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We’ll tell you the secret to weight loss. Consume fewer calories than you burn off. Simple, right? Well, it seems simple. In practice, it’s much harder. This is because you need to not only cut your calorie intake but also ensure that you’re getting the right nutrients into your diet. You also need to deal with all those awful hunger pangs associated with losing weight. Thankfully, there are options. Opting for a meal replacement shake for weight loss is one of the better ones.
While many of our readers may have heard of meal replacement shakes, we understand that some people may not be 100% sure what they are, or even how to use them. Our goal here is to tell you everything you really need to know about meal replacement shakes. We’ll cover the pros of using them, the downsides, how to use them, and even how to choose a great meal replacement shake to help you meet your weight loss goals.
Since we’ve got a lot to cover here, let’s just jump right on in!
What is a Meal Replacement Shake?
A meal replacement shake does what it says on the tin – it is meant to be a replacement for a meal.
Meal replacement shakes are loaded with enough nutrients (especially proteins) that they can be used to replace a meal or two per day (not more than that, but we’ll discuss that soon).
The reason people opt for meal replacement shakes is that while they are loaded with many of the nutrients a person needs, they are often far lower in calories than a typical meal. In fact, most meal replacement shakes will be between 150-400 calories per serving, a fraction of what a full meal with the same nutrients would be.
Because meal replacement shakes are lower in calories, they are often used to help people lose weight quickly. As we said at the start – the key to successful weight loss is to consume fewer calories than you burn, and if one of your meals per day is a weight-loss shake, your ability to do this will be so much better.
So, if you’re looking to lose weight quickly, then it may be worth looking into using a meal replacement shake for weight loss. It is not the only thing you need to do. You’ll still need to plan your other foods well, plus do some exercise. However, you’ll be making your life so much easier when you use a meal replacement shake on a regular basis. You could shave weeks, if not months, off your quest toward your weight loss goals.
How Meal Replacement Shakes Can Help You with Muscle-Building Goals
While most people will use their meal replacement to lose weight, you can benefit from some light muscle-building with the shake, or at least you shouldn’t lose as much muscle when you are dieting.
Meal replacement shakes have low calories due to protein. These shakes are loaded with protein. A meal replacement with protein shake’s protein density will fill you up (ensuring you consume less), while also giving your body the nutrients that it needs with low calories to suit. However, this increased calorie count also has another benefit.
If you’ve ever tried to lose weight before, you’ll know that you’ll lose muscle mass. This is because, during periods of eating less, your body will start to burn off the energy stored in your muscles. The only way to combat this is to do two things:
- Work out, with a focus on your muscles.
- Load your body with protein, to help give your muscles the energy they need to build themselves up.
Do those two things, and we promise you that you will keep most, if not all, of your muscle density when you are losing weight. In fact, depending on what your muscles looked like before you may even see a few gains.
Now, we do want to point out at this point that a meal replacement with protein shake is not going to give you the same boost to your muscles as a typical protein shake would, but that’s fine. You aren’t looking for epic gains when you are trying to lose weight. That’s something that will come a lot later.
How Should Meal Replacement Shakes Be Used?
Most people use a meal replacement to lose weight incorrectly. They are of the belief that every single meal that you eat per day should be replaced with a meal replacement powder for weight loss. It shouldn’t be. There are three reasons for this:
- You wouldn’t get enough nutrients.
- You wouldn’t get enough calories.
- It is just plain boring, which means you would struggle to meet your weight loss goals as you’d be craving unhealthier food to fill that void.
For most people, replacing just one meal per day with the meal replacement shake for weight loss is fine. You can go up to twice per day, but it may be a bit more difficult. If you do go for twice per day, then you best make sure that the third meal you consume is incredibly healthy, otherwise, you would struggle to get everything you need into your system.
Our recommendation is that you start with one meal replacement shake per day, and see how that goes. Most people should find this is more than enough. For most people, having that one meal replacement shake rather than their standard meal will cut a good 400-500 calories out of their diet per day, and this is enough to see quick weight loss. Of course, see what works for you. Just make sure that not everything you consume is a meal replacement, or it will have the opposite effect on you.
