset the nutrition you lack by not eating healthy servings of fruits, vegetables, meats, and nuts.
The goal in meal replacement diets is to reduce the number of calories you intake by controlling them with the meal replacement product. There is a two-fold problem here. One, if your weight problem is caused by uncontrolled overeating or emotional eating these diets do not address the core issue. That means that as soon as you come off the diet you are likely to gain back the weight you loss and add a few more pounds.
It also means that you may be likely to add food to the meal replacement because you do not feel satisfied by the allocated cookie or shake. Obviously, this is going to backfire if you are trying to lose weight. You would be better off eating your meals and drinking water with them instead of a diet shake.
Meal Replacement Diets and Metabolism
Another risk associated with meal replacement diets is the tendency for those who stick rigidly to the diet to eat too few calories. While this will result in immediate weight loss, it will kill your metabolism. Once you lose the weight you want to lose and start eating regularly again the weight will pile back on. In most cases it weight gain is greater than the amount lost by dieting because your body has been starved of essential calories, causing your metabolism to slow down.
The only way to keep your metabolism activated while you diet is to eat frequent, small healthy meals that include healthy carbohydrates and protein and exercise. Building muscle mass is a great way to increase your metabolism. Muscles have to be fed; therefore they use more calories even at rest than if you are just losing weight and not building lean muscles.
Meal Replacement Diets and Blood Sugar
We have already determined that meal replacement diets either starve your body knocking out your metabolism or cause you to eat more because they do not satisfy you. An additional problem with meal replacement diets is their sugar content.
One of the biggest problems in America is our sweet tooth. The problem with sugar consumption is that while it provides quick energy, because of its high glycemic index. They glycemic index is the rate at which carbohydrates break down in your body to be used for fuel. Sugar breaks down very quickly, flooding the blood stream. This can trigger either hyperglacemia, which leads to diabetes, or hypoglaucemia which leads to weakness, fatigue, and fainting spells. In both cases, extreme changes in blood sugar can lead to coma. This is the extreme, but simple sugar and simple carbohydrate intake wreaks havoc with your body’s ability to effectively burn carbohydrates for fuel at the cellular level.
Meal Replacement Diets and Long Term Weight Loss
Meal replacement diets are just that, “diets.” Even if you successfully lose weight on a meal replacement program you have one of two choices. Stay on the diet program for the rest of your life, or severely restrict your calorie intake and/or significantly increase your activity level.
Simply stopping a meal replacement diet and reverting to normal eating behaviors will result in weight gain. It’s an endless cycle.
The Final Word on Meal Replacement Diets, Weight Loss, and Fitness
I don’t believe that meal replacement diets are the answer for long term weight loss and fitness. In fact, I think the entire concept of a “diet” should be thrown out in favor of healthy lifestyle changes that result in weight loss and overall fitness.
Time has proven that meal replacement diets don’t work. I know it is easy to be drawn in by testimonials, but be aware that most people who offer testimonials for any diet have been remunerated for their endorsement. They have also been assisted in weight loss and fitness.
You know by now, that the results you see on TV and in print media are not typical, nor do they tell the story of what happens when these people get off the meal replacement diet.
Save yourself time, money, and disappointment by avoiding meal replacement diets. You will also save the toll that these diets take on your body.
The best diet is no diet at all. The best way to lose weight and get fit is to change your eating habits for life and implement exercise into your lifestyle three to five days a week.
