Slim Naturally Articles > Meal Replacement Diets

For some time now, most dietitians and nutritionists would tell you that meal replacement diets are not a great way to lose weight. Because they are so limited in flavor and nutrients, plans like Slimfast and MediFast are not suited as long term weight management strategies, but a lot of the most recent research shows that people who kick start their dieting with a meal replacement product often do maintain their weight loss after they return to eating regular food. The key, it seems, is education and support in learning how to make healthy lifestyle and food choices while dieting.

The most well-known of the meal replacement diets is SlimFast, who offer a wide variety of meal replacement drinks and snack bars, as well as complete meals. The SlimFast plan is a simple one. During the weight loss phase, you simply replace two meals a day with a SlimFast drink or energy bar, have two healthy snacks during the day, then eat a healthy, 600 calorie meal for dinner. The weight maintenance plan suggests that you replace one meal a day with a SlimFast energy drink or bar, and eat three healthy snacks and two healthy meals each day.

The SlimFast meal plan relies on the fact that you must cut your calorie intake in order to lose weight. The meal plan, as presented, represents a 1200 to 1800 calorie a day intake, the calorie intakes most often recommended for weight loss by medical professionals. The meal replacement shakes and bars remove the need to count calories or balance nutrients for two meals a day. There's no need to plan a healthy nutritious meal for those two meals – it's all in the can. When you pop the top – or mix up the shake – you know that you're getting about 300 calories, and that those 300 calories contain a variety of nutrients that your body needs every day. If you plan one healthy meal, then you can be sure that you're getting all the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy.

Diets like the SlimFast diet are ideal for people who don't have the time or the desire to count out calories three meals and two snacks a day. By offering prepackaged alternatives, meal replacement diets make it easy to get through the day without focusing on food. In addition, some of the meal replacement diet drinks and snack bars are designed to suppress hunger for several hours after drinking, making it less likely that you'll turn to unhealthy quick snacks to take the edge of your cravings.

There are, of course, disadvantages to meal replacement diets. Many health professionals and nutritionists charge that dieters who lose weight this way don't learn healthy eating choices, and that once they stop using the weight loss drinks, they return to old patterns of eating and quickly regain their weight. This can be countered in two different ways. If you actually enjoy the diet drinks, you can continue with a maintenance plan that includes replacing one or two meals per day with a meal replacement drink, and eating healthy foods for the other meals. The other option is to learn about portion control and healthy eating while you are losing weight by taking advantage of nutritional counseling and using meal planners to teach yourself what healthy portions and choices you should be making. Overall, meal replacement diets are not for everyone. You must be in good health, and should have your doctor's okay to try. You must be able to afford the cost of the meal replacement drinks, which can get pricey. And you must be willing to commit to following the meal plan during the diet, and developing a long term weight maintenance strategy for the rest of your life.