First, Establish the Reason You Want to Follow a Meal Plan
Before deciding on whether a meal plan is right for you, you will want to decide what is your goal. Are you wanting to improve your mood or anxiety level, reduce inflammation, or decrease your risk of diseases like cancer or Alzheimer’s? Do you want more energy to play with your children, or are you are an athlete who wants to improve your endurance and performance? Are you a college student that want to make sure you are getting adequate nutrition for optimal brain focus and memory, or are you just wanting to implement a meal replacement plan for weight loss?
Should Weight Loss Be your Goal in the First Place?
Before moving on, let’s talk a little about weight loss. We have learned so much about the negative impact of weight obsessing and diet culture. In fact, I think we are sometimes so scared about falling back into that weight obsessed trap that we have made others feel guilty, (like they are somehow wrong) for still expressing a desire to lose weight. Yet people have experienced many health benefits after losing weight, such as less joint pain or improved energy. Many who have lost weight have found relief and have seen significant improvements in their medical conditions. So I think it’s okay if you have a desire to lose weight when your desire comes from wanting to improve your health.
With that being said, I would like to encourage you to focus on what foods can do for you more than on your weight. Healthy comes in many different sizes. If everyone ate exactly the same, we still would all be different sizes. We have different builds and genetics. In fact, you may be surprised to find that you feel fantastic even if you don’t look like what the magazines tell you to look like.
What is a Meal Replacement Diet and What are the Benefits?
So maybe you are still saying, “Yes, Lacy, weight loss is one of my goals because I think I will feel better.” Or maybe you want to see if following a meal replacement diet will improve a medical condition, your stress levels, or overall health. You can often find meal replacements for your specific medical condition or diet lifestyle (i.e.. vegan/vegetarian). Now, the next step is to look at the pros and cons of a Meal Replacement Diet including pre-packed, pre-planned meals.
What is a Meal Replacement Diet>
Most meal replacements recommend that you replace two meals in your day with their meal, drink, bar, etc. For the third meal you eat one serving of a regular meal of your choice. Some meal replacements also recommend eating fruit two times a day for a small snack.
Pros and Cons of Meal Replacements
One benefit of meal replacement plans is that you don’t have to figure out what you are going to eat. This diet takes out the guesswork. For many, the more variety of foods available as a meal replacement the better they are able to adhere to the plan. Meal Replacements are helpful for people who don’t want to put too much thought into their diet. Some of these plans are healthier than others. The meal replacement plans that have more variety and include nutrient-dense foods are the best among the meal replacement diets.
Some find the meal replacement diet hard to follow especially when they cook for others, when they go out to eat, and when they eat at parties. People often become bored on these rigid diets. Meal replacements are also hard to maintain long term. Most people will not stick with pre-packaged foods forever; therefore, when the dieter goes back to making and portioning their own foods, the benefits the dieter received will most likely go away.
Example of Meal Replacement Diets
The Meal Replacement diet may be one of the most popular kinds of diets. Many meal replacement diets are available. Examples of meal replacement or pre-packaged meals include:
- The ” Subway Diet”: On this diet you choose the one of the low fat sandwiches and do not add mayo or oil and vinegar.
- “Slimfast” bars and shakes: For this diet the dieter often eats bars or shakes for breakfast or lunch and then eats a healthy dinner.
- “Cereal Diet”: For this diet, a dieter eats a bowl of whole wheat cereal with skim milk for breakfast or lunch
- Frozen Dinners diet: “Lean Cuisines”, “Healthy Choice”, “Smart Ones” or other lean frozen dinners are eaten for at least two of the three meals.
- “Kellogg’s Special K Challenge” also has a meal replacement plan. You can find details on the Kellogg’s website, specialk.com. They also have meal plans that you can follow.
- “Cookie Diet”: The cookie diet replaces all meals except dinner with a high fiber, high protein cookie.
- Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem: For these diets, the pre-portioned foods are sent to your house.
What Do You Think?
What do you think about Meal Replacement Diets? Yay or Nay?
Want to Learn More?
If you would like to see if this strategy or other strategies will work for you, fill out the Christian Wellness Diet Self-assessment Form.
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