You are here: Home / Archives for replacement’

Meal Replacement Diets: Designed to Decrease Your Weight

March 22, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

So you have just made a decision that it’s time to lose some weight. The only problem is, your completely confused about where to start and just how to approach a better eating plan that will work with your daily schedule. One of the biggest keys to losing weight successfully is eating a little less calories each day that your body normally requires.

This approach may seem slow to begin with, but the results will be long lasting because it is easy to make the small changes a habit. One of the biggest problems with most diet plans available is the large amount of change required. Some of the more popular plans out there require drastic changes to the way you eat daily. This will not only create confusion, but it can be quite tiring with all the calorie counting or by denying yourself the foods you love.

Usually quite soon, you drop the diet plan and your weight loss stops and starts to reverse itself into weight gain. One way to start a new weight loss plan is to begin using the “replacement diet“. This diet takes many of the foods you currently eat and replaces them with foods that are comparable, yet healthier for you. This will enable you to start losing weight without many of the struggles of changing to an entirely new lifestyle.

Some of these key replacements include:

Soda Drinks

The average soda drink contains about 150 calories. Changing over to a calorie-free soda can add up to a difference in calories of about 1050 per week if you consumed one can per day. These numbers are larger for bigger bottles.

Breads

Try substituting your regular traditional style bread that contains around 70 to 75 calories a slice with lower carb tortillas or wraps. These types of bread usually have as little as 50 calories each. This can be a difference of around 100 calories for a sandwich and also the fiber content of these breads are higher that will allow you to feel more full for longer.

Vegetables

Not all vegetables contain low calories. Carrots, corn and green beans especially, tend to have higher amounts of calories from their natural sugar content than other green vegetables. Switching to lower calorie green vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli can drop your calories a little more.

Eggs

Try leaving the yolk of an egg in the shell. The yolk contains by far the most calories of the entire egg. On the other hand, the egg whites contain only around 15 calories per egg. Try putting two egg whites in a low carb wrap and you have yourself a perfect snack that contains only 75 calories.

If you spend some time on it, you can find many places in your diet that can be modified slightly to lower the overall calorie count without sacrificing too much taste. By approaching your diet from this viewpoint you can still eat all of the foods that you like, just in a slightly different way that makes weight loss that little bit easier. The more manageable you make your diet, the more able you are to stay on it for the long-term.

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , ,

Meal Replacement Shakes: Speeding Up Weight Loss Safely

March 16, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

It is interesting to note some thirty years ago, ‘meal replacement’ was a term the scientific community gave to diets they rejected as fads. In the mid 70′s, liquid diets of all kinds were being used, some safe and some unsafe.   However, 30 plus years down the track with much research, development and testing meal replacements have advanced a long way with the aide of the scientific community.

It is important to understand that meal replacement food technology is now used, not only for dieters but has also become a vital factor in hospitals for some patients.   The reason meal replacements have advanced so positively now is  ‘science’  of food technology.   Many more nutrients such as protein, good carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and micro nutrients can be added to a meal replacement.

This enables the user to consume far more nutrition in one meal than they could possibly eat in normal foods.   For example in one meal replacement known, one serving of a meal replacement meal is equal in nutrients to approximately 1300 calories of normal food from the proper food chain.   At the same time the meal replacement serving is only 100 calories.   It is then plain to see the popularity of a good quality meal replacement for losing weight without compromising health. To give more credit to the benefit of meal replacements and assurance of their benefit and safety to weight loss we need to look at their usage in a much more vital way.

I mention they are used in hospitals for some patients.   This is perhaps where science really began to see the benefit of advancing this technology and certainly it has been a tremendous advantage for certain patients.   We now see many patients in hospitals for various reasons comatose for weeks and months. How were these patients to live with out food?  The answer quite simply comes from intravenous fed meal replacement type nutrition. Hence, not only are the patients fed while comatose, but fed well. The understanding of nutrition and what the body needs has come a long way.

Muscle mass and the prevention of losing it is not only vital to dieters but also to bed ridden patients.   This is where the necessity for protein in the human diet has been realized to be of great importance and as a result, it is greatly used in meal replacement products both for diet products and patients in hospitals.   Realizing this, companies now put great resources into finding and including the best grade of protein in their products. Another argument that comes up with meal replacement dieting is the cause to actually eat less natural food, therefore compromising the metabolism.

