Crack The Fat Loss Code Ebook

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Slim Fast Diet: Pros and Cons

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.

The original Slim Fast diet was pretty basic. You replaced two meals a day with a special shake that you made up by adding the Slim Fast powder to some low-fat milk. It came in three flavors: strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. You would have one of these shakes at breakfast and another at lunch, and then have a "sensible" dinner of about 600 calories.

Since then, Slim Fast has introduced new flavors and products to its line. There are ready-made canned shakes, a wide variety of snack bars and soup mixes, which you can have a few times per day. As well, you are now required to drink eight glasses of water each day.

That's the short version of the Slim Fast diet. Next, we'll take a look at the pros and cons.

Pros: First of all, you can certainly lose a considerable amount of weight on the Slim Fast diet if you make sure to exercise. The program 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 counting calorie or meetings.

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).

There's no doubt you can lose weight on the Slim Fast diet, but given the disadvantages, you might want to use the Slim Fast products to replace a snack instead of a meal. The shakes are flavorful, but you won't get the satisfaction that you do from eating a real meal.

Finally, it's not unusual for people on this diet to put back on all the weight they lost. One woman followed the Slim Fast program for a year along with moderate exercise. 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 your unhealthy ways.

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. - 17268

About the Author:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home