Rapid Fat Loss Diets

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Slim Fast Diet: A Review

By Kim Archer

If you'd like to lose a few pounds, hopefully you're only considering healthy weight loss programs and not fad diets. Perhaps you've been considering the Slim Fast program, but don't know if it's healthy or not. Here's a look at the features of this diet plan that might help you make a decision.

When the Slim Fast diet first came out, it was a very basic plan. Two meals a day were replaced with a shake made by adding some Slim Fast powder to a glass of low-fat milk. There were three flavors to choose from: strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. You would drink one shake at breakfast and another at lunch, and then have a sensible dinner of about 600 calories.

Today, there are several more products in the Slim Fast line-up. You can get pre-mixed canned shakes, snack bars in a variety of flavors, and soup mixes. You are allowed these products about three times a day. And a recommendation was added that you drink eight glasses of water every day.

Those are the basics of the Slim Fast program. Now let's take a look at the pros and cons of this diet.

Pros: First and foremost, you can lose a lot of weight on the Slim Fast program if you combine it with exercise. The plan is easy to follow. You can take the shakes with you to work, to the gym, on the road, and just about anywhere else. There's no calorie counting or public weigh-ins.

Cons: The Slim Fast shakes aren't filling, and you're bound to miss eating real food for breakfast and lunch. This makes it difficult to sustain this plan over the long haul. You won't be consuming a lot of fruits and vegetables, so you'll be short on fiber and some essential nutrients (although the shakes contain vitamins and minerals).

It's certainly possible to lose weight on this plan, but given the disadvantages, it might be easier to use the Slim Fast products for snacks instead of meals, and enjoy healthy foods at mealtimes. The shakes are tasty, but you won't experience the enjoyment you get from eating actual food.

As a final note, it's not uncommon for dieters on this plan to put back on all the weight they lost, plus some more. One woman followed the Slim Fast program and exercised moderately for a year. She lost 60 pounds. And then she gained it all back the next year. The problem is, if you haven't changed your eating habits, and then you stop using the shakes, you're likely to go back to eating your unhealthy favorites.

Recommendation: Because it's not easy to stay with this diet for the long term, the Slim Fast plan is most suited to people who only have a few pounds to lose. Someone who wanted to lose a considerable number of pounds could start with this diet to shed some weight quickly, and then switch to a healthy food plan and continue to lose a pound or two a week.

Every time you turn around, there's a new diet book on the market. It can be hard to choose the one that's best for you. While you're checking out the latest weight loss miracle, remember that long-term weight loss requires a change in your eating habits that you can live with for life. - 17273

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