It is important to note as this argument comes up,  to remember the body is actually fed with important nutrients and perhaps more with meal replacements than normal food. Add to this, less energy used by the body to digest bulk food, there is actually a lot of energy preserved, therefore elevating the tiredness a person feels when the body  works over time in the digestion process.

After a nutritious meal replacement you do not feel this tiredness therefore people are more likely to feel energetic and likely to be more active.   This preserved energy leads to an individual being more motivated to exercise and increase metabolism further. Many individuals may ask, how do I know which meal replacement is the best as there are so many in the market place?  The answer to this question is simple in the process of elimination.

Choice Magazine did an article some months ago on meal replacement products.   It was interesting to note in this article that not all products can be labeled ‘meal replacement’.   In some countries there are health department labeling laws.   These laws have a requirement of a certain amount of nutritional ingredients to be included in a product in order for a company to call a product a ‘Meal Replacement’.

This then makes it easy for us to recognize whether a product is in fact a meal replacement giving us enough nutrients.   Make sure you look on the cans and sachets of what may look like a meal replacement, that it is clearly labeled as such. In conclusion meal replacements are not only for dieters.   We now live in a world where nutritionally related diseases and deaths are over-taking smoking related health issues, hence we realize the importance meal replacements may be to every body’s well being.

As our food, to meet population demand continues to be picked per-ripened, our soil gets depleted of nutrients through over use. Our animals fed hormones for faster growth.   More foods are genetically modified and processed we need to realize we are getting less and less nutrition in our food. We all remember what our fruits and vegetables tasted like some twenty years ago and how different they taste today.   Why do you think this is?  A good question to ask, could it be because of the above mentioned reasons?  We all may well be needing to supplement our daily diets right now, with off course, an exellent quality meal replacement.

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , , , , ,

Quick Weight Loss with Meal Replacement Shakes

March 15, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

Weight loss has become big business in this country as the number of overweight people increases. Meal replacement shakes are just one of the types of weight loss products that are growing in popularity. They have always been around, but they are being taken more seriously in recent years.

A meal replacement is normally a high protein bar or shake that is fortified with vitamins and nutrients. They are meant to be eaten in place of a meal. Medifast and Slimfast are examples of 2 of the more popular meal replacement diets that are available.

These meal replacement products make it easy to lose weight, if you follow the program as it was designed. These food plans can make your life easier and they take less than a weight loss plan where you are preparing the food yourself. Meal replacement diets consist of products that are ready to eat, but may require you to add water. The big advantage to meal replacement foods is you will lose weight quickly, because they consist of a minimal amount of calories. The down side of that is that may not always feel full.

It is recommended that you eat at least one sensible meal daily. It is not a good idea to cut food out completely. Personally, I have used these products and I always seem to be not quite satisfied. I can use them along with program that includes food, but to eat only one meal day does not work for me. For many people it does.

For somebody who requires structure and convenience, meal replacement diets are ideal. They can be ready at moments notice, they are very portable and can go anywhere with you and you can buy a months worth of meals at one time. This kind of weight loss plan works well in the society we live in today. People are always on the go and live life at a fast pace.

Meal replacements are not for everybody, but they are another option you have available to you if you are looking for a weight loss program. The bottom line is the program that is going to work best for you is the one you can stick with. If you need a weight loss plan with some structure that is convenient, you should consider meal replacement shakes. They allow you to eat several times a day and can be the program that will help to lose the extra weight.

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , , , ,

What is the ingredient sugar alcohol? It is in a South Beach Diet meal replacement bar. Is it worse?

March 4, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

than regular sugar??

