What are meal replacements and how to transition to meal replacements diet?

Meal replacement are dietary solutions designed to be convenient meal options for busy people and for specific fitness goals. A meal replacement is a dietary supplement designed to take the place of regular meals. Not snacks but meals. Vitaminfood is committed to deliver complete nutrition in all its meal replacements.

In a time when we are always watching out for fake cheap thrills, many have become skeptical about adapting or buying meal replacement powders and shakes. This article should guide you on how to choose and successfully transition to consuming meal replacements.

 “total diet replacement”

There are a couple of pointers that help with total diet replacement. It might not be easy at first but if you manage your nutrition well and choose the right solution, it can be done. Several people have successfully transitioned to vegan and plant-based diets in the recent years with very little strife. These are some of the factors to consider during your transition:

1. Do your research

   – you need to have enough reasons why you’d like to change the diet. Maybe it is because of a medical condition or just general health improvements. Perhaps you are working towards a fitness goal and you’re looking for a diet that is aligned to that goal or you’re to busy to cook but still need to be 100% complete nutritionally. Once you have enough reasons, get a diet that is a solution to your problems. Often times, we are unable to come to appropriate decisions by ourselves and with a few google searches so it is wise to consult a nutritionist or a dietician who is more skilled and professionally certified to handle such decisions.

2. Understand your diet and know its rules

   – after the research/ consultation is done and you have settled on a diet solution, learn more about it. Why it is suitable for you, how and why it works, what does it involve, what are you allowed and forbidden from consuming. Then make yourself some rules that might help stick to the plan. The trick here is to not be too hard on yourself, just hard enough.

3. Stock up on the good stuff

   – a major reason why people relapse to old eating habits is the momentary running out of stock. You need to ensure that you always have enough stock with you. Consider getting a subscription for your favourite meal replacements and soylents. This ensures that you always have enough supply for when you need it.

4. Track progress

   – accountability is where the actual results are. You need to be able to track your progress very vividly. Be able to say “I weighed 120 kgs last month, now I weight 105 kgs and in four months I want to be at 88 kgs”. Take ‘before and after’ pictures, collect data about your weight, waistline, body fat composition and more. Have enough evidence that the diet change is helping with your goals. Look at how bright your skin was before the transition how you’ve glowed up after using plant-based meal replacements

5. Have a support network

   – if you want to go fast… walk alone, but if you want to go far… find a group of like-minded people. Join a community of gym goers or plant-based dieters or vegans according to what your resolution is. It could even be an online community but you’ll have people to encourage you, congratulate you on important and trivial milestones and to provide tips on how they overcame some of the challenges.

6. Begin slowly and advance to progressive phases of your diet

   – you can’t begin your hiking expeditions with Mt. Everest, you have to do some beginner level practice. Same with your meals, you shouldn’t try the most outrageous meals schedules first. Begin with a simpler transitional schedule first then increase the intensity until you’re at the level you aimed for

 “how to choose the right meal replacement”.

For any diet to yield the expected fitness results, it has to be carefully selected and proven that it is the right one. Such a meal needs to be aligned to your fitness goals and metabolically inclined to yield relevant effects.

• Quality supercedes everything when selecting any type of meal. When selecting a meal replacement, it is important to choose one that contains high quality ingredients. This may vary depending on what your dieting preferences are i.e, vegan, non-gmo, sugar-free, lactose-free, gluten-free or plant-based. Find a meal replacement that doesn’t compromise your preferences and diet principles.

Next in choosing a suitable meal replacement is the ratio of macronutrients.

• Depending on the goal of your diet plan, you should choose a meal replacement that supports weight loss or promotes weight gain. For normal meals, you should get 40-65% of your calorie intake from carbohydrates, 20-35% of calories from fats and 15-25% from proteins. For weight loss however, the protein content should be significantly higher while that for carbs and fats reduces.
• The meal replacement should also include the recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals. Having adequate amounts of these micronutrients protects from the reversible and irreversible effects of deficiencies. A good selection of meal replacements can also help boost your nutritional profile as several common meals are lacking in 1 or 2 minerals and vitamins.

