by Kris Kennedy

Created on: July 17, 2010

Meal Replacement Foods

Do you eat only replacement foods? During a time period people, wishing to lose weight, eat meal replacement foods, but after the weight loss do not eat meal replacement foods.

Pros

Meal replacement foods (mfrs) provide many advantages. It includes low calorie, convenience, and portion controlThe mrfs provide full nutrients with fewer calories. During diets, individuals deal with the consequences of fewer calories not providing all the nutrients necessary to maintain energy and general health.  Will you know how to limit amount of calories and still maintain health at the completion of the diet?

Mfrs are convenient. The items carry easily or are conveniently prepared at home. Do individuals eat alone? 

Mrfs provide a serving. If the individual only eats this amount of food, he or she can remain within healthy weight. When the individual returns to normal eating habits, will he know how to limit portion control? That remains one of the major cons that includes\many of the other pros.

Con

The need to return to normal life makes mrfs as not beneficial for lifetime weight management.  Mfrs benefit a person who experienced an emotional crisis such as divorce, grief and loss of employment using the mfrs to return to normal weight in an individual who maintained normal weight for years. If the individual fails to deal with the emotional cause of the weight loss, he or she experiences the same cons.

An individual who has difficulty maintaining appropriate weight for years will not have the knowledge to maintain weight after the loss. He or she lacks the knowledge to make food selections. Many of the mfrs duplicate foods available on the regular diet in a low calorie variety. When returning to old habits, will you know how to prepare the items in the healthy manner or will you return to your old recipes?

After losing weight, will you start eating the other foods at the same quantity?  You make selections and prepare items. You make the selections from restaurants, grocery stores and social event menus. You have not learned the quantity that makes up a serving. If you examine serving sizes on many prepared food containers, you notice an unrealistic serving size.

Moreover, you have learned to enjoy convenience. You might replace the mfrs with prepared foods that are high in sodium, which encourages water retention. The water retention replaces the weight loss. Maybe fat failed to return, but will you notice?

Weight loss comes from dealing with what caused the weight loss. If you need nutrient education, portion control or resolution of emotional eating, this will work better over the long run than mfrs.

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