Most of you know I advocate replacing one of your meals with a protein shake. It’s a great way to get a protein boost in a low calorie meal. If you make it right, it’ll even have some fiber and good fats. So why not just buy a case of Slim Fast? I’d been meaning to write this article for some time now when I came upon this article by Phil Kaplan. It sums it up pretty well……
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It tastes great? It helped you lose weight once before? The people on the TV
commercials look so happy, fit, and healthy?
For the moment, put aside taste. If taste were the key, you could jump on the Three Musketeers Bar diet. There's obviously more to the puzzle than just taste. I'll also ask you to put aside the past. If you lost weight in the past, but it came back, I'd venture to guess you didn't really achieve your intended goal. And those TV commercial people . . . if they didn't look happy, fit, and healthy, do you think they'd be on TV? Do you think the woman with the eating disorder who drinks Slim Fast for breakfast and doesn't eat the rest of the day is going to make it to your TV screen? How about the obese man who's been drinking Slim Fast for 7 years and weighs more than he did when he bought his first can. Do you think he's up for a TV commercial spot in the near future?
I'm asking you to put all of those things aside, just so I can give you one simple instruction. If you are using or considering using Slim-Fast or a similar "delicious tasting shake" for weight loss, all I want you to do is read the ingredients. Here's what you'll find:
Skim Milk and Sugar
Hmmm. If that works to lose weight, maybe the Three Musketeers Bar diet is not
all that far off! Why do people lose weight using Slim-Fast? Because they replace
their meals with it! They stop eating food, except maybe once a day, dramatically
cutting back on calories, and they chug down a shake so they don't get all that
hungry.
Sugar. It might very well be the #1 culprit in America's obesity problem. If every day for breakfast you chug down some sugar, you are immediately altering your blood sugar and affecting the balance of fat release/storage hormones. You don't eat, so you do lose weight, but the weight you lose will in all likelihood be primarily composed of water and muscle. If you read the section on Calorie Deprivation, you understand the futility of water and muscle loss. Sure, you can add vitamins and minerals to Skim-Milk and water to prevent people from suffering nutrient deficiencies, and you can lead them to believe that the "sugar rush" is energy and the weight loss is meaningful, but in the long run, if you sell a skim milk and sugar product as a weight loss aid, you're guaranteeing failure. Hmmm. Wait a minute. If customers will blame themselves for their residual weight gain, they'll no doubt come back and buy your skim milk and sugar again. And again. And again.
Phil Kaplan
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So why doesn’t someone make a really
healthy protein shake in a can? There are a few companies that try, and maybe
one day I’ll find one that meets my approval, but not yet. The main problem
is that it would be really hard to make one that tastes really good, and if
you were to use quality ingredients, it would probably cost more than your average
dieter would want to pay. Certainly not as tasty and cheap as skim milk and
sugar.
So, until someone does make one, just stick to making it yourself.