Written by Matt Smith on the Thursday September 1, 2022
Weight loss is a holistic process, meaning that you need to have multiple areas of your lifestyle optimised. Exercise, diet, sleep, stress management, and metabolic health. Hourglass Fit is designed to help you to improve your metabolism while also helping you to be more disciplined with your diet. There are also ingredients that can help with stress management and, ultimately, sleep.
But Hourglass Fit works best when it is combined with other lifestyle improvements. That’s where meal replacement shakes can come in. This article will be taking a look at how meal replacement shakes can help you to lose weight and how they can be combined with Hourglass Fit to help you burn fat and improve your diet.
The name meal replacement shake is pretty descriptive. It is a powdered meal that comprises protein, fats, and carbohydrates. You use it to replace regular meals such as breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
The idea is that you can replace meals that you struggle with (either due to portion size or practical issues such as lack of time for preparation), and it offers a low-cost, low-calorie meal that is ready in seconds.
Meal replacement shakes don’t have to be used for weight loss, they can be integrated into weight gain or weight maintenance plans, but weight loss is what they are best suited to.
Replace your typical 700-calorie lunch with a 400-calorie meal replacement shake, and you will be consuming 300 calories fewer each day. Over the course of 30 days, that represents 9000 calories, enough to burn over 1 kg of fat!
Meal replacement shakes are often made with high-quality ingredients such as oats, plant-based protein, and healthy fats. They usually contain all the vitamins and minerals you need to live a healthy lifestyle, and they are often very high in dietary fibre.
Before we discuss why meal replacement shakes can be so effective for weight loss, it’s a good idea to explain how weight loss occurs. This is a quick and simple guide to weight loss:
Your body requires energy to function. It helps you to breathe, it allows your heart to pump blood around your body, and it even helps you to think. Walking, running, jumping, and any form of physical activity also require energy.
This energy comes from food, and it is measured in calories. Every day, your body will burn a certain number of calories based on your health and lifestyle. An active, young person will usually burn more calories than a sedentary old person.
The more food you eat, the more calories you consume. These calories are used to fuel your lifestyle. If you consume too many calories, your body will store the excess for future use. This stored energy causes body fat accumulation.
If you burn more calories than you consume, your body will use the stored energy (body fat) to balance out the equation.
Weight loss or gain does not occur over the course of one day, it takes weeks, months, and even years to occur. If you are looking to lose weight, then you need to create a calorie deficit. This is where you burn more calories than you consume over a number of days.
The larger the deficit, the more fat will be burned. But you can’t just starve yourself and hope for everything to work out. You still need to fuel your lifestyle.
Creating a small deficit means that you have enough calories to live an active lifestyle, yet you will still be able to burn excess fat each day.
There are three ways to create a small calorie deficit:
The third option is the best, as it allows you to be a little less extreme with the diet and the exercise. To create a 500-calorie deficit, you would need to eat 500 calories fewer (option one), burn 500 calories through exercise (option two), or consume 250 calories fewer while burning 250 calories exercising (option three).
If you’ve read the section above, you should have a good idea of the science behind weight loss: Consume slightly fewer calories than you burn. This means reducing your calorie intake slightly while increasing the number of calories you burn through exercise.
Meal replacement shakes can help with the diet aspect of weight loss. Rootana, for example, contains just 400 calories per serving. If you were to replace your typical lunch (500-700 calories) with a 400-calorie shake, you have created a 100-300 calorie deficit.
If you also replace your breakfast (average 500 calories) with a 400-calorie shake, that’s an extra 100 calories saved. Some studies have actually replaced all three meals with meal replacement shakes and have seen significant weight loss [1]. But this isn’t practical or necessary.
But there is more to weight loss than just consuming fewer calories. You also need to have good mental health, you need energy to work and enjoy life, and you also need to stay motivated. Meal replacement shakes can’t provide you with all of this, but they can help to provide you with the energy to work and exercise, and they can make dieting a little easier.
Meal replacement shakes are often high in protein and in fibre. This means that you will stay fuller for longer because protein and fibre are satiating. A high protein diet is excellent for weight loss as it can help to preserve muscle tone, and increase your metabolism [2].
Meal replacement shakes also make dieting easier, they are quick to prepare, don’t require any confusing rules (looking at you Paleo dieters), and they are often plant-based. They can also help to prevent nutritional deficiencies, which are a common cause of obesity [3].
