Slim-Fast
Slim Fast is a weight loss program that substitutes cooked meals with shakes and bars. The program is over 25 years old, and is currently a brand owned by Unilever.
Background
Slim Fast has been a popular choice for weight loss. However in recent years, Unilever has struggled with declining sales – at first blaming the popularity of Atkins. The original Slim-Fast shakes were criticized for being too high in sugar. This was rectified by replacing sugar with the artificial sweetener Splenda. The new range of Slim-Fast products are called Optima.
Slim Fast Products
The Slim Fast offerings comprise the following:

- Optima – Shakes (Ready-to-Drink), Bars, Smoothies, and Powders
- Original – Shakes (Ready-to-Drink), Bars, Smoothies, and Powders
- High Protein – Shakes and Meal Bars
A typical shake (Optima Cappuccino Delight) contains the following:
- 5g Fat
- 24g Carbohydrate
- 10g Protein
- 180 Calories
- 24 Vitamins and Minerals
Diet Plan
The diet involves replacing two main meals with Slim-Fast products. Each day will also include one “Sensible Meal”, and fruit/vegetable snacks. A sensible meal is based around a lean protein (such as skinless chicken breast, or fish), carbohydrate (potato, rice, or whole wheat bread), and a large serving of vegetables.
Sample Meal Plan
| Breakfast Optima Cappuccino Shake & 1 slice frozen French toast with 1 Tbsp light syrup |
| Snack 1 cup grapes |
| Lunch SlimĀ·Fast Optima French Vanilla Shake & 1/2 roast beef sandwich (2 oz. Roast beef, 1 slice whole wheat bread, 1 tbsp horseradish, lettuce, tomato) |
| Afternoon Snack 1 apple |
| Dinner Chicken Veggies Grill:
1 cup melon |
| Snack One slice low fat pound cake OR Peanut Butter crunch Snack bar. |
Find other healthy low Calorie recipes here.
Is Slim Fast Successful?
The Slim Fast diet is a sensible and workable plan, and many people find the convenience of using meal replacements outweighs other diet plans.
There is one study that Slim Fast cite claiming that “People who followed The SlimĀ·Fast Plan routinely to lose and manage their weight were, on average, 33 pounds thinner after a decade as compared to a matched group from the same community who did not participate in the study. (reference: Blackburn GL. et al. Obesity Research 2003;11:A103)”



Hey guys…I am currently doing the Slim Fast plan. I have pictures posted from when I started (Jan 1, 2009) and just posted recent pictures. I will keep posting pictures every two weeks until I get to my ideal weight. If you want to track my weight loss with me and see if Slim Fast really does work…come check out my site! http://www.xanga.com/mofab
Good Luck Catherine! I’m thinking about the slimfast program…I haven’t tried the powder shake mix. Which is the best flavor? The bars are great though. And does anyone know of a coupon website for coupons for slimfast products?
i jus started slim fast yetersday, & i do think this is going to be somethng i can follow, do you guys snakc after a shake like a fruit or do yas just drink the shakes n do the dinner?
I’M GOIN TO START SLIM FAST JANUARY 5,2009(TOMORROW). AND I WILL COME BACK WITH RESULTS ON APRIL. WISH ME LUCK.
I used slimfast but apparently didn’t get enough fiber or whatever because it made going to the bathroom very difficult and painful. Never stayed on the plan because I couldn’t stand the bathroom issues.
I weigh approx. 135 lbs, and am only 5’2″. The only area it shows is my stomach, the rest of my body is thin. Therefore i would like to drop to around 125. I do not have the time to prepare food and cook (breakfast and lunch) to successfully follow the other diets on this site. Therefore i checked into SlimFast for the convenience of the meals. For those of you that have tried this diet, and were successful, how much time did you spend on exercise? Other than walking, do you recommend any other exercises that were successful to you??
I am excited about slim fast diet, not sure how much it is going to be effective for me. From http://www.dietspace.com/diets/slim-fast/ I understand this to work. Lets see…
I’m gonna go try slimfast 4 a while.& c how it goes! I had a shake b4 when I was little didn’t taste 2 good but I need 2 loose atleast 10 or 15 lbs!! I weigh 140
I used Slim Fast in 2003, substituting shakes for breakfast & lunch Mon – Fri. I lost 50lbs in 6 mos. Also lowered my cholesterol. But once I stopped using the plan, I gained the weight back….EVERY POUND.
is slim fast actually good to loss weigh???, because every time i see the percent of fat and carbohydrate is very high..
I had gastric bypass a year ago and have to have a high protein diet. I can’t handle the protein shakes, but love the slim fast peanut caramal high protein bars. Now my wal-mart store says that bar has been discontinued. Is that on wal-mart’s end or on yours. I can’t stand chocolate and that’s the only other choice you give chocolate haters. What’s the deal? Who’s going to help us picky folks out? Why is it that you have to eat chocolate or you don’t get any other choice? Come on, give us some other flavors!
Someone who weighs 120 doesnt need to lose any weight.
I love this diet I’ve lost about 5 lbs. in two weeks. I had got off it, but now I’m back on again and I love it!!!!!
