Diet Shakes & Safety
Calorie Rules
Generally, we hear about calories as the bad guy in weight loss, but in reality calories are the tiny piece of fuel that keep our body going. The amount of calories you eat every day determines many things – your overall health, your levels of energy throughout the day, your weight, and your ability to lose weight or grow muscle.
- Your body has a minimum number of calories it must have every day. For this reason, you should never go below 1200 calories a day when dieting, and that number increases with body size. Larger individuals should consume more than 1500 calories a day.
- Your body has a certain number of calories it takes to maintain your current weight, muscle mass and energy levels. Dipping below this number will make your body burn extra calories and fuel found in other parts of the body, including fat.
- When replacing meals with a diet shake, add up your calories carefully to be sure you’re not following below your daily minimum, but that you are falling well below your normal “maintenance” level of calories. If you do fall too low, your body will think it is starving and not function normally. If you continue eating too few calories long enough, your body will actually begin to starve.
Energy Rules
Calories provide energy to your muscles and mind throughout the day. By reducing the number of calories you consume dramatically, you might experience a change in energy levels.
- The types of foods you eat and the number of calories they contain affect your energy in different ways. Complex carbohydrates such as whole wheat bread burn slowly and steadily. Sugary foods and foods made with simple carbohydrates, such as chips, burn up rapidly, providing peaks and valleys of energy.
- Certain additives such as Chromium nicotinate can help you maintain steady blood sugar and therefore energy levels when dieting.
- Be aware of your energy levels while using diet shakes and compensate by getting plenty of sleep ever night.
- Eat a small snack before beginning any daily exercise to be sure your energy levels remain consistent.
Stay Thin For Life
The biggest danger of losing so much weight quickly on a program of weight loss shakes is that you’ll need to phase the shakes out when you reach your goal weight. If you haven’t practiced balanced meals and other aspects of healthy eating, you might regain a bit of the weight you lost before you’re able to find the way of staying thin for life.
Regaining pounds brings back all prior health conditions that you’ve now moved beyond by losing weight. Avoid this pitfall by using the weeks or months that you use diet shakes to practice other healthy eating habits as well. Not only will this protect you when you complete your weight loss goals, but it will also help you lose weight more quickly during the process.