Most of the shake replacement programs are based on high protein whey, and or soya flour. So what does this mean and how does it help you lose weight, at least temporarily?

What it actually does is increase the frequency of protein based 'meals' going into your body with a heap of added goodies to make up for the fact that it isn't real food and is nothing like real food.

Any good eating plan will have a protein based foods in frequent small amounts during the day. If this is not the way healthy eating should be then why do these multi-million dollar companies do the hard sell with the shake replacement programs.

Yes it works for a time, and you see the testimonials that show people who have lost weight and even kept it off. But these are usually the exception rather than the norm.

The reasons why these shake replacements work is because they are making you follow the key components to losing weight/burning fat. But How?

Research shows that to increase our metabolism, and therefore increase the energy burning capacity of our bodies, a few rules must be followed. The bodybuilding community have long known the best way to make your body burn stored fat is to increase protein and decrease carbohydrate.

So from a metabolism point of view the shakes succeed in the following ways:

• Increased meal frequency (most programs are based on three meals-2 as shakes-and 3 snacks)
• Higher protein content
• Decreased serving sizes
• Plenty of water
• Encourage some regular exercise

But we all know weight loss is about so much more than increased metabolism. There are many tangled emotions and daily influences attached to the process of weight loss.

Shakes also tick a few yes boxes here:

• Easy to prepare
• Supposed value for money
• Convenient for travel
• Eat what you want for dinner flexibility
• Fast results for a time

But on the other hand, how many of us really research and find out how convenient, or easy it is to follow a moderate protein, high fibrous carb, limited starchy and sugary carb food plan.

It all sounds too hard, really. And actually it can really set your head into a spin trying to work out what is right and what isn't. BUT just like the meal replacement programs there are experts out there who have done all the hard stuff. There are alternative programs that have your best interests in health at heart, and not the lining fo their own pockets.

So if meal replacements tick so many boxes, why do so mnay of us seemingly 'fail' to lose weight forever with them? And no, you most certainly are not alone.

 Notice I wrote, why they fail you and not why you fail at them? It's true, so many of these sure-fire fast weight loss programs will fail you everytime, and yet we are left feeling like we can't get anything right. Does this sound familiar?

• Maybe we just don't want it badly enough
• We have no willpower
• We were meant to be fat
• We can't get anything right
• We are just too weak

Well none of that is really true. I mean if we were truly weak and had no willpower why would we keep getting up and dusting ourselves of and trying again? We don't 'lack' in anything except good knowledge on the way our bodies work, and how our bodies treat the foods we eat. No one is born knowing that. But precious little of it is taught in schools to children so they can have a healthy lifestyle.

The truth of the matter is, basing a diet on grain based foods, sugary and starchy carbohydrate foods and drink will not do us or our children any favors in the long run. Some wholegrains are essential but the amount of starchy, sugary so called healthy foods we are sold is killing us.

Obesity is on the rise, children are getting fatter, and we are told eat less and move more. Yes we need to eat less of all the convenient, highly processed foods that are often labeled as healthy. Fruit juice--packed with sugar, Low fat yogurt--loaded with sugar, healthy snack bars loaded with high GI carbs and sugar.

But that's another post. The main reasons why the meal replacements don't work in the long term are:

• Gets boring and impossible to maintain--no matter how convenient and easy, 2 shakes a day for the rest of your life is not realistic.
• Feel isolated--people on these often do it secretly, and when they can't keep it up they look at the testimonials and think why can't I do this if they can? Without a support base we often are doomed to fail because weight loss deals with a lot of demons inside us along the way.
• Over the long term it can get expensive as most of these programs sell sidelines you 'must' have to succeed.
• It's embarrassing to go to lunch with the work mates or friends and whip out the powder sachet.
• When we eat off plan we feel we've failed and that we may as well eat anything now.

A real food plan gives you the tools and allowances to eat off plan regularily and get back on plan easily

This means long term maintenance, and when you lose the weight you want you can increase portion sizes to maintian your healthy weight.

You are given a realistic exercise routine based on weight loss priority or muscle building, sometime both.

You learn along the way in easy to process amounts just how the body works and how food works and this means you not only know what to eat, you know why, and you can make informed choices.

This gives you back the power of control over your eating lifestyle and health. This is the one major thing that any extreme, fad, crash or replacement diets take away.

They take away our right to food choice and tell us we must only have certain things at certain times. On a good lifestyle, moderate protein, high fibrous carb eating plan, you get to make the choices, and even if you slip up, you have the tools to get on with it the next day. We are only human after all.