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The Role & Importance of Meal Replacement in Weight Management

Capturing people’s imagination for the first time in the 1980s and 90s, meal replacement in the form of a pill or shake has garnered unprecedented popularity today. Originally meant to be used only by athletes, models, bodybuilders and celebrities, meal replacement today has become a staple for everyone trying to shed extra pounds. But what exactly is a meal replacement and how effective it actually is in helping you meet your weight goals? Let’s dive deeper.

What is Meal Replacement

As the name suggests, a meal replacement is a shake, liquid diet, pill, bar, soup, or drink designed to replace your main meals, just with lower calories. The idea is to substitute the nutritional quotient of a meal without consuming extra calories.

Covering all essential micro and macronutrients (especially protein), a meal replacement makes you feel satiated by fulfilling your hunger and controlling cravings. Thus, meal replacement helps in effectively managing your weight for the long term in a healthy and safe manner[1]. That said, you should always consult your dietician before starting meal replacements.

The different forms of Meal Replacement

· Powdered form
· Premixed
· Shakes
· Bars
· Pills

Are Meal Replacement & Protein Shake the same?

The next logical question that may pop up in your mind is, are protein shakes the same as meal replacement? Not really! Protein shakes and meal replacements are designed for different purposes and hence should be chosen carefully. While meal replacement is created to replace full meals, protein shakes only add up to the protein quotient of your diet.

Meal replacement is solely aimed to help people lose weight, protein shakes on the other hand help you gain or maintain muscle mass by amplifying the protein supply alone. That is why there are marked compositional differences between meal replacement and protein shakes as enumerated below.

We’ve understood what meal replacement is and what it does but one key question still remains, how it do what it does?

How does Meal Replacement work?

The main ingredient in meal replacement formulas are soy protein and fibers. Both soy protein and fibers help the body feel satiated than other nutrients like carbs or fats. It’s because both soy protein and fibers take their own sweet time to move through the digestive system, thereby discouraging snacking, binge eating and cravings. Protein and fibers further reduce the rate at which sugar is absorbed in the system hence leading to longer periods of feeling satiated.

Let’s do a quick recap of the benefits of Meal Replacement before summing things up.

Benefits of Meal Replacement

1. Complete Nutritional Value: With more percentage of nutrients per gram than other options, meal replacement shakes give you the equivalent of your meals so that you never lack on your essentials.

2. Reduced Calories: Along with the high nutritional value, meal replacement shakes take away the added calories of your meals thereby helping you achieve your weight loss goals.

3. Added benefit of Protein & Fibers: Soy based protein and fibers help the body feel satiated thereby reducing unhealthy cravings.

4. Saves Time, Effort and Money: The convenience of ready-to-use meal replacement powder saves your time and energy and costs much less when compared to your usual meals.

Conclusion

Before signing up for any diet or weight management programme we should be very clear with what we want to achieve in terms of our compositional makeup. A clear goal will you help you decide the best diet to meet that goal. When it comes to healthy and effective weight loss, meal replacement is one of the best and most holistic alternatives that should be tried once after consulting with your nutritionist.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5644929/