Weight Loss Shakes Comparison - A Look at Atkins, Slim Fast, and Medifast Shakes

Paleo Weight Loss :

Of all of the questions that I get about medifast and other diets, people ask about the shakes most of all. I think that it's very appealing to think that a product that's so convenient and decent tasting can compose a large part of your diet plan and weight loss. I'm often asked about the differences between many of the popular diet shakes on the market. So, in the following article, I will compare three popular shakes (atkins, slim fast, and medifast) in terms of taste, calories, protein, carbs, and sugar.

Weight Loss Shakes Comparison - A Look at Atkins, Slim Fast, and Medifast Shakes

Atkins Diet Shakes: First up, I'm going to look at the atkins shakes. I'm going to use the standard chocolate flavor for all of these products because I want to remain consistent. I'm looking at the advantage milk chocolate product. This shake contains 160 calories, 9 grams of fat, 4 grams of carbs, 1 gram of sugar, and 15 grams of protein. In terms of taste, I find this product to be a bit chalky and to have an almost artificial sweet taste. This product does have an impressive amount of protein, but it's relatively high in calories and fat.

Slim Fast Weight Loss Shakes: When I went to do research for this article, I found that the slim fast shakes had recently been recalled. Still, the nutritional information was still available. I will be looking at the original slim fast milk chocolate shake. This shake checks in with a whopping 220 calories, but has only 3 grams of fat. It has a disturbing 30 grams of carbs and 34 grams of sugars. In its defense, it does have 10 grams of protein. Still, the fat, calories, and the high amount of carbs and sugars will probably run counter to this. And to make matters worse, the taste of this product is by far the chalkiest of all three shakes.

Medifast Weight Loss Shakes: Now, I'll look at the medifast 55 dutch chocolate shake. This one has the least amount of calories - at only 90. There is only 1 gram of fat, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 8 sugars, and 11 grams of protein. This one has the lowest amount of calories and fat by far. And, I find that taste to be the best of the three. I do have to add some extra liquid to this product because I don't like shakes that are too thick, but with that little modification made, this one is my opinion the best tasting of the bunch.

How These Shakes Fit Into A Plan Of Weight Loss Based Partly On Ketosis: Most of these shakes work under two principals. They want to save you calories on your meals and they want to save you sugars and carbs while giving you more protein. The goal here is to get your body into ketosis so that it's able to burn fat instead of sugars and carbs. But to make this happen, you have to do your part by taking in enough protein and by taking in less calories and carbs.

I find it questionable that the slim fast shake would meet this criteria. There is simply too much sugars and calories. The atkins shake is better in this regard, but it still has significantly more calories and a whopping nine grams of fat, which I find pretty problematic. I might be biased because I regularly consume medifast shakes, but I find them to be the winner both in terms of nutrition and taste.

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Paleo Diet Versus Atkins Diet

Paleo Weight Loss :

It is important to note that both the Paleo diet and the Atkins diet are low carbohydrate diets. The difference in the two diets lies in the purpose of adopting each of the diet plans. This difference can therefore be analyzed by looking at each of the diets individually then trying to compare between the two.

Paleo Diet Versus Atkins Diet

To begin with, the Paleo diet is a kind of diet that is based on adopting a particular lifestyle. This involves eating of food that was originally eaten by our ancestors when there was no technology to process the food as well as agricultural farming.

This therefore meant that people of this era depended on food that was collected by the hunters and gatherers. This diet is limiting to some extent as it does not provide an individual with a variety of options to choose from as is the case in Paleo diet menu.

Additionally, this program allows people to feed on fruits and vegetables as companions to the proteins. This therefore makes the diet quite healthy as a number of nutrients are ready to be absorbed and available from the diet. There is also high intake of fatty acids which are essential in the functioning of the body. This diet is liked and is highly recommended because of its ability to reduce and limit diseases that are currently heightened by the poor feeding habits that involves highly processed and refined foods.

On the other hand Paleo diet is totally different from the Atkins plan because while Paleo diet totally restricts grains or legumes in any form, Atkins program does allow using limited amount of carbs, and these may be source from unprocessed and unrefined carbs.

With the Atkins weight loss plan, the main intention is to lose weight fast and thus initially, people subsist on food that does not have any amount of carbohydrates. This omission of carbohydrates in the dietary list tricks the body into starving that leads to losing weight faster than one could imagine. Paleo diet does not encourage any fasting or restriction on metabolism, as carbs are being consumed in form of veggies and fruits.

