How will meal replacement shakes help you with your weight loss?
When it comes to losing weight, most people follow a series of mistakes that will only grant them with short-term results – that is, if they don’t end up with health problems first. Most people believe that the best way to lose weight is by following crash diets. A crash diet is, to put it simply, an extremely restrictive meal plan intended to shed pounds quickly and is unsustainable in the long term.
Crash diets are successful ways to lose considerable weight since the body is subjected to a high amount of stress. But unfortunately, this stress can also lead to health issues, like stomach pains, blood pressure problems and many other. A person is almost guaranteed to quickly gain back the lost weight when the diet is over. It’s also likely that extra weight will be gained, due to the body’s reaction to this diet, as it prepares for another starvation.
But then there is the question of how to lose weight in a safe manner, with long-term results. When you decide it is time to lose some weight, you have to do it gradually, and it has to mean a change in lifestyle. Meaning that once you manage to lose some weight, you will have to stick to the healthy diet and exercise programs you started in order to maintain a good physical shape.
Now, if you are a busy person and want to avoid fast-foods or unhealthy foods, in order to lose weight, meal replacements shakes can be the best option. Still, these shakes are great even for the people who do have time to serve proper meals, just because they offer diversity and are so fun to enjoy.
It’s all about the calories
Now that you found out you can use meal replacement shakes for weight loss, you probably want to know how they can help you. These shakes can assist in a number of ways. The entire point of balancing the diet and losing weight is to be careful about how many calories you consume daily, through your food. The reason you gain weight is because you eat too many calories than your body needed to consume for its daily activities. So the extra got stored as fats. Thus, since a meal replacement shake is very low on calories, it is an excellent way to cut their numbers on a daily basis. They will manage to replace a meal nutritionally but will have less than half the calories a standard meal will have. Of course, that doesn’t mean you will keep on consuming just shakes or that they’re all that you should consume. Weight loss shakes are not a sustainable diet for long term use. It is best if you get the advice of a nutritionist regarding the number of calories your body needs for a proper daily functioning and efficient weight loss.
Forget about the starvation myth
You may think that if you eat less, your body will adjust and feel less hungry. This is not the case. Instead, eating too little will make a person to feel constantly hungry because the body does not receive the proper amounts of nutrients needed on a daily basis. But consuming fewer calories does not mean starvation, as long as the body receive the amount it requires. Also, meal replacements shakes are filled with fiber. And fiber is the secret to keep the stomach busy for a good while and your mind away from food. Not to mention the high amount of minerals and vitamins, which will provide the necessary energy to get you through the day. So no trace of hunger here either.
Some numbers may help you understand better
A traditional hearty breakfast usually contains 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, and the traditional 3 strips of bacon. That means about 750 calories that go into your body after just this meal. Now, a meal replacement shake has around 300 calories, depending on what you mix in with it. By replacing a 750 calorie breakfast with a 300 calorie meal replacement shake, you will lose about 450 calories without feeling hungry later. A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. By simply replacing a typical breakfast with a shake you will be that much closer to getting rid of 1 pound per week, just by doing this.
If you choose to replace two meals per day, that will be about 1000 calories cut off from your daily diet. Not to mention that making slight changes in your diet, like eating healthier, will also save you a few calories. A walk, a slight jog, or a few physical exercises, will also burn calories, so the daily intake improves in a great deal. Still, don’t try too hard as it is not healthy to put your body through such a great stress. The best weight loss, which will also stabilize in time and stick with you, is for 1 to 2 pounds maximum every week. If you fasten the pace, you may risk putting that back.
Managing the calories
It is easy to know how many calories a meal replacement shake has, as it is written on the label. Still, other foods you may prepare at home will not have this info written on them, so it may be a bit tricky to get used to counting calories. But it is an effort you must do if you wish to get your body balanced. You will find plenty information on the Internet regarding the number of calories foods have, or even better, you can use an efficient mobile app, which will do the math for you. Thus, you must add the number of calories from the shake, snacks, and other meals you enjoy during the day, to make sure you are not exceeding the daily limit. Even if it may seem like a poor diet, you will be amazed how many foods you can enjoy, keep your belly fool, your energy up and still be in the right calorie range. Not to mention the great help of the shakes, with their rich content in fibers and nutrients, which are so easy to take and do so much for your diet. You will see in the end that healthy dieting is not that hard, and it will offer you long term results, as long as you stick to the healthy habits you develop.