OldBoy

Anyone try these shakes and can tell me if the shakes are good and the plan works? TIA.

http://www.teambeachbody.com/nutrition-shake/shakeology

kgrogers1979

This is just yet another fad diet plan. These things never work long term. They can work in the short term, but as soon as you quit the diet you will almost certainly go back to your old ways and gain the weight right back.

The one and only way to lose weight and keep it off is not to diet, but rather to make a complete lifestyle change. Diets never work. You have to change your lifestyle.

Eat healthy. Exercise. That's all you need. Do that and you will lose weight guaranteed.

The problem is that people just don't want to do this, so they look to these quick fix fad diets, and they never work.

broadwayblue

I'm told my cousin's wife did the shakes and workouts for ~2 months and she lost 15 pounds.

JasonF

This is basically true (the one caveat is that if you build muscle mass, all else being equal, you're going to burn more calories going about your day to day life).

Shakes like the one OldBoy is asking about can be a good way to jump start things, but at the end of the day, it's all about calories in and calories out. If you burn more calories than you ingest, you're going to lose weight. If it's the opposite, you'll gain weight. So long term, you need to get yourself to your desired weight by burning more than you eat, then get yourself to a lifestyle where you're burning about what you eat.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the specific shakes you're asking about.

Solid Snake

Yeah. What krogers said. Start putting actual good intake and be active. Best medicine of all.

OldBoy

i'm just using the shakes as a supplement to a poor diet. i usually don't eat breakfast and sometimes lunch and just have a sensible dinner, so i thought this would be good in the meantime and kick start this isn't the only thing i will have and i know exercise will play into this as well...

Hokeyboy

Eat healthy. Keep a food journal online (My Fitness Pal, livestrong.com) and keep track of your caloric intake. Exercise. You don't need this shake fad crap, just do it the old fashioned way. It works for a reason. #judgmentalformerfatdude

kgrogers1979

If you're just going to supplement a poor diet, then absolutely nothing at all is going to change. You won't lose weight. In fact, you will be eating MORE calories and will gain even more weight.

Also, do NOT skip meals. That is NOT healthy at all. Your body is an engine, and food is the fuel to keep the engine running. People who try to lose weight by skipping meals actually end up gaining weight. Skipping meals causes your metabolism to decrease which in turn causes your body to store even more fat. It sounds strange, but you actually have to eat to lose weight. You just have to eat healthy.

OldBoy

truer words were never said...

smg669

Solid Snake

Being a former fat fuck, I never got attracted to the diet fads. I'm too cheap for those. lol.

majorjoe23

Shakeology is great for getting rid the Thetans. Have you been audited?

Numanoid

That is ridiculous.

So the starving in masses in Ethiopia (or wherever these days) are all gaining weight because they have gone into starvation mode? Come on. Burn more calories than you consume and you will lose weight. I don't care how much your metabolism slows down.

kgrogers1979

You're going to the far extreme with your starving African kid example. Of course someone who is literally starving is going to lose weight. That's not what I said in that post though. These starving people are lucky if they get 500 calories a day. They are truly starving, so they are not going to gain weight.

Here in the first world, we simply cannot compare to that. In absolutely no way does our skipping meals at all compare to starving African kids. What happens when we skip meals is that we go all day without eating so our metabolism slows down to crawl. Then in the evening we are so damn hungry that we eat everything in sight. We tend to binge eat to overcompensate for our lack of earlier eating. Then that binge eating goes straight to fat storage because our metabolism has slowed.

There's a difference between losing weight and losing fat. Many people don't realize that, but there is indeed a difference. Have you ever heard of normal weight obesity? It is sometimes called being "skinny fat." It occurs when you are a normal weight, but you still have too much body fat.

Skipping meals can cause normal weight obesity. Skipping meals will slow your metabolism down and cause your body to store more fat. So that means if you're losing weight, a good percentage of that weight isn't fat but rather lean muscle. So yeah, you're losing weight by skipping meals, but you're still maintaining too much fat as well.

(I actually know this from experience because I did this very thing when I first attempted to lose weight. My first attempt at losing weight was an enormous disaster because I cut my calories too drastically and ended up skinny fat. I ate about 1,000 calories a day for 6 months and ended up being in worse health than when I first started.)

