Weight Loss Shakes – Fad or for real?
When it comes to nutrition and fat loss, a question I am frequently asked and that keeps coming up in conversation is ‘do these weight loss shakes work and should I use them?’ Well the first answer tends to be yes, but the ‘should I use them’ part? That one would tend to be a no and this is why.
There are many weight loss remedies for sale in supplement stores, supermarkets and chemists, as well as the plethora of ‘miracle’ remedies available through the various Multi level Marketing (MLM) companies and to be honest if losing weight on the scales (in the short term) is the goal then they do tick that box.
The general recommendation seems to be replacing one to two meals a day with a shake and you will be fitting into those new jeans in no time. Well yeah, maybe…. you see the reason they work is they severely restrict your energy intake, so yes they tend to make you lighter…. but so does bulimia, and for pretty much the same reason (starvation). But the shakes make it bearable because they are usually chock full of agents that trick your body into making it think its full and stimulants to keep you energetic and alert.
With severe caloric restriction, your body has to find energy to survive so logically you might think it would burn the stored energy in your fat cells, sounds reasonable, but you would be wrong. The problem is that this is survival we are talking about! and you might need that fat in the long term if things really get bad! So instead, your body will sacrifice some very energy hungry tissue first, because this is survival and we want to minimize the amount of energy we use. This tissue I speak of is your muscles, so yes you will lose weight on the scales but you also lose muscle all while holding onto your fat stores and lowering your basal metabolic rate so that when you inevitably start eating normally again, you just get even fatter. That is not even getting into the hormonal disruption caused, including loss of sex drive and increased stress levels.
So in the long run you will be fat, weak, and impotent…. rad! Sounds like fun to me.
Ok, so all jokes aside what should you do then? Well protein supplements are just that, supplements, they should help supplement a quality nutrition program to fill any gaps you might have. Sometimes it might be the only option to grab a quick shake to tie you over until you can get some real food, but they are not a replacement for real food. If a product is touting results that seem almost unbelievable…. chances are they are just that….. unbelievable.
If dropping body fat is your goal it’s pretty simple, eat a whole food diet, which means as close to nature as you can find it. No processed pre packaged crap. If it did not fly, swim, run, or grow out of the ground then you probably should not eat it.
Whatever your goal is, performance, fat loss, muscle gain or recovery, Actionsport Performance can help. To change your life for the better and join in the success of the rest of the Actionsport performance team contact me today!
Train hard and be safe.
Your strength coach,
Cam
