DONT be Fooled by DIETS --What you should know (SlimFast)

Member Name: Logan33

Product:	SlimFast
Date:	02/02/09 (757 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Will lose weight in the short term

Disadvantages: Nutritional suicide, Dehydration, Stomach cramps, headaches

You want to lose weight and Slimfast will help you right? here are a few things to consider.....

I have worked in the health and fitness industry for many years, I also studied nutrition as part of my degree programme at Southampton University. Being interested in all things health related, I studied diets and dieting products and would like to share a few thoughts with you.

Firstly the named product which hundreds of people I train have used. Slimfast. well in short, does it work? Well the answer is YES, for a short while at least. Why does it work? Well put simply, Slimfast is a "LAXATIVE", nicely repackaged so that it is not embarrasing to go to the shops and buy it. Thats it, simple as that. You will go to the toilet far more often and therefore you will lose weight (mainly I might add) through huge losses of water in your body. Will you become chronically dehydrated?....yes, will you have periods of feeling quite drained and weak (especially if you go to the gym)......Definitely.

All dietry products are based around this principal. They ALL have laxative qualities to them. Take for exaple Milk shakes. Very low in fat in liquid form which are generally used to replace a meal (well its obvious you'll lose some weight if you don't eat!.........all of the milkshakes contain laxative (there are 4 different types, Bulk forming laxative, Stimulant laxative, osmotic laxatice and stool softner). Without going into too much detail, they are designed to make you go to the toilet.

The reason I write about this (as it is a strange topic). The pressure of losing weight for some people is so great, they will try these products without really knowing much about them. here is some cautionary advise...............

Using laxatives frequently, or every day, can be harmful.

For example, prolonged use of laxatives can make your body dependent on them so that your bowel no longer functions properly without the medication. Over-using laxatives can also cause diarrhoea, dehydration, and unbalanced levels of salts and minerals in your body.

None of the products come with suitable warnings on them regarding the use of laxatives. The official line is you should not use laxative products for anymore than 2 weeks (if not you should consult your doctor) NOBODY takes these products will have consulted there GP, which makes them slightly dangerous in my view.

more importantly here is the science behind using these products and why they are purely a "Quick Fix" to losing weight.

1) Nearly all of the weight you are losing is water. here is how your body uses water; Approximately 85% of your brain, 80% of your blood and 70% of your muscle is water. Take that away and you will quickly find that you can become tired, irritable, your sleeping patterns will become effected, you will feel weak etc etc etc (the list is exhaustive....hence why were all told to drink a minimum of 2 litres daily!

2) Many products like this replace meals. dangerous nutritionally and counter-productive to your body (and ironically your weight loss) why?

when you start starving your body of food from the normal level its used too, your body goes into something collectively known as "starvation mode". What this means is, your body recognises that you are not taking in as many calories as it is used to. Therefore what happens is, it hold on to more of the calories when you do eat (i.e the two meals of the day you do eat). Somewhat ironically in the early days/week of a diet, you oftern find people actually put on weight as opposed to losing it. However, this is soon followed up by rapid weight loss as the body (despite its best efforts) cannot continually and efficiently keep holding on to the same amount of calories. Traditionally this is called "Crash dieting" and does work......BUT and its a big one, these diets are never sustainable, you will never be able to keep the weight off, because realistically you cannot live your whole life drinking milkshakes and eating like a sparrow....your body was never designed to work like that! This is the cause of phrases such as "yo/yo dieting and the most common problem "as soon as I stopped, I piled the weight back on"

Thats because they DO NOT WORK in the long term, they are most definitely a "QUICK FIX" but with huge detriments to your health.

The solution:

I am a fan of weight watchers/slimming world as an excellent way of dieting (I use this term losely because its actually a change of lifestyle that they both promote). Dieting is nearly always about the re-education of food and exercise and once you have an appreciation of this, your efforts become more focussed and much more sustainable. They also have a support structure which is the most important feature of successfully dieting, people often feel lost in their own weight issues and need that extra support...............products like slimfast on its own never provide you with this. The products are also expensive......channel your money into something that will help you maintain the weight you want for ever not just a quick fix (which these products always tent to be. Even joining a good gym would help as most of the trainers should have a sound knowledge of diet as well as exercise (Holmes Place employ excellent staff for this, In saying that chain gyms tend to be less supportive than private gyms, so I would point you towards a friendly welcoming private club to get the support you need).

In conclusion and before I bore you. slimfast is a product that will work in the short term, but with the new knowledge you have, I would suggest investing your money in a more sustainable product that will actually make you hit your goals for the coming years, not just the coming weeks.

Hope that helps, below are a few details about slimfast: PLease take note of the replacement of meals, they actually put this as a hazard on their own product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


How to Use
Every day you have two delicious Slim.Fast meals instead of your normal meals, this could be breakfast and lunch, or breakfast and your evening meal.You can also have up to three snacks a day to help you keep full between meals.


Hazards and Cautions
Food supplements are intended to supplement the diet and should not be regarded as a substitute for a varied diet
Slim Fast can help weight loss as part of a calorie controlled diet
Pregnant women and diabetics should seek advice from their doctor
Not suitable for children

Cost: £5/6 per tub, you can buy it everywhere (Boots, Lloyds, Tesco, Sainsbury's etc)

Hope that helps,

Logan

Summary: A quick fix but NOT a solution, don't waste you money!