The Slim-Fast diet can help you lose weight by reducing calories. The program relies on Slim-Fast products to replace your normal meals and snacks. As with most diet programs, this plan can help you lose weight if you follow it correctly. When you are choosing a diet, you should think about how healthy and sustainable it is and whether it is a good match for your lifestyle.
How It Works
On the Slim-Fast 3-2-1 plan, you eat three snacks, two meal replacements and one meal each day. If you follow the plan correctly, you will be eating 1,200 calories per day, which will likely be low enough to make you lose weight. Eating six times a day can decrease your hunger and maintain your metabolism so that you continue to burn calories. You can find instructions, tips and sample menus, and recipes on Slim-Fast.com.
Meal Replacements
You can substitute a meal bar or protein shake for a meal twice each day. The bars come in chocolate, fruit and oatmeal flavors and have 200 calories, 6g fat, 5g dietary fiber and 8g protein. Shakes come in ready-to-drink or powdered mixes and have about 180 calories, 6g fat, 5g fiber and 8g protein. Slim-Fast shakes also come in low-carbohydrate and high-protein options. Slim-Fast states that all of its meal bars provide 20 percent and its shakes provide about 1/3 of the daily value for most essential vitamins and minerals. Replacing a meal with a 200-calorie bar or shake will probably reduce your calories and promote weight loss.
Meal
You can have your single daily meal at any time of the day as long as you keep it to 500 calories. The basic guidelines for the meal are to fill your plate half full with vegetables, a quarter full with lean protein such as fish, beans or poultry and a quarter full with a whole-grain starch. Slim-Fast.com provides recipes that meet these criteria. Some ideas are herb-roasted chicken and vegetables and red beans and rice casserole. This meal can promote weight loss if your normal meals are more than 500 calories and high in fat.
Snacks
The Slim-Fast plan includes three snacks each day from snack bars or whole foods. Your snack can be a 100-calorie snack bar in chocolate or vanilla flavors. These bars have 10 percent of the daily value for many vitamins and minerals. If you choose to have food snacks instead of bars, Slim-Fast.com suggests choosing healthy foods so that you get the most nutrients for your 100 calories. Some suggestions are yogurt, nuts and fruit.
Considerations
The Slim-Fast program is a low-calorie diet that limits whole foods to as little as 500 calories per day from a single meal. You are likely to meet your daily vitamin and mineral requirements from the fortified Slim-Fast products, but, according to MayoClinic.org, whole foods can provide other benefits, such as phytonutrients and other antioxidants that you do not get from diet bars. You should always incorporate healthy eating and appropriate exercise into a weight loss plan, and you should consult your doctor before starting a diet program.
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