What Is the SlimFast Diet Plan? Reviews, Cost, Foods, and More
You’re probably familiar with SlimFast from the diet’s celebrity ambassadors and catchy TV ads. This diet pioneer is known for its SlimFast branded shakes, bars, and snacks — but do you really need to eat this way to lose weight?
What Is SlimFast?
The premise of the SlimFast diet is that meal replacement products will help you lose weight, says Keri Gans, a registered dietitian nutritionist based in New York City. On the SlimFast plan, you consume two meal replacement shakes, bars, or cookies, have a sensible meal of your choice, and three 100-calorie snacks throughout the day. If you’re interested in trying the ketogenic diet, you can also follow the SlimFast Keto Plan, which requires understanding the SlimFast Keto Quick-Start Guide.
How Does the SlimFast Plan Work?
“The SlimFast plan works as a basic low-calorie diet,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RDN, the Chicago-based author of The Superfood Swap. The SlimFast plan is a meal replacement system, meaning that breakfast and lunch are replaced with a shake or a bar, and that’s one way your daily calories are reduced. Women will consume 1,200 calories per day and men will eat 1,600 per day. This plan requires purchasing a large amount of your daily foods in the form of SlimFast products. For breakfast, you’ll consume a shake, bar, or cookie; for a midmorning snack, a 100-calorie SlimFast snack (like chips); another shake, bar, or cookie for lunch; a SlimFast 100-calorie snack in the midafternoon (like crisps); a healthy dinner of your choice; and an evening 100-calorie snack of your choice (like veggies and dip).
How Quickly Will You See Results on SlimFast?
SlimFast says this on their website: “Give us a week, and we’ll take off the weight.” That’s a big promise, and their promotional materials say that you can lose up to 5 pounds (lb) in that first week in their Quick Start program. While that does sound exciting, experts suggest exercising caution
“Sometimes people on meal replacement plans like this see immediate results because the diet is a shock to the body. You may be losing a bit of fat at the time, but it’s more likely water weight initially,” says Amy Goodson, RD, of Dallas–Fort Worth. The catch is, the rate of loss will slow down or eventually stop, she says — you just can’t keep it up. It’s important to know that ahead of time so that you don’t get frustrated about something so normal and common. After the initial weight loss, you may lose 1 to 2 lb per week, a number that is more sustainable.