So many people think of losing weight as a temporary thing. It's not temporary at all. It's a lifelong lifestyle change. People who view it as temporary will fail in the long term. Only people who view it as a lifelong lifestyle will permanently change their ways and keep the weight off long term. Skipping meals is a short term thing that cannot be maintained long term. So skipping meals will always lead to failure.

broadwayblue

so what's in these shakes anyway?

Hokeyboy

A chemical shitstorm.

RichC2

You're supposed to have an intake of at least 1,200 kcals a day, but that's a baseline, everybody is different.

You won't trigger "starvation" mode by skipping a meal a day, and even water triggers increase in metabolism. The danger in has more to do with people mis-compensating for that meal in other meals or with junk: "I didn't have lunch, I can eat this entire pizza!"

The shakes don't sound particularly terrible ingredients wise, but I haven't had this type yet, so I dunno why I'm responding.

Sdallnct

Well the OP doesn't say what his goals are.

I find it difficult to get the amount of protein I want on a calorie deficit diet. So I usually have a scoop of quality whey protein powder w/water and a banana (all in a blender) for a mid day snack. Lots of protein, low calorie and between the whey and the banana very filling.

I assume (but don't know) that this is some sort of meal replacement? Yea, I don't really agree with that. Eat healthy most of the time with reasonable portions.

RichC2

Lunch is a pain in the dick for me, so I'm always looking for alternatives.

Sdallnct

This....

Most studies seem to show it is the total calories that count, not the number of meals. You can lose (or gain) by eating 2, 3, 4, 5 or more meals a day. However, for some indivials less meals might work better, while others more meals work better. It's really what works for you, your lifestyle.

I know a person who lost a lot of weight. She swore it was because she never ate food past 5:00pm. What was happening is this is how she was getting to a calorie deficit. It worked for her.

On the opposite end, I now really active people that seem to always have food in their mouth. And not always health. Long distance runners sometimes eat gummy bears while on their long runs to refuel. Much cheaper than energy gels and such. And the sugar is used up quickly as fuel during the run.

kgrogers1979

1,200 calories a day is okay if you want to have no muscle mass and just want to be a string bean.

I never said anything at all about "starvation mode." Someone else put that those words in my mouth, but I never said that at all.

I actually did mention what you said about overcompensating in the evening by binge eating. That's the real danger of skipping meals.



Meal replacement shakes are especially problematic because they tend not to be as filling as real food. You really should not be drinking your calories. Drinks typically don't fill you up for long. Protein shakes can fill you up a bit longer since protein is filling, but it's still not as filling as real food.

Sdallnct

Again, it depends on your goals. There isn't a one size fits all.

For example, for me, if I'm on a 2,000 calorie "diet" I find it difficult to get the 150-175g of protein I'd like to get. Many high protein foods are high in calorie (nuts for example). So rather than grill up a chicken breast for a mid day snack, a protein shake is a good choice. Or I'll do one after lifting at the gym.

Your note about "drinking calories" really applies mainly to soda, latte's, milk shakes and such. These offer high calorie with no benefit nutritionally. Protein shakes are low calorie and offer something beneficial nutritionally.

kgrogers1979

Protein shakes are about the same amount of calories as a piece of chicken or an ounce of nuts. There's not a significant caloric difference between them.

Personally, I like to snack on nuts instead. (That's what she said.) I find nuts more filling than a drink. But yeah, you do have to be careful with nuts since they are easy to overeat and pack on the calories. One ounce of nuts is about 150 calories, but that one ounce fills me up longer than a drink does.

The only thing I drink besides water is milk. I drink a glass of milk for breakfast, and I drink water the rest of the day.

Sdallnct

1 oz almonds = 162 calories and about 6 grams of protein. (And 1 oz is not a lot)
3 oz chicken breast = 140 calories and 26 g of protein
1 scoop quality whey = 120-140 calories and 25-32g of protein (depends on brand).

As I mentioned a protein shake is a nice alternative for snack over grilling up a piece of chicken. Now almonds and chicken have other things (almonds have good fats). It just depends on your goals. Or what you want.

Again, you seem hung up on calories. Again, it is not one size fits all. It's about needs/wants. For example, I shift the quality of calories to my needs. Last couple weeks of training for a half marathon, I'll reduce proteins and increase carbs. But keep same overall calories.

grundle

I'm totally pro-shake, but I don't see how it will help you to lose weight.