How to Use Meal Replacements - Getting the Benefits While Eliminating the Liabilities
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In series, we have looked at using meal replacements to improve your Average Shape.
We have seen how to use meal replacements in this way and what meal replacements best fit the bill of actually replacing a meal.
Today we look at what the limitations of meal replacements are and how you can use that knowledge to get the best results.
First, let’s review the advantages of meal replacements.
Advantages of Meal Replacements:
- They solve the problem of time.
- They do a good job managing the insulin response (usually)
- They have a favorable ratio of toxins to anti-oxidants
- They keep you from overeating.
With regards to the issue of time, there is no getting away from the advantage meal replacements give you.
The truth is simply that life pressures always wind up competing for the time we allocate to eat right and exercise. Its just reality. Meal replacements can be a great tool for dealing with this eventuality.
The strengths of meal replacements are considerable. They do, however, have some drawbacks that we need to be aware of to use them effectively. The limitations of meal replacements have to do primarily with how they fall short of a true meal.
We want to focus on here are fullness, flavor and satiety. Why this is important is because fullness, flavor and satiety are things that are ultimately controlled by hormones like leptin, cholestokinin, gherelin, seratonin, gluacagon, neuropeptide y and a host of others.
What’s important here is to understand that you need to be careful when it comes to prolonged deprivation of flavor, fullness or satisfaction from food. The hormones that control flavor, fullness and satisfaction tend to go into overdrive to compensate.
Ask anyone why they went off their diet and the response you get has something to do with an inevitable, overwhelming need to INDULGE which led to a period (much longer than the eating right period) of unrestrained indulgence. Why? Again, hormones control our needs for flavor, fullness and satisfaction from food. If you pull those hormones too far out of their norm, they tend to compensate.
So what we have to be aware of when using meal replacements, as part of improving what you look like on average is three things.
Proximity:
The less you use meal replacements in proximity to each other the better. Try not to use them on successive meals, or successive days. This is why in part 1 of this series, I recommend using them on alternating days, no more than 3 or 4 days per week.
The reason for this is you need flavor and satisfaction from food. Using meal replacements too much or too close to each other can create a backlash sensation of needing more flavor. This is why alternating days, as your last meal of the day is a good strategy. You wake up hungry to eat a good meal. Many people have problems with the desire to eat in the morning. This technique also helps in that area as well.
Hunger:
We want to mitigate hunger as much as possible when using meal replacements. Hunger is a hormonal signal. Regular hunger as a result of any alteration in eating is something to avoid. What you are doing is building a hormonal backlash.
Tip: If you are using a meal replacement as your last meal of the day and feel hunger, try adding a capful of essential fats like Udo’s oil or extra virgin olive oil to your meal replacement. The added fat will curb hunger and is good for you.
Fiber and elimination:
Depending on the meal replacement you are using, you may wish to ad additional soluble fiber. Some meal replacements tend not to be eliminated easily and the extra fiber will also help with fullness.
In summary, the focus of this series has thus far been on improving your average shape. The idea here being that meal replacements are something you can incorporate into what you do on average. If you understand the limitations of meal replacements you can use them strategically and with much effectiveness to help you be lean and fit over the long haul. Next week, we will have a short series on using meal replacements as a tool to get in Peak Shape.
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