Anyone ever tried meal replacement shakes?

Post Reply New Topic

Trying to lose some fat. BMI (20 year old woman) is 28.5 and body fat is approximately 35%. I'm both overweight and overfat so I need to do some exercise and healthy eating. You see, if you just focus on losing weight, you might lose weight you actually need, like bone or muscle, and that's bad. Then, your body fat could be obese. (I hate umbrella terms, and they put overweight people lumped with the obese people. Imo, obese looks like 36%+ for older teens to younger adults so 16-39 basically, because 30's is still young and for women, 30-35% looks more overfat/overweight, and healthy is usually fitness and acceptable body fat.) people that Some people on a fitness forum gave some good tips, so I plan on doing them. I've bought some meal replacement shakes, but I need to buy some more. Has anybody have any experience with them? I've tried a couple of them: The Atkins Vanilla Shakes and Soylent Mint Chocolate. I plan on getting a box of GNC Meal Replacement Thin Mint and Soylent Mint Chocolate box. I might get Ample's Vanilla Cinnamon and Wonderslim Vanilla afterwards. I also wouldn't mind trying Exante's Lemon Cheesecake or any of the other GNC flavors either. I've also had Walmart's Equate Vanilla brand before, and I like it. My favourite flavors are usually Mint Chocolate and Vanilla. When they're 100-200 calories, I usually eat a medium sized banana, or a medium sized apple, or two small cuties with the drink. If they're 300-700 calories, I usually just drink them by themselves.

I tried them, and got problems with my digestive system. Better replace some junk foods with healthy and natural snacks

I haven't tried them and don't intend to.
They're not food.
I find fruit and nuts are useful for getting a nutrition hit, potentially they could replace a meal.

they burn my stomach and I'd get gastric reflux.. I think they are a scam!

I'm sorry that happened to you. I think it depends on the brand though. I've been using GNC and Soylent. I use the GNC one with fruit and just use the Soylent one by itself since it has plenty.

I never used meal replacement shakes but I did use protein shakes. Weight reduction takes place when a person restricts the amount of food that they eat. They eat much smaller meals. The problem with eating smaller meal size is that your body needs a certain amount of protein otherwise it will try and scavenger protein from the rest of your body. There are different types of protein shakes. The best protein shakes are those with a high amount of protein (>20 grams per serving) and a minimal amount of sugars (almost zero carbs). Everyone has their own taste buds, so it is important to try a variety and then down-select the one that you tolerate the best. For me it was Muscle Milk Light powder blended using a Ninja blender with water and half a banana.

They're essential for me for making sure that overload/executive dysfunction doesn't lead to missed meals, because sometimes I just don't have the spoons for anything else.

That said, I wouldn't generally recommend them for weight loss. They're not very filling, so you might be inclined to snack afterwards, and if you end up having a meal replacement plus a snack, you'll have more calories than if you just ate a full meal to start with. If you're looking to lose weight, meal replacements are only going to help if the alternative is junk food for a meal, which I sometimes accidentally do when I forget it's mealtime.