The Pros of a Meal Replacement Shake
Now you know a little bit about what a meal replacement powder for weight loss is, we’re going to take a dive into the pros and cons of meal replacement shakes. We’ll start with the pros.
Low Calories
As we said – most meal replacement shakes are under 400 calories. As you know, when you’re trying to lose weight, you need to pay attention to the number of calories you’re pouring into your body. Too many, and you’ll gain weight, too few, and you won’t lose weight anywhere near as quickly as you want.
Meal replacement shakes for weight loss have one of the best calorie-to-nutrient ratios. There’s nothing that you can cook yourself that would come even close to the calories and nutrient density that you find in a meal replacement shake.
Because of their low-calorie content, meal replacement shakes can help you to lose weight quickly. We can’t think of a quicker way to lose weight, short of doing hours and hours of working out per day and having a very restrictive diet (and we mean so restrictive you may lose out on essential nutrients).
Many people who are looking to lose weight will use meal replacement shakes. It is a terrific way to get the ball rolling. You can switch up your diet later, but if you’ve struggled to lose weight in the past, a meal replacement shake may be just what you need to get started.
Loaded with Nutrients
Meal replacement shakes are loaded with essential nutrients. While the bulk of the meal replacement shake will be protein, carbs, and fiber, there’ll also be essential vitamins in there too. As we said – there is barely a meal that you could easily cook that would be as nutritious as a meal replacement shake.
This is highly beneficial. Many people who are losing weight struggle to plan their diets correctly. This often results in them taking in far, far fewer nutrients than they need. This can cause all sorts of health issues. A meal replacement powder for weight loss keeps everything nice and topped up, ensuring healthier weight loss.
Because meal replacement shakes are so nutrient-dense, it can also reduce cravings. Anybody who has ever attempted to lose weight will know that it is the cravings that often cause you to stop your diet dead in its tracks. These cravings are, often, down to poor nutrition. The meal replacement shake will help to combat this, helping you to stay on track. Ultimately, this means faster weight loss.
Added Fiber
All quality meal replacement shakes for weight loss will have fiber in them. There are two benefits to this:
- Fiber helps you to feel full.
- Fiber aids digestion.
The first benefit is very important. A lot of the time, when you eat fewer calories, you’ll feel hungrier faster. This will lead to you snacking which, of course, will stop your weight loss. Because of the high fiber content of quality meal replacement shakes, this won’t be an issue. The meal replacement shake could keep you going until your next meal.
The digestion part is also important. You won’t feel as bloated with meal replacement shakes, and the meal replacement shake will help keep your system ticking over properly.
Scientifically Proven to Reduce Weight Loss
There are very few weight loss options out there that have been scientifically proven to reduce weight. Meal replacement shakes are. Study after study has demonstrated that those who consume meal replacement shakes lose weight far quicker than those who try to lose weight using any other method!
So, if you want the only scientifically proven method, then check out meal replacement shakes for weight loss.
Affordable
We often recommend meal replacement shakes for lunch. There are two reasons:
- They are very easy to prepare (takes minutes)
- They are cheap.
A lot of people struggle with lunch. When you’re at work, unless you prepare something yourself beforehand, you’re looking at a rather hefty price tag for lunch. And, let’s be honest, most people don’t want to put in the effort to make themselves lunch before they head to work, often leading to people making unhealthier choices. A meal replacement shake will prevent that.
Per portion, a meal replacement shake for weight loss works out cheaper than most quality lunches. You also don’t need to put any effort into making them. It takes minutes, and you can do it at work!
So, using a meal replacement shake during your weight loss journey will not only help you lose weight, but you’ll save some money too.
The Downsides of Using a Meal Replacement Shake
Of course, no weight loss solution is perfect, and there are a few downsides to using meal replacement shakes.
Artificial Ingredients
While there will be natural ingredients in quality meal replacement shakes, almost every single one of them will have some artificial ingredients in there due to the way they are processed. The artificial ingredients can also help to boost nutritional density while reducing calorie count.
