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To lose weight requires cutting the number of calories consumed whilst increasing the amount of energy expended. Diet shakes seem to offer a simple solution to counting calories because their calorie-content is extremely low making it much easier to control the number of calories a person takes on board, without them having to worry about making a balanced meal and portion control. The makers of diet shakes claim that they meet a person's nutritional requirements, since they are fortified with vitamins and minerals, which may also influence a person's decision to use diet drinks to lose weight.

In theory, then, diet shakes can help lose weight because if a person is just consuming a certain amount of diet shakes a day, there is little chance of them exceeding their calorie requirements for that day. If a person is subsisting on diet shakes alone they can lose a substantial amount of weight, as the shakes are so low in calories. However, the body is not exactly designed to lose weight. When the body thinks that it is starving, it needs to burn calories more efficiently to keep all the vital organs functioning. If a person is eating too few calories, when they finally do start eating substantial amounts again, the body will want to hold on to the weight in case it faces periods of starvation again.

Diet shakes work in the short term, as they enable people to lose weight quickly, although this will probably take the form of water weight rather than actual fat, and so is likely to be regained again very quickly when they start to eat normally again. People often put on even more weight than they actually lost as the body readjusts to receiving food once more. Diet shakes are very appealing for people desperate to lose weight, though, because it is much easier to control what they are eating.

People losing weight often find that it is limiting the amount of food they consume that is the most difficult aspect of losing weight, and drinking diet shakes seem to take away this responsibility from them. The routine is easy to stick to, in the beginning at least, as dieters know what they are drinking and when they are drinking it. They do not have to spend an age agonising over what to cook and how much to cook; they just mix some powder and water together, or get ready-made shakes, and drink them.

Relying on diet shakes to lose weight will most probably end in failure, though, because most people cannot live on shakes for very long, as their desire for food overwhelms them. Even those people who achieve their weight goals using diet shakes tend to find that keeping the weight off is the most difficult part when they start eating again. Using diet shakes to lose weight does not address people's relationship with food, which is often what led them to become overweight in the first place. Diet shakes can motivate a person with large amounts of weight to lose, as they see results quickly in the beginning, but in most cases they will not help individuals to lose weight in the long term.

Learn more about this author, Michelle Wilkinson.
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