Additionally, Atkins plan emphasizes on eating lots of fat and protein which is not a healthy choice. This kind of diet allows the intake of carbohydrates once loss of weight is experienced. The sole purpose of this plan is losing weight, while Paleo diet focuses on losing weight and staying healthy too.

Therefore, it is evident that Paleo diet and Atkins diet vary in the content that has to be taken as well as the main purpose as to why they are taken.

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Atkins Vs Paleo - What Works and What Doesn't

Paleo Weight Loss :

Recently I've seen a lot of websites and books make comparisons between the Paleo Diet and the Atkins diet. "It's like Atkins," they say, "but you can eat fruit!" I understand that a lot of people in our community are trying to convert non-believers from other diets. And I understand that having someone make the switch from Atkins to Paleo probably isn't much of a stretch. But in my opinion, trying to say the Atkins Diet is like the Paleo Diet doesn't do the Paleo Diet any favors and ignores the key concepts of the diet. It's really not like the Atkins Diet at all.

Atkins Vs Paleo - What Works and What Doesn't

The Atkins Diet is NOT the Paleo Diet

The Atkins Diet, for most people, is not a life-long endeavor. It's not a lifestyle. It's a way to cut weight by keeping your carbohydrates as close to zero as possible. I recently spoke to someone that mentioned she was going to do Atkins (again) because she was happy with her weight loss in Phase 1. And Phase 1 is understandably where most people fall off the Atkins wagon. Nobody wants to eat bacon and sausage every day of their life because eating a grape fruit would send their body out of ketosis and kill their weight loss.

The Paleo Diet isn't based on counting carbohydrates, or grams of fat, or even calories. It is based on the principle that you should eat what our ancestors ate. And that's it. Our ancestors didn't eat pre-packaged, sodium-rich "meat products" -- they ate MEAT. While these meat-products are fine on the Atkins diet as long as they don't add to your carbohydrate count, someone following a paleolithic lifestyle would assuredly pass on them. Our ancestors didn't eat Whole Grain Wheat toast or "Heart-Healthy" Cheerios, they ate wholesome vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

There is no induction phase for the Paleo Diet.

You don't lose weight rapidly for 2 weeks and then plateau off.Weight loss with paleo happens all the time throughout the course of your life until you reach your ideal body weight. Eating natural foods, you will find it extremely hard to reach enough calories to gain any weight and the closer you are to your ideal weight, the less calories your body will need to consume, the less you will eat.

Foods that are calorie dense (such as meats) will keep you full for hours, making you eat less of them. Between meals you can snack on fruits and vegetables that provide essential nutrients and vitamins but won't pack on the calories. Some vegetables and most fruits are severely limited or banned on the Atkins diet because of their natural carbohydrates.

In my experience on the Atkins Diet, there was never really a time that I didn't crave cakes, or sweets, or fruit. I tried to block them out. I tried to get my mind off of them. But I always wanted them.

On the Paleo Diet you don't miss out on the sweet taste of fruit -- because you can eat as much of it as you want. You don't miss eating cakes because you can make your own cakes without wheat flour. Pizza? You can eat that, too, as long as you make it yourself using natural ingredients. The best part of Paleo is the community. If you have a craving for something, you can be sure that someone else has made a paleo variation of it and posted it on the internet.

In the first four months after starting the Paleolithic Diet, I had lost over 40lbs and my wife had lost over 50lbs, eating delicious food that we wanted to eat.

The Paleo Diet is for Designed for Your Health

While the Atkins diet may be healthier for you than eating a bag of Doritos, you're still loading your body with unnatural preservatives, sodium, and other industrial garbage while never really getting the essential nutrients your body needs to thrive.

There is anecdotal evidence that the Paleo Diet treats or can even cure illnesses like cancer, Rheumatoid arthritis, Multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and adult onset (Type 2) diabetes.

In my own case, the Paleo Diet cured me of GERD and allowed me to stop taking all of my prescribed medications.

Conclusion

As you can see, the Paleo Diet and the Atkins Diet are two diametrically opposed diets. They may be similar in that they both condone eating meat, but that's really where the similarities end, as each diet comes to that conclusion through vastly different philosophies. Based on my own experiences with both diets, I choose the Paleo Diet for Life.

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