So... here is my perspective on those notorious and what seem to be ever so popular "diet shakes".
The average diet shake contains approximately 215 calories - whereas it contains lots of essential vitamins and minerals, it tends to be also quite high in sugars and not a very satisfying meal. Using these shakes you are meant to replace 2 meals a day (breakfast and lunch normally) with one of these shakes, snack on up to 2 low calorie, low fat snacks (about 100 calories each) and eat one balanced normal meal of around 600calories. Giving you a grand total of 1200 calories a day.
Whereas this may seem easy, the willpower you need to sustain this for a few weeks is immense. A shake can taste pretty manky and fake, is not filling, relies on you using milk (some people are intolerant to dairy and lactose) and they also don't release energy slowly over a long period of time, leaving you feeling hungry. As they are quite sweet, they can encourage your body to prepare for a big physical session as often follows when your sweet tastebuds are activated, if this doesn't happen, then you are likely to start storing fat. This is one of the reasons that using some sweeteners may not help that much with weight loss if not supported by exercise.
Diet shakes can only be used short term and in my opinion, there are plenty of healthy 200 or thereabouts alternatives which will leave you feeling MUCH fuller and slowly realease energy. On top of that, they taste soooo much better.
Here is one of my favourites. It is balanced and provides plenty of protein and low GI carbohydrate to help keep you fuller for longer!
Healthy Lunchtime Tuna Fish Sandwich
Ingredients:
60g Drained Tuna Fish in Brine (sunflower oil will add more fat and calories)
2 x 22g slices of Hovis Nimble Wholemeal Bread
1 teaspoon light mayonnaise
35g sliced tomato (about 1/2 a salad tomato)
15g chopped red onion
I know it's a sandwich but if you make it this way it will hold together better! Spread the mayonnaise on the bread 1/4 teaspoon each side- this will help make it stick together better! Mix the chopped onion and tuna fish together and fill the sandwich with this, place the sliced tomatoes in and Voila! One healthy sandwich.
Energy: 207kCal
Carbohydrates: 19g
Fat: 2 g
Protein: 21g
And how about this for a healthy low fat and low GI breakfast:
Healthy Porridge with Prunes
Ingredients:
40g Scottish Porridge Oats
75ml skimmed milk
175ml water
1 teaspoon clear honey
25g stoned and chopped dried prunes
To make the porridge add the water and milk to the oats in a pan and heat til thickened, or place the water, milk and porridge oats and microwave for about 2 or 3 minutes, check it regularly so it doesn't boil over on the microwave and give a stir to make sure its cooked through properly. Add the teaspoon of honey to sweeten and the prunes, mix and eat! Just make sure its not too hot before you eat it!
Energy: 223kCal
Carbohydrates: 40g
Fat: 3g
Protein: 7g
On top of that, there are a number of ready meals out in the supermarkets that are around the 200 calorie mark which make quick light meals for the day. Tesco do a Light Choices ready meal (find in the chilled ready meals aisle) which is only 200 calories - minced beef and potatoes. It's ideal for lunch or a light dinner. Supplement with lots of fresh steamed or boiled vegetables if having for dinner and you will find it filling and tasty.
My experience with diet shakes was not great, I suffered badly with the large quantities of milk I was consuming a day (about a pint!) and found myself "crashing" after the sugar levels had depleted. They taste pretty synthetic and I ended up gaining weight, probably due to my exercise regime being in the evening and not after the shakes.
However, I found that using protein shakes by companies such as Maximuscle (for men) and Maxitone (for women) I felt less hungry and lost some weight. However these are very expensive and also don't taste that nice. Not synthetic, but just a bit manky! The strawberry and chocolate ones weren't too bad but they are made with water so do taste exactly like the powder in water even with the texture. Benefits are that they often have a few extra metabolism boosters, full of protein - great if you're wanting to achieve toning but not lose weight but if you are trying to lose weight, they provide support for developing lean muscle tissue. In addition, they are very low GI and 30kCal less per serving than your regular diet shake.
Summary:
Diet shakes cannot be used long term
They tend not to be sustainable
They do not leave you feeling satisfied
Being made with milk they can cause you stomach/gut discomfort AND bloating
They taste pretty poor
They can be expensive
There are better actual food meals that could replace these and leave you feeling fuller for longer and provide better nutrients.
If you want more on this topic, let me know and I'll write more!
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