Looking for meal replacement shake recommendations for weight loss.

[Redsparkleydeeleyboppers]

DS20 has put on a considerable amount of weight over the last few years. He had never been overweight before and is now struggling. His last blood test revealed quite elevated ALT levels and a scan revealed fatty liver disease.

He admits he has no will power and has buried his head in the sand for a year or two but came to me this morning and said he would like to try meal replacement shakes to see if it would help kick start his weight loss journey and has asked if I could help him. He is thinking on the lines of a meal replacement for breakfast and lunch and a home cooked evening meal and snacking on low carb fruit and nuts.

Tbh, I’ve never had to lose weight and just googling all of these products is mind boggling to me.

Can anyone recommend a good starting point for this kind of product? Ideally not too expensive and obviously not full of crap like Slimfast.

I have a Protein Works Diet Meal Replacement every morning for breakfast, which I add my collagen powder and chia seeds to. I have lost 3.5 stones since October just having one shake a day then proper meals and snacks but calorie counting to a deficit of my maintenance calories.
As the shake is a UPF I really think it's important that it's part of a healthy, balanced diet with as many whole foods as possible - I totally agree with this approach.
Calorie counting, weighing and logging everything eaten is a must though as you'd be totally surprised about the calories in tiny snacky food - like nuts!!

Honestly at age 20 the best thing he can do is go to the gym. His natural metabolism, and swapping out high calorie snacks for lower calories with more protein will do him the world of good.

These are good: https://thefast800.com/meal-replacements/original-shake-coffee/

Thanks, I’ll have a look at that one.

He has asked me to help him as he has no willpower, has tried doing this himself and failed several times. Thankfully he loves all food and has always enjoyed fruit and veg so I will try to get him to snack on healthy foods and watch his portion and calorie intake.

I’ve suggested this but he’s not interested, he needs to reduce his calorie intake first, hopefully once he’s lost a bit of weight it may give him the incentive to exercise a bit more but he often works until 10/11pm so doesn’t always have the time.

I think get him in the gym to build muscle and figure out how much protein he should be eating. For muscle it’s 1.2-1.6 g per kilogram.

I get that quite drastic diets work for some people but it’s hard and there a risk of rebound, as he’s male he’ll drop weight quite quickly anyway.

Lidls Milbona high protein drink. 35g protein and about 218 calories. I love them, and great on the go.
Gym or even home weights will help as well.

Buy some dumbells for home and there are lots of youtube workouts, short ones he can try.

Quick note, I’m looking for recommendations for the shakes at this moment in time.

Thanks for everyone’s advice on exercise etc, obviously it’s a given he should be doing this but he won’t, not yet at least. He is a workaholic atm as his paid work is also his hobby which he does most nights so he has no time for the gym but hopefully if he can start by losing a stone or two it may give him the push to go on to start exercising. I’m starting by hiring out a private pool once a week for us as a family in September and fingers crossed he will learn to enjoy the exercise and want to do more.

Baby steps and all that….

I always took notice of the mantra "you can't out-exercise a bad diet" so I think you are right to support him with establishing good habits as a priority.

I would also recommend Protein Works. Purition is another good brand which is less UPF & doesn’t have to be shake so can be more like a meal replacement if that makes sense. Good luck

Is he sitting in front of a screen all day for work and hobby?

When working until 10pm at night, what times is he eating? The easiest way to kick start is intermittent fasting, no eating after work for example and making sure his meal break at work is no more than 7 hours after breakfast. Taking measured portions of nuts and fruit as snacks during an eight hour window will help. As will making sure he gets enough sleep - 8 hours.

I lost 9 stone doing meal replacement 7 years ago and I’ve kept it all off, I did shakes bars and one very healthy light meal a day and it melted off.

I quite like Slim & Save

I make my own with generic protein powder, skimmed milk, chia seeds and peanut butter. The ready-made ones taste too sweet and artificial to me.

I’ve like HUEL , have two bottles daily prefer the bottles over the powder slightly more costly but taste so much better especially when cold. I have one for breakfast , second for lunch and a low calorie dinner , two bits of fruit though out the day

I like Huel

I eat the katsu curry noodles and mac and cheese one - it’s 400 calories and high protein for lunch most days at work

porrridge wirh protein powder at breakfat

and same 3 meals for dinner like chicken and loads of veggies stir fry or a veggie curry or soemthing

being biting help and using my fitness pal to track calories

you can get Huel shakes also if you don’t want the food - but same calories so I’d rather the food

I use myprotein, they have great flavours and I've had a shake every morning for breakfast while driving to work with added instant coffee, liquid vitamins and collagen and done this for 18 months now. It keeps me full until my lunch at work and helped me to lose 4st 5lbs. Other than that reducing carbs makes a big difference.

He's a mechanic then works on classic cars in the evening so not sitting all day but not the most active job either I suppose. He has a tendency to skip dinner and eat late but he's hoping to get an air fryer in his lock up and I'll batch cook him some meals to take.

That's very impressive. Can I ask which shakes you used?

I may give that a go for him. He has IBS (as do I), so I'll start low with the chia seeds.

@Redsparkleydeeleyboppers If you do decide to try Protein Works I have a referral code which will give you £10 off a £50+ spend (I will also get this for full transparency): https://i.soreto.com/proteinworks/j/NJL6Gp5NVg
I use the Platinum 360 Diet Meal Replacement shakes and also the Big Little Bars for snacks, they are enough to satisfy my evening chocolate habit and the sugar content is really low.

That's great, thank you.

Thankyou! It was shakethatweight, they were the cheapest around when I used them

I love Huel shakes but I do get the bottles in bulk - I haven't tried the packets. They have loads of lovely flavours, and I don't have to think about it. They do a lite version too which I think tastes just the same. I hate the chocolate one, but the strawberries and cream, vanilla, and berries are lush.