There are hundreds of meal replacement shakes out there. Some are amazing, some less so. In this article, we are taking a look at three of the best meal replacement shakes on the market. Rootana, Instant Knockout Complete, and Huel Black.
Rootana is a new entrant into the meal replacement shake world, and it is already gaining a lot of attention thanks to its artificial sweetener-free formula, commitment to using top-quality ingredients, and its excellent taste.
Rootana contains 400 calories per serving, 16 grams of healthy fats, 44 grams of carbohydrates, 7.1 grams of fibre, and 21 grams of protein (based on original flavour). There are two flavours available (original and cacao), and you can purchase them from the Rootana website.
Rootana is an incredible meal replacement shake for weight loss. It is high in protein, high in fibre and is packed full of healthy ingredients. It tastes great, mixes well, and avoids the use of artificial ingredients. If you are looking for a top-quality meal replacement shake to take alongside Hourglass Fit, then this is the product for you.
Many people are under the misapprehension that Instant Knockout was designed for men when in fact, it is perfectly suited to both men and women. A high protein, high fibre shake that works incredibly well at increasing satiety and making it easier to stay in a calorie deficit.
Instant Knockout Complete contains 400 calories per serving, 13 grams of healthy fats, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of fibre, and 35 grams of protein. There is only one flavour available, vanilla, and you can purchase it on the Instant Knockout website.
While Instant Knockout does only have one flavour to choose from and is only available from the IK website, it is a seriously good meal replacement shake for weight loss. Very high in protein and fibre, it combines excellently with appetite-reducing fat burners such as Cut or Hourglass Fit.
Complete uses the best ingredients out there, and this is reflected in the high cost per serving. Still, if you have the budget for it, you will be very pleased with the results.
The final meal replacement shake on our list is Huel Black. This shake is the weight-loss version of regular Huel, a UK-based meal replacement shake company. It is very low in carbs, very high in protein, and high in fat.
Huel Black contains 400 calories per serving. It has 18 grams of fat, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 8.3 grams of fibre, and 40 grams of protein. There are nine flavours available, and Huel can be bought on the Huel website.
There is a lot to like about Huel Black meal replacement shakes. They contain 40 grams of protein per serving, which is crazily high! It is also high in fibre, making it highly satiating. The number of flavours available is great from a variety point of view, but due to the lack of oats and high protein content, the taste of certain flavours is frequently criticised.
Still, Huel Black will help you to lose weight if that is what you are looking to do. You may find it hard at first as the high protein/high fibre content will lead to some gastrointestinal distress, but once you get used to that, you will really start to see a difference.
We have looked at three top-quality meal replacement shakes, and we’ve discussed the best ways in which to add them to your weight loss diet. Hopefully, by now, you realise how effective they can be when properly integrated into your lifestyle. The trick is to use them in conjunction with a healthy diet and frequent exercise.
The mistake that many people make when using meal replacement shakes is to avoid making any other changes to their lifestyle. Meal replacement shakes are simple to add to your daily habits, and require little thought. This means that you can use that energy elsewhere, perhaps using it to sign up to your local gym, or take the dog for a slightly longer walk.
We’d recommend trying Rootana meal replacement shakes first, they are the most natural meal replacement shakes on the market, is packed full of protein, fibre, and micronutrients, and it tastes amazing. It is well worth a try.
Yes, provided you use them sensibly, they will be highly beneficial to your health. There are no ingredients found in meal replacement shakes that are dangerous or illegal. The only issue you may have is if you have an allergy.
They are as natural as most foods; some meal replacement shakes are more natural than others. Rootana, Instant Knockout Complete, and Huel all prioritise natural ingredients above all else. Particularly Rootana. Oats, pea protein, vegetable oil, flaxseed etc are all natural ingredients.
Almost all meal replacement shakes use artificial sweeteners as a way to flavour their product without contributing any calories. However, there are some such as Rootana and Ka’Chava that avoid them and use ingredients such as coconut sugars instead.
Yes, provided that you use it as part of a calorie-deficit diet. If you combine your meal replacement shake with a diet filled with junk food, then you are unlikely to lose weight. However, if you add a meal replacement shake to a regular diet, you are more likely to see fat loss results.
Yes, Instant Knockout Complete works really well with Instant Knockout Cut, one of the best fat burners on the market. Similarly, you can combine Rootana with Hourglass Fit, a perfect combo for women looking to lose weight. Of course, using these products separately can also provide superb fat loss results.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6327254/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258944/
[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0143-9
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2989356/
[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10348498/