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Meal Replacement Diets
Meal replacement diets come in all shapes and sizes often being marketed with amazing testimonials about how easy they are to carry out and how much weight can be lost.
While weight loss is definitely possible with meal replacement programs it may not be as easy and enjoyable as celebrities or past users make it seem.
Meal Replacement Diet Basics
The basic premise behind the theory of meal replacement is for the dieter to switch out two meals a day with products that are designed to curb appetite and that reduce their caloric intake. The dieter is then encouraged to eat a portion controlled, healthy dinner. Meal replacement products are usually in the form of shakes, soups, bars, cookies, and drinks.
Basically meal replacement diets are very low calorie diets in that the average calorie intake is only between 800 and 1000 calories a day. This is why many can achieve such fast results with these programs. However, these products can be expensive and many gain the weight back after they quit using the products because the dieter hasn’t learned to adjust portion size or hasn’t addressed the underlying emotional causes of overeating.
Popular Meal Replacement Diets
| Medifast | A doctor recommended low-calorie diet for based on shakes and other food supplements (more appropriate for those with more than 30 pounds to lose). |
| Biggest Loser Club | Offers shakes, bars, soups, and snacks which are available online or from selected retailers. |
| Celebrity Slim | Soups, shakes, and bars to replace 2 meals and snacks. Available in Australia and New Zealand. |
| Dr. Seigals Cookie Diet | 2 meals are replaced by eating 6 specially designed cookies when hungry through out the day. |
| Herbalife Shapeworks | 2 meals are replaced each day with Herbalife Shapeworks products. |
| HMR at Home | Shakes, entrees, and soups offered by HMR clinics. |
| Lighter Life | UK based diet that offers shake based meal replacement. |
| Lose It! Weight Loss System | USA based with shakes, bars, and puddings as well as dieting support. |
| New Lifestyle Diet | Providing affordable diet shakes, puddings, soups, and bars on the market today. Delivers across USA. |
| OPTIFAST | Clinic-based obesity weight-loss program available in USA and Canada; employs liquid diet of shakes. |
| Slim-Fast | Replaces 2 meals a day with powdered shakes, RTD Shakes, or bars. |
| Smart For Life | Replaces 2 meals a day with 6 nutritious cookies. |
| Soypal | Replaces 2 meals a day with cookies and other products that are soy based. |
| Special K Diet | 2 meals a day are replaced with Special K Cereal and 1/2 cup reduced fat milk. |
| Weight Loss Bar by Exante™ | Our big, tasty nutrition weight loss bars are handmade for you,
with none of the ‘bad’ things that we ban from our other products. |
Are Meal Replacement Diets Safe?
As with any new diet, it is important to consult your physician before beginning a meal replacement plan. Some plans are medically supervised because of the risks involved in a very low Calorie Diet. However, if these programs are done correctly, they are generally safe. It is usually people with underlying health problems or people who do not adhere to the meal replacement program guidelines that have problems.
Another negative aspect of these programs is that the meal replacement products are often highly processed.
Dieting is hard so I think that its ok to give yourself a good kickstart, with maybe the 3 day diet and then try and maintain good eating habbits after you have reached your goal weight.
One very popular one u missed out is Cambridge Diet. It is exactly the same as Lighter Life but its been around since the 80′s apparently. It works to perfection but it is the hardest diet u will ever come across. it needs discipline and determination. but it works and u lose about a stone a month. Its also very simple and convenient
I use a meal replacement shake twice a day. I replace breakfast and lunch with the shake, and eat two healthy snacks a day and a healthy dinner. This has really changed my life. I am at my ideal weight and have been able to keep it off.
Meal Replacement Diets, including the ones you quotes, are NOT very low calorie diets at all. Generally, proper use of them involves consuming between 1400 and 1600 calories per day, as it states in the directions for use. Usually, one would have 2 shakes/bars etc, 2 or 3 100 calorie snacks, and a 600 calorie meal, which in no way constitutes a VLCD.