Artificial ingredients are not necessarily that bad. You have them enough in your day-to-day life. You just don’t want to consume too many of them, so always opt for meal replacement shakes that are lower on the artificial ingredients front.
Low Calories
We covered this before, but most people think that meal replacement shakes can be used to replace every meal. They can’t. Meal replacement shakes are low in calories, and while they can replace one meal per day if you use them more than a couple of times per day, you are likely to get hungry.
We suppose this isn’t a massive downside to meal replacement shakes as the whole idea of them is to reduce calorie consumption. It is just that you need to be prepared to be a bit hungry, and for them not to replace every meal. You’ll need to eat quality meals, the odd meal replacement shake, and snack well too.
Hard to Find Quality Products
The meal replacement shake industry is inundated with products. Lots of them and, to be honest, many of them are not that great. This makes it difficult to find quality meal replacement shakes for weight loss. They are out there, though. That leads us neatly to our final section.
How to Choose a Meal Replacement Shake for Weight Loss
We want to wrap up by giving you a few tips that should make choosing a meal replacement shake for weight loss so much easier. This should help you to avoid the terrible products!
Protein Is Important
Protein is at the heart of any good meal replacement. There should be at least 15 grams of protein per serving. Anything less than that, and chances are that the meal replacement shake won’t be that good for you. You’ll probably lose muscle, and you’ll just be hungry.
The Meal Replacement Needs Fiber
As we said before – fiber is essential in a meal replacement shake. While protein will fill up your stomach, it is fiber that will keep you feeling full. Fiber will prevent you from needing too often. Despite this, many meal replacement shakes for weight loss don’t have any fiber in them. Well, they do, but the amount of fiber is so negligible that it isn’t worth buying them.
At the very minimum, the weight loss meal replacement shake that you chose should have at least 5g of dietary fiber per serving, but the more there is, the better. Take the HARMONIFY Meal Replacement Shake. It boasts a huge 6g of dietary fiber, which is perfect for helping you to limit calories without feeling hungry.
Check for Vitamins and Minerals
The whole idea of having a meal replacement shake is so that you can skip a meal. To do this, the shake still needs to have some vitamins inside it. If it doesn’t, the meal replacement shake is pointless.
This is why it is ever so important that you look for a meal replacement powder that’s loaded with vitamins and minerals. The more there are, the better. Take the HARMONIFY Meal Replacement Shake we mentioned previously, there are over 40 ingredients, which means 25 different vitamins and minerals. It is better than taking a vitamin supplement!
Check for Natural Ingredients
No meal replacement shake will be 100% natural. However, they should be majority natural ingredients. So, always read through the ingredient list. If you see things like ‘vegetable blend’, ‘fruit blend’, etc. then you know that you’ve got a great product on your hands. If you just see loads of complicated chemical names, give the product a skip.
Low Sugar Content
Because meal replacement shakes rarely taste great, a lot of companies load them with sugar. Sure, it adds flavor, but if you’re losing weight, the last thing you want is more sugar in your diet. This is why it is essential that any product you buy is low in sugar. We’re talking under 1g of sugar per serving. Any more than that, and it isn’t worth buying the protein shake.
Of course, if you have a low-sugar supplement, it won’t taste as great as one loaded with sugar. So, always look for products with a reasonably good flavor to them. Chocolate and vanilla flavors work well with meal-replacement shakes. They have enough sweetness to them to make a meal replacement shake palatable.
Check Overall Product Reviews
Remember – always look at product recommendations from other people. If people are constantly touting how great a particular product is, then chances are that it is pretty great. This is why we’ve recommended a meal replacement shake on this page. It is one we’ve used ourselves, and it is great!
Science has demonstrated, repeatedly, that those who consume meal replacement shakes for weight loss will shed their excess weight faster than somebody who doesn’t. So, if you have weight loss in mind, get a meal replacement powder. You need to make sure you get a quality one, though. This is why we recommend the HARMONIFY Meal Replacement Shake, it is one of the most popular meal replacement shakes on the market right now, and for good reason!