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , , , , , , , ,

Weight loss with meal replacement shakes and meal replacement drinks

March 2, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment


Diet and exercises are two important steps for weight loss. You can’t get rid of your weight problems if you missed either one of them. However, how well do you know about diet and how often do you implementing exercises for weight loss? Maybe not even once a week. However, diet is much more crucial and should come first before exercises. As such a good meal replacement diets plan should come into the picture. In conjunction with that a good meal replacement diets plan should consist of effective and safe meal replacement food and drinks. And at this point of time, I will strongly recommend you to take meal replacement shakes and meal replacement bars. Meal replacement bars are a good option for meal replacement food to be include in your meal replacement diets plan. Unlike other meal replacement drinks, meal replacement bar is much more easy to prepare and convenient to bring. These meal replacement bars are very much simple to take and you not even need to prepare it at all. What you need to do is insert few of this meal replacement bars inside your handbag and go to whatever places you want. These meal replacement food is good as they are not only good in taste but it really can really fill up your stomach. The meal replacement bars contain low calories and high health value, especially those meal replacement bars that made of oats and wheat. This meal replacement food really helps in weight loss as it always use to substitute your breakfast or luch. You no need to pour it or shake it, what you need to do is just open up the seal part of the meal replacement bars and enjoy it. Most of the meal replacement bars in the market containing high protein and it is much more useful for body builders as the supplementary snacks. Meal replacement diets plan should also consists of another exclusive meal replacement food, which is a cup of delicious and nutritious meal replacement shakes. A meal replacement shakes normally containing low calories. You will feel your waist area and thigh becoming smaller if your substitute meal replacement shakes for few days consecutively. The meal replacement shakes good for the dieters as this meal replacement food are really organic and “green”. However, meal replacement will functioning well with water. You must ensure you taking more water  after you took meal replacement shakes and it is much more effective for helping you to lose weight if you taking more water in your meal replacement diets plan. This is because of normal meal replacement shakes consist of diet fiber, this fiber is crucial for trash out toxin from your body. Some of this toxin contributed fat tissue in your body. As such, in your meal replacement diets plan, you should not avoid this magic meal replacement drinks. Many of the meal replacement shakes now in the market offered in different interesting flavors and taste. However, the most popular meal replacement shakes would be chocolate and cappuccino meal replacement shakes. Research shown that people tend to for these two meal replacement drinks in their meal replacement diets program as these shakes are closer to normal beverages that we consume. I’m sure many of us loves to have a cappuccino for breakfast or lunch, thus this is why make cappuccino meal replacement shakes so well known and popular.

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , , , ,

Have you tried lighterlife or a meal replacement diet and did weight stay of?

February 28, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

Hi I am 42 years old and tierd of being overweight. I am 3. 5 stone over weight and want it to go now. I am looking at different programmes and would love to hear from people who have tried this type of diet.

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , , , , ,

Is Medifast the Best Meal Replacement Diet? Three Reasons Why We Say Yes!!!

February 20, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

What is the best meal replacement diet? And is picking a program where the calories are already counted and measured the best way to lose weight fast? How about taste? Or cost? Or success rate?

In this article we are going to take a closer look at why we believe the Medifast diet is the BEST meal replacement program on the market today, and why over 15,000 doctors, (and over one million dieters!) appear to agree! Read on. .

Reason #1: Medifast is Scientifically Formulated, Nutritionally Balanced and Super Successful Aren’t all meal replacement diets created equally? Absolutely not! The truth? Some nutritional bars, shakes and snacks you’ll find in health food stores ( and supermarkets) are LOADED with fat, calories and carbs. Some programs are actually designed for bodybuilder who want to GAIN weight. Others are simply made to taste good. . . and “trick” you into thinking you are on a diet. Medifast is designed specifically for folks who NEED to lose weight. . . and does that one job amazingly well.

Reason #2: Medifast is Proven To Work (in the lab. . . . AND in real life as well!) Yes, the average weight loss in the lab (during the famous John Hopkins University Studies) was well NORTH of 50 pounds a person. Equally as impressive? The real world weight loss stories of people like you and I. Medifast is low calorie, high protein and low fat. You WILL lose weight on this diet if you follow through!

Reason #3: Cost! Yes, the economy is bad, right? We all agree that times are tough. The cost of Medifast? About 10 bucks a day. Or 300 a month. . . and that includes your 5 Medifast meals per day. ( you are only responsible for your one lean and green self prepared meal) The truth is. . . most of us spend more than on junk food on a daily basis. . . . turning that modest investment into long term health, wellness and a GREAT body now is a smart savings for sure!