I am small framed but tall. I weight 135 lbs and 5’8″. I definately look the best at 126-128. So I am trying to lose 9lbs. I am counting calories and eating fruit for breakfast, a sensible lunch and doing a shake for dinner…I am a HUGE comfort food eater…so trying to eliminate that bad late night eating..will let you know in 2 weeks how its going!!
I weigh 120 pounds but am short and need to lose 5-8 pounds. What plan do i follow?
I’ve been on the Slim Fast program since November 2007. I have lost 30 lbs. I have hit plateaus, which lasted approx. 1 to 2 weeks. Never gained during those periods. It seems that if I just continued being consistent with the plan, it would just kick back in and I would lose another 5-8 lbs. before I hit my next plateau. When you hit one, DON’T give up. One little trick I noticed was when I hit one of those plateaus, I consistently eat 2 servings of Low Fat Cottage cheese with my lunch shake ea. day., rather than a sandwich. This still provides less than 200 cals., and also provides approx. 28 grams of protein to go along with the 10 grams of protein in your shake. Sometimes I throw a couple of slices of strawberries, or some blueberries, etc. (a little applesauce with cinnamon is good, as well. I do this for a week straight and it seems as though that is all I have to do to get through my plateau. Just take away some of your carbs. for a little while. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE AND DON’T GIVE UP. SLIMFAST IS A HEALTHY WAY TO WEIGHT LOSS!!
I agree with anonymous, this is just another excuse people have used for not losing weight! When you’re sick and tired of being sick…. and tired….. all the time you won’t let a website being down hold you back from reaching your weight goal. I’ve been in their shoes before using any and every excuse I could find to come up with an excuse as to why I couldn’t lose weight. Before having my daughter I had lost 45lbs. walking and watching what I ate, after having a miscarriage and feeling sorry for myself I began to slack up on my walking and started eating all the wrong things. I got up to around 150lbs and then found out I was expecting. After two years of making excuses I’m finally ready to lose the weight and trust me nothing will hold me back from reaching my goal!
I have an issue with the people blaming the website being down as the reason why they will no longer use slim-fast. Are you serious? Even though you are losing weight, the website is your reason? That’s just another excuse to not go through with your weight loss goals. A journal made from paper that you can buy at any store will do just as good a job, if not better, of keeping track of your weight, calories, food intake…all of it. It may be a little more work on your part but so what? It’s still you taking control of your eating habits. But if you MUST have a website to track what you eat, there are all kinds of generic sites where you can track any type of food, log your weight and your exercise and all that. Since looking those up might be an issue as well, here’s one…sparkpeople.com
wow i’m proud of u good job!!!
ive been on this deit for about 18 months ive lost 170 pounds
What impact does Slim Fast have on Cholestrol?
It’s completely ridiculous that the site is down, especially for how long it has been down. I really want to sign up and I can’t. I think i sat here for 45 minutes trying to figuire out why it wouldn’t let me register until i came here and realized their site is down. They need to state on their home page that their site is down.. not after you look through everything!
I, too, really wanted to use the slim fast website, which has been down for “maintenance” for over 30 days now. I found an alternative! I’m using their Canadian site! http://www.slimfast.ca/en Good Luck!!
Why is the website down for so long – it is ridiculous – not even an explanation of what is going on. I doubt I will ever use Slimfast again.
I’ve been trying to begin my weightloss plan with slimfast many days now, but due to the website being down I havent been very successful. This is VERY unprofessional to have their website down this long. Im so frustrated that Im moving on to something else to guide me in my weightloss. There is no excuse to have a website down this long!
The slimfast website promised to be there to help me lose weight. I used their journal, and logged my weigh-ins on their site. Then they closed their site for mainentance almost 6 weeks ago and haven’t brought it back up yet. No explanation. Just that it’s undergoing maintenance. 6 weeks of maintenance? Get real. I’m so angry with them that even though the program was working for me I won’t use them again… The website was a wonderful rug that was pulled out from under my feet. I think they are jerks and hoping anyone with any success gains all their weight back during this time.
Anyway, their products have too much fat and sugar and not enough nutrition. It’s cruel to promise to be there and say hey use our website as the foundation of your weight lose program and then take it away without even so much as an apology or the delay.
I have beeb doing slimfast for awhile and fell in love BUT I moving away from it considering the fact that slim-fast contains saturated fat, too much sugar, hydrogenated oils, and it is artificialy flavored. These are all the main things to stay away from.
I have tried the Slimfast plan and lost 30 lbs and have kept it off for almost 2 years. I still follow the plan to a degree to maintain the weight loss.
I would like for everyone to know, who are thinking about losing weight and have tried everything under the sun with no results, to look at the slim-fast plan. Slim-fast was the only diet plan that I have tried that have given me such dramatic results. I am a large framed woman with large bones. I am 5ft 8inches tall and I weighed 253 pounds. I have been on the slim-fast plan for six weeks and have lost 17 pounds. I have never dropped weight so fast in my entire life. I take a shake for breakfast, another for lunch, and eat a nice supper. I feel so much better. Try it everyone, and you will like it.
After doubling my weight over the last 10 years, I struggled to get and keep my weight off. So far, I’ve been on the Slim Fast diet for one week, and I have lost almost 6 pounds! Thank you Slim Fast!!!!