The quality of nutrients also specifies between different types of fats, carbs and proteins.

• For example, unsaturated fats are healthier for your body as compared to saturated ones. High density cholesterol is better than LDL. A meal replacement with adequate omega-3 & 6 will be good for you. Slow carbs and complex carbohydrates are healthier calorie sources whether in regular meals or in manufacture of meal replacements.

If you can get your meal replacement option right, you set yourself up for success. Try Vitaminfood flavored meal replacement. Vitaminfood ticks all the boxes for healthiest meal replacement.

“how to prepare the perfect meal shake”

Does the perfect meal shake exist? Too thick or too light…too sweet or very flat taste…earthy feel or smooth texture. Making shakes can be a messy ordeal. Trying to spice it up can instead turn out to be a very tedious task. Despite all this or rather because of all this, it is necessary to have a couple of ideas that will help improve your experience with meal replacements. Hopefully by trial and error, you will meet your “perfect meal shake”.

• Find a suitable base for your powder – experiment with water, different kinds of milk; skimmed, fat, almond, soy or normal diary to find which one works best for you. Different powders blend differently with these liquids and the recommended one may be the best bet but you could discover a better one and make your life much easier. The right base will it a smooth texture and accentuate its flavor.
• Add fiber to help bulk it up – one of the advantages of regular meals to diet shakes and liquid meals is the fiber content. Regular ones are usually bulky enough on their own while preparation of meal replacement powders and soylents might filter away a lot of the fiber. You might need to add flax seeds or chia seeds to increase the fiber content of the meal replacements.
• Protein is key for your meal replacement – whether you’re looking to gain weight or lose weight, a high protein content is highly relevant. Adding protein isolate, as recommended, to your meal replacement shakes will help boost your overall protein intake. Protein isolate is better than normal protein powder in such case because the isolate doesn’t contain extra nutrients like a protein powder does.
• Look for natural flavors – if you can find ways to naturally make your meal replacement sweeter, then you might be able to stick to that diet plan for longer. Aesthetic and taste satisfaction is one of the greatest reasons why people relapse from their diet resolutions. Blend in a banana or strawberries, add stevia or honey. When it comes to sweetening, it is important to remember that you still need to watch your overall calorie intake and these sweeteners can be disastrous to total calorie intake.
• Vegetable incorporation – while it is advisable to easy on the sweeteners like fruits (mangoes, bananas) and berries, vegetables come in handy in maintaining overall nutritional profile with little alteration to calorie count. Spinach, avocado, beetroots and carrots will not only enhance the flavor but also boost the micronutrient profile of your meal shake.

Preparation

Vitaminfood healthy meal shakes are:

• Ready-to-have
• All-in-one
• Easy to prepare

What we are presenting is fast food reinvented. If you consider fast food fast, then we are much faster. If you consider them convenient because of shop location, we are even more convenient. You can have everything ready in less than two minutes from the comfort of your seat or coach.

• Within seconds you will have a complete meal and no longer have to worry about the necessary nutrients.
• You decide how many calories your shake should contain. Simply adjust the number of scoops of Vitaminfood. Half a scoop of Vitaminfood shake powder in combination with 250 ml (vegan) milk or water equals about 100 kcal. Every half a scoop you add, in combination with 50 ml extra milk or water, adds an additional 100 kcal. This makes it very easy to control your intake of calories.
• You can use vegan milk for vegans (our recommended choice) including soy, almond, oat and coconut milk. You can also use water then stir or mix using our shakers for even distribution of the mixture.

References:

1. https://www.optifast.co.uk/blog/lifestyle/tips-to-succeed-total-diet-replacement/
2. https://enu-nutrition.com/blog/tips-switching-meal-replacement-shakes-regular-diet
3. https://askthescientists.com/best-meal-replacement/
4. https://swolverine.com/blogs/blog/6-tips-to-make-the-perfect-meal-replacement-shake
5. https://gut-fit.com/blog/post/meal-replacement-for-weight-loss-5-tips-for-using-them-properly