Weight loss is often portrayed as a very tricky subject. Don’t get me wrong; nutrition is very complex and losing weight is a very complicated process involving lots of different chemicals and organs, but it’s also quite a simple thing to achieve – eat less and exercise more so that your body has to burn stored body fat for energy.
There are lots of ways to do this – including diets, exercise programs, and even fat burning supplements – but I still believe that meal replacement shakes are one of the easiest ways to not just lose weight but to keep it off too.
The problem with most diets is that they aren’t designed for long-term use and, after a few weeks or a couple of months, you have had about all you can take of such a strict eating regimen. As a result, many people who follow very strict diets regain a lot of the weight they have lost when they go back to their old way of eating.
In part, this is a sort of rebellion against having been told not to eat certain foods for so long.
Over 90% of people who lose weight through dieting regain that or even more weight within a year of finishing their diet. Talk about a waste of time!
So, what you need is a diet that a) you can stick to for a long time and b) won’t cause you to overeat. I think the answer is meal replacement shakes.
With a meal replacement shake diet, YOU are the boss so you should never feel deprived or unhappy about your food choices. After all, you choose which meals you replace, you eat regular meals the rest of the time, and you can stay on a meal replacement diet for as long as you want because they are safe, easy, and healthy.
I initially lost weight using quite a strict meal replacement diet where I replaced two meals per day for a few weeks in a row. Then, as I got closer to my target weight, I switched to just one meal replacement shake per day until I reached my goal. Now, anytime I think that I need a little boost or I’m in danger of gaining back any of the weight I worked so hard to lose, I have a shake or two just to get me back on track. You see, I have never really stopped using meal replacement shakes which has made sure I stay close to my target weight.
Conclusion
So, to answer the question at the start of this article, you can use meal replacement shakes pretty much indefinitely. They aren’t just good for weight loss, but they can help you maintain your new, lower weight too. However, make sure you also include healthy, solid meals in your eating plan because, even though meal replacement shakes are healthy, you still need “real” food too.
Ask Sarah
Send me your questions and I’ll do my best to provide the best answers. Find more readers questions here.
My weight loss plan using Meal Replacement Shakes
15 Meal Replacement Shakes Recipes
Available in 2 Formats: PDF and iBooks
One email per week, exclusive content, no ads, and, of course, you can unsubscribe anytime you want.
2 Comments
I literally have a ton of weight to lose that is why I asked how long can I stay on protein shakes. Can you recommend store bought shakes?
Hi April, These are the shakes that I prefer and I do recommend. It’s very easy to prepare a simple shake or add a few ingredients to make more yummy. You can find my top 3 recommendations here. Good luck