Keeping a healthy weight is one of the ways that we can help keep our bodies in shape. Being overweight has a lot of risks and can make us vulnerable to certain kinds of diseases. But with your weight at healthy levels, you can have lower cholesterol, lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure, and a better heart. Less weight also means that you won’t be putting too much pressure on your bones and joints, saving you from early arthritis or body pain.
This is why weight loss is important to your overall health and wellness. If you are overweight, you would have to lose some of it to be healthy. And if you are already at a healthy weight, you would still need to do some measures to help keep the weight off. Achieving this means that you have to be consistent in keeping a healthy lifestyle. Doing intense diets or fasting doesn’t necessarily mean that you can keep the weight off for good. So let’s focus on healthy habits that we can keep consistently!
One good example of this is meal replacement shakes. Are these meal replacement shakes a good way to lose weight? Is it healthy for you? Or is it just another dangerous diet practice? If you want to find out, keep reading this article as we see if meal replacement shakes are a good way to lose weight!
What are Meal Replacement Shakes?
Meal replacement shakes are exactly what the name states they are. They are shakes that are meant to replace the nutrition of one of your meals!
Some shakes already come pre-made in cans or bottles, while others come in powder form and you would have to prepare them yourself. These shakes are around 150-400 calories depending on the variant. These are filled with carbohydrates, fats, and protein, and contain the standard recommended daily amounts for each macronutrient in a healthy diet.
Essentially, meal replacement shakes are convenient and full meals that you can take on the go! There are different formulations that are available and there is surely one that may fit your needs. Whether you are into working out and building muscle or just looking to maintain a healthy lifestyle, meal replacement shakes are a good supplement to take and it saves you time as well.
How Can Meal Replacement Shakes Help With Weight Loss?
In order to understand how meal replacement shakes can help you lose weight, we have to talk about the general principles of losing weight. So we will be discussing some ways and important practices for losing weight and how meal replacement shakes can help you with this journey.
1. It Helps You Get The Right Nutrition
When you opt to take meal replacement shakes for weight loss, you are also helping yourself get the right nutrition for your body. This is, of course, you only take the recommended amount and follow the instructions in preparing the shake very carefully.
A big problem for those who are trying to lose weight is that they often get focused on losing the numbers on the scale. But losing those numbers does not necessarily mean that you are already practicing healthy living. People also obsess over having a caloric deficit or eating less than what their body requires. A caloric deficit is a key to losing weight, but you still need to take a balanced diet.
When you lose weight you could either be losing muscle or fat. Losing fat should be the goal as this is what makes our body unhealthy, muscle is important for our body movement and bodily functions. We can easily avoid this by getting the proper nutrition such as the right amount of carbs, protein, and fat that our bodies need daily.
Meal supplement drinks make sure that you are getting the right nutrition that your body needs. Restricting your diet usually leads to unbalanced nutrition which will make your body use up muscle instead of carbs or fat as the primary energy source.
2. It Can Help You Build Muscle Along With Working Out
When talking about weight loss, one thing that comes to mind is being active. Losing weight and working out or exercising are two things that always come hand in hand. Exercise is a way to prevent and maybe even reverse the effects of some diseases. It also helps lower your blood pressure and keep a healthy heart!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends having at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise and two days of muscle-building activities weekly. It is up to you how you would like to split your workout days and you would not have to do anything at once. What is important is that you do not live a sedentary lifestyle and make sure to be active.
Working out is also important as it helps with your metabolism and it burns calories. Fast metabolism and losing calories can help you a lot when you are trying to lose weight. This is done by building muscle. Having more muscle makes your metabolism faster and makes you lose more calories when you work out.
Meal replacement shakes are high in protein and low in carbohydrates and fats. This helps complement you when you work out as protein is the key to building muscles.
3. It Helps You Avoid Unhealthy Food Choices and Being Consistent
Lastly, the key to weight loss is being consistent and disciplined. You must keep making healthy food choices such as plant-based or whole foods and avoid overly processed foods full of sugar, sodium, and fats.
Processed foods are unhealthy because they are low in nutritional value and are packed with unnecessary ingredients. They are also easier to digest. This means that while we are eating them we burn fewer calories compared to if we were eating whole foods. You take in more calories and you burn less while eating them. This makes it easy to gain weight.
Being consistent with your healthy choices is important to weight loss. With the addition of meal replacement shakes to your routine, you are less likely to opt for unhealthy food. For example, if you replace your breakfasts with a meal replacement shake, then that’s one meal that is guaranteed that you have avoided unhealthy foods!
Conclusion
Weight loss is a journey made up of consistent healthy choices and a disciplined lifestyle. Meal replacement shakes can be of great help to your journey because they are easy to make and they taste good too. This makes it easier to add to a routine and to commit to taking meal shakes daily. The meal replacement shakes also help you build muscle due to their protein content. A drink filled with the right nutrition is sure to help you in your weight loss journey! Make sure to be consistent in a healthy diet and working out for weight loss! Good luck and we wish you the best in your healthy lifestyle.