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , , , , ,

Trying to Lose Weight? Consider a Meal Replacement Diet

February 19, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

If you have poor eating habits or eat food that’s frequently high in fat and calories, or have difficulty with portion control, a meal replacement diet may be the way you should go.   Meal replacements allow people who have difficulty changing their eating habits to make gradual changes.   This makes it easier to change your diet permanently, and studies have shown that people who choose meal replacement diets have three times the chance of keeping weight off for good. As with other diet plans, meal replacements don’t work for everyone.

Meal replacements usually come in the form of shakes, bars, and smoothies.   If you don’t like drinking liquids or prefer the taste of real food, your best bet is probably to stick with nutritious, low-calorie food choices.   A small sandwich with tuna or turkey on whole wheat bread with lettuce and mustard has about the same amount of calories as a 200 calorie meal replacement shake.

If you do choose to try a meal replacement diet, here are a few tips for making it work.

  1. Substitute meal replacements at the meals where you find yourself frequently overeating, or tend to make unhealthy choices. If you eat sugary cereal or donuts for breakfast, have a meal replacement shake instead.   If dinner tends to be fast food, have a bar or meal replacement smoothie instead.   Anywhere you can substitute healthier choices for unhealthy ones is where you will see the most improvement in your health and your weight.
  2. Variety is the spice of life – and meal replacement diets On days when you have more time to cook, you may only need to have a shake or smoothie for one meal.   Try to keep your routine fresh every day by having different flavors and choosing different meal replacements; maybe a smoothie for breakfast Monday, and a bar for breakfast Tuesday.
  3. Incorporate exercise into any diet plan, including a meal replacement diet Exercise is important not only for weight loss, but also for keeping a healthy body and preventing disease.   Try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise, both weight-bearing and aerobic, at least five days a week.
  4. Eat healthfully for meals that aren’t replaced Good nutrition is important with any diet.   Try to have leafy green vegetables with as many meals as possible, and keep a good balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates at each meal.   Fresh fruit and vegetables are great for added fiber, and make great, easy snacks.
Filed Under Health Tagged With , , , , , ,

Make your meal replacement diet work for you

February 17, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

Diets come in all shapes and sizes for people of all shapes and sizes. Some folks can make low-calorie diets work for them, but many people have trouble sticking with the low-calorie foods, or they don’t control portions, or they misjudge the nutritional content of what they are eating. This can make the diet fail from the beginning. For those folks that have a hard time with the plain jane low-cal diets, meal replacement diets are an excellent substitute.

Even meal replacement diets can be cumbersome to do. However there are some tips and tricks to simplify things and give you a boost for making this type of diet work for you.

Variety

When you place your first order, usually the company will suggest a variety of shakes, soups, food bars, etc. It’s very tempting just to choose only the ones that sound good, but you might be surprised by some. After the first order you can be pickier about what you choose.

Organize your daily meals

Rather than make the decision of what to eat from your meal replacement on a meal-by-meal basis, take a few minutes as soon as you get your order to package your food for each day. Grab a box of baggies and start gathering 4-5 meal replacements for the day. A suggestion is a breakfast item, a drink item, a food bar, a soup & a shake for each day. This way when you are getting ready to go work, you don’t have to sort and sift through the boxes trying to figure out what sounds appetizing that day. You just grab a bag and you are good to go.

Make healthy choices for your daily non-replaced meal

Most meal replacement diets allow for one regular daily meal. This doesn’t mean you should go hog-wild and grab that super-sized, fatty meal deal. Why go on a meal replacement diet if you aren’t going to make your own healthy decisions. Most meal replacement diets typically offer a guide to picking foods that will compliment the diet.

Meal replacement meals aren’t only for when you are on a diet

Once you are no longer participating fully with the diet, your body might still crave those smaller meals and you might be tempted to grab whatever is close. Keep in mind that the meal replacement meals are ideal for a mid-morning snack or even for a quick lunch when you only have time for fast food.

Stick with it

This might seem like obvious advice, but too often just sticking with it is the hardest thing to do. Even if you don’t feel like doing the meal replacement diet, just grab your daily bag and do it. As you see your new and improving self, staying with it until you reach your goal will get easier.

