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Meal replacement shakes: yes or no?

Supposedly, meal replacement shakes contain everything a human being needs to survive (par water). Carbs, protein, etc. You can control your calorie intake by changing how much you drink.

In theory, it's the perfect diet and definitely better than starving yourself to lose weight (something I am guilty of doing in the very recent past). I also imagine it cuts down on the stress of finding healthy/exciting meals every day, saves cooking time, and fridge space.

I'm considering using shakes in place of meals once at university. It should make life easier since I'm trying to lose fat and bulk up too.

But can a human really survive on nothing but shakes? Will the digestive system suffer from a lack of solid food? I don't want to mess up my body trying to be healthy.

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You will still need to eat a proper meal 2 times a day I’d say, otherwise you’ll psychologically be depriving yourself of food and you’ll end up eating more and these won’t be planned snacks. You’ll probably end up putting more weight on. Maybe only meal replace once a day?
Reply 2
Original post by Xjabnrlv_saadx
You will still need to eat a proper meal 2 times a day I’d say, otherwise you’ll psychologically be depriving yourself of food and you’ll end up eating more and these won’t be planned snacks. You’ll probably end up putting more weight on. Maybe only meal replace once a day?


I would consider myself to be strong-willed in this department; I don't overeat when I'm dieting. Ever. This won't be an issue for me. I'm only interested in knowing the health risks of not eating real food.
Provided the amount of nutrients stated is accurate, I can't see anything wrong with it from a health perspective, though from a psychological standpoint you might want to eat an actual meal once or twice a day.
Reply 4
Original post by It's****ingWOODY
Provided the amount of nutrients stated is accurate, I can't see anything wrong with it from a health perspective, though from a psychological standpoint you might want to eat an actual meal once or twice a day.


How do you expect the shakes to affect someone psychologically?
Original post by AnkXL
How do you expect the shakes to affect someone psychologically?


Because a life of eating/drinking nothing but shakes, with no nice taste or texture, sounds pretty horrible to me.
Reply 6
Original post by AnkXL
How do you expect the shakes to affect someone psychologically?


You would eventually get bored of the same thing over and over again.

Meal replacement shakes are pretty useless to be honest, not only do they cost a lot for the relatively little protein in them, they are chock full of sugars. You could literally make your own meal replacement shake using normal whey protein and adding lots of sugar.

But to answer your question,you would not suffer from any bad effects as long as you also supplement it with things like fruit and veg to get the necessary micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. Also drink plenty of water and do lots of weight training.
Reply 7
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
Because a life of eating/drinking nothing but shakes, with no nice taste or texture, sounds pretty horrible to me.


Sounds dystopian tbh
Reply 8
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
Because a life of eating/drinking nothing but shakes, with no nice taste or texture, sounds pretty horrible to me.


Oh. Well, that shouldn't be an issue for me. Eating is more of a chore than a pastime so I won't mind it.
Reply 9
Original post by AnkXL
Supposedly, meal replacement shakes contain everything a human being needs to survive (par water). Carbs, protein, etc. You can control your calorie intake by changing how much you drink.

In theory, it's the perfect diet and definitely better than starving yourself to lose weight (something I am guilty of doing in the very recent past). I also imagine it cuts down on the stress of finding healthy/exciting meals every day, saves cooking time, and fridge space.

I'm considering using shakes in place of meals once at university. It should make life easier since I'm trying to lose fat and bulk up too.

But can a human really survive on nothing but shakes? Will the digestive system suffer from a lack of solid food? I don't want to mess up my body trying to be healthy.


Also you can't really "bulk up" as in build muscle tissue and lose fat at the same time.
Original post by e^iΟ€
You would eventually get bored of the same thing over and over again.

Meal replacement shakes are pretty useless to be honest, not only do they cost a lot for the relatively little protein in them, they are chock full of sugars. You could literally make your own meal replacement shake using normal whey protein and adding lots of sugar.

But to answer your question,you would not suffer from any bad effects as long as you also supplement it with things like fruit and veg to get the necessary micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. Also drink plenty of water and do lots of weight training.