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , ,

Meal Replacement Diets for Dieters

February 13, 2010 By Karen Hiser Leave a Comment

Meal replacement is condition when we replace our normal meal with a substitution meal. These substitution meals might be a healthy organic diet or meal replacement products like meal replacement shakes. Meal replacement also is a quick and convenient way to get lots of high quality nutrients like vitamins, minerals and also protein. Meal replacement diets consist of formulated food like meal replacement shakes, meal replacement bars, dieting soup and chocolates. Most of the meal replacement foods are low in calories and high in health values.

The effect of meal replacement diets

As what I mentioned earlier, natural food diet consisting of organic food especially like fruits, vegetables, wheat grass, brown rice etc. However meal replacement diets are much simpler. Meal replacement food like meal replacement shakes and diet soup are offered in convenient packing. You are not required to practice any difficult steps for preparing it. Thus you also not required to calculate yourself for the daily calories intake when you use meal replacement food for substituting your lunch. Comparing to organic food diet, meal replacement food diet is much more convenient.

Are Meal Replacement products healthy?

Most of the meal replacement foods like meal replacement shakes are considered organic food. Organic in terms of they are constructed based on natural ingredients. However they are some expert commented that meal replacement foods are not 100% organic. They still consist of chemicals that might harm our body. Some meal replacement food like meal replacement bar is considered less nutritious as they contain high quantity of sugar.

About meal replacement shake

Meal replacement shakes or weight loss shakes is a kind of soy nutrition drink that used to substitute your meal. They contain high quantity of nutrients especially protein and carbohydrate. Protein is for muscle building and carbohydrate is for providing you energy during the meal replacement diets period. At this point of time, meal replacement shakes has been recognized as one of the most effective diet food for dieters. However you should be selective when getting a meal replacement shakes for your diet plan. As they are many of them in the market are not meeting the safety guideline fixed by the state health authority.

About meal replacement bar

If you need a snack for diet, then meal replacement bar is your ideal choice. People called meal replacement bar as power bar as they contain energy for dieters during their diet period. Meal replacement bar is delicious and chewy, there are made of interesting ingredients like nuts, corn, grain and also flavored like chocolate and vanilla. Meal replacement bar considered as the most convenient type of meal replacement food. You dare not need any complicated steps for preparing it. They are ready to eat anytime that you like.

Advantages of Meal Replacement products

Meal replacement food creates lots of convenience for you. They are easy to take and convenient to prepare. Meal replacement food also portable in terms of you can carry them without any burden and worry to wherever you like. Plus you can easily control the calories taking through meal replacement food like meal replacement shakes. If we did a rough calculation, a cup of meal replacement shakes only consists of 60-100 kcal. You will also not taking extra portion of food if you restricted yourself for taking meal replacement food only.

Disadvantages of Meal replacement products

Some meal replacement products provide insufficient quantity of nutrients. This might caused malnutrition for the dieters if they have been taking these meal replacement foods for a period. Besides, experts believe that meal replacement food will cause dieters to become lazy in long term. There will be too depending on the products comparing for preparing their own food. This is dangerous as some meal replacement food like meal replacement shake is not encouraged to take more than 6 months time consecutively. Thus we never know if these meal replacement foods do contain any sight effects in long term.

Who suits meal replacement diets?

If you are obese, then you are strongly encouraged to go for a healthy meal replacement diets. However, if you intend to lose weight quick you can also considered implementing meal replacement diets. Meal replacement diets also useful for people who have no time to prepare their food and struggle for controlling the portion of the food they take. Meal replacement shakes for example is convenient to prepare. What you need to do is just preparing a shaker and get ready with some plain water.

People that shouldn’t take meal replacement diets

If you are skinny enough, then you should keep away yourself from any meal replacement diets. Meal replacement foods like meal replacement shakes and meal replacement bar should become the additional nutritional food for you but not to replace your normal meal. Same too If you are food lovers, then you should not suitable for taking any meal replacement diets. You will find these diets are too simple and making you boring throughout the process.

Filed Under Health Tagged With , , ,
« Older Posts