I think you're thinking of mass gainer shakes. I thought OP was talking about something like Huel.
Reply 11
Original post by e^iΟ€
Also you can't really "bulk up" as in build muscle tissue and lose fat at the same time.


No? From my understanding, muscle tissue burns energy, meaning that the more I bulk up, the less fat I'll be. It will certainly make a nice change from being skinnyfat.
Original post by AnkXL
Oh. Well, that shouldn't be an issue for me. Eating is more of a chore than a pastime so I won't mind it.


I'd be so much thinner if I was like you.
Original post by AnkXL
No? From my understanding, muscle tissue burns energy, meaning that the more I bulk up, the less fat I'll be. It will certainly make a nice change from being skinnyfat.


Muscle tissue does burn more energy but only marginally more than fat tissue. most of the energy burnt by the body is as a result of the processes within the body like heart beating and chemical processes.

To build muscle you need to eat more calories than you expend. For example if you burn 2500 calories in a day in total, you would need to eat more than 2509 calorie to build muscle, say 3000 calories. The more you go over your daily energy requirements the more fat you will build along with muscle, the sweet spot in my experience is eating 500 more calories than you burn to maximise msucle gain while minimising fat gain

For cutting fat the opposite is true, you need to eat less calories than you burn. However while you will burn fat you will also lose muslce mass. 500 calories below your daily energy requirements is the sweet spot for maximising fat loss while minimising muscle loss.

It's impossible to do both at the same time
Lose fat and bulk ? When bulking you gain fat.

What happens when you switch back to eating solids ? What will you have learnt to make sure you're eating correctly?

Many people have misconceptions, because of bs that is sold; such as healthy foods can cancel out the chocolate cake that they've eaten, you can eat whatever you like as long as you don't eat bread, exercise is more important than diet etc. Not only this but there are some personal things to learn when switching to a new diet. can you drink a lot of milk or does it make you sick? Does a little pasta make you very full ? Or can you eat a lot for breakfast or do you need to wait until 5pm?

There's a lot of these personal things that you may miss out on learning or forget if you go full liquid. And then your progress might stall.
Sure, if you have no teeth.
Reply 16
Original post by NotNotBatman
Lose fat and bulk ? When bulking you gain fat.

What happens when you switch back to eating solids ? What will you have learnt to make sure you're eating correctly?

Many people have misconceptions, because of bs that is sold; such as healthy foods can cancel out the chocolate cake that they've eaten, you can eat whatever you like as long as you don't eat bread, exercise is more important than diet etc. Not only this but there are some personal things to learn when switching to a new diet. can you drink a lot of milk or does it make you sick? Does a little pasta make you very full ? Or can you eat a lot for breakfast or do you need to wait until 5pm?

There's a lot of these personal things that you may miss out on learning or forget if you go full liquid. And then your progress might stall.


I've considered this and it doesn't overly concern me. It's something I'll work out prior to making the switch back (if that ever happens). I expect to be teaching myself to cook during time at uni. Providing meals for roommates will be an interesting hobby.
Original post by AnkXL
Supposedly, meal replacement shakes contain everything a human being needs to survive (par water). Carbs, protein, etc. You can control your calorie intake by changing how much you drink.

In theory, it's the perfect diet and definitely better than starving yourself to lose weight (something I am guilty of doing in the very recent past). I also imagine it cuts down on the stress of finding healthy/exciting meals every day, saves cooking time, and fridge space.

I'm considering using shakes in place of meals once at university. It should make life easier since I'm trying to lose fat and bulk up too.

But can a human really survive on nothing but shakes? Will the digestive system suffer from a lack of solid food? I don't want to mess up my body trying to be healthy.


I wouldn't do it every body is different to digesting food and powdered food isn't the best since you don't know what specific chemicals arein there. Plus too much protein can put tremendous pressure on your kidneys.
Reply 18
Original post by ddsizebra
I wouldn't do it every body is different to digesting food and powdered food isn't the best since you don't know what specific chemicals arein there. Plus too much protein can put tremendous pressure on your kidneys.


I'm really grateful for your concern, but I think you're confusing meal replacement shakes with protein shakes.
You should drink the shakes but they shouldn't be your main source of food. Drink one once a day and eat proper meals, being healthy isn't easy but if you focus it will be worth it.

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