HMB could ultimately turn out to be a bona fide natural alternative to dangerous steroids for athletes who desire to build muscle. But further testing is needed to determine the safety of HMB, particularly if taken in large doses.

Available as bars, in cans, or as mix-it-yourself powders, meal-replacement diet aids, also called “meal replacers,” are formulated to reproduce as closely as possible the nutrition you would get from food, complete with carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other natural ingredients.

Meal replacements were originally developed to feed patients in hospitals and nursing homes (where they are still used), but are now marketed for general use. Manufacturers recommend replacing a meal or two with their products to help you shed pounds or using them as healthful between-meal snacks.

Presented at the 1997 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition, a study from the University of Ulm in Germany found that a meal-replacement diet can help take pounds off and even keep them off. One hundred people participated in the study and were divided into two groups. The first group followed a prescribed low-fat meal plan that consisted of 1,500 calories a day. The second group consumed the same amount of calories, obtained through one low-fat meal a day and two meal replacements of 220 calories each. The diets were followed for 12 weeks.

All the participants completed the program. The dieters in the meal-replacement group lost an average of 17 pounds significantly more than those who followed the low-fat meal plan.

The researchers followed up with the dieters after two years to see how well they had kept their weight off. The dieters who had lost weight by using meal replacements maintained their losses much more successfully than those on the prescribed meal plan. The researchers concluded that using meal replacements as part of a diet program is an effective way to lose way and keep it off for at least 2 years.

But another study begs to differ. According to a poll of 95,000 readers of Consumer Reports, 24 percent of the readers who had tried liquid meal-replacement diets gave them low marks. The readers’ major complaints included an average loss of just 3 to 4 percent of their weight; feelings of hunger; and weight regain as soon as they stopped using the diet aid.

What’s more, other studies suggest that if you eat meal replacements at breakfast and lunch, you’re more likely to binge-eat on real food at dinner undoing any calorie-cutting good achieved earlier in the day.

The safest and best use of meal replacements is as a supplement to your diet rather than as a substitute for meals. Occasional use, when you’re going to miss a meal, is fine, and then you might want to drink two at a time, rather than one. Meal replacements are also great supplements for athletes and exercisers, who typically require a higher-calorie diet, and are an excellent way to add calories and nutrients to the diet without adding much bulk.

To help shed pounds, use meal replacements as a midmorning or midafternoon snack. Eating five times a day (three main meals and two snack meals) encourages fat loss. That’s because every time you eat a meal, your metabolic rate goes up. As part of digestion and absorption, heat is given off, and this elevates your metabolic rate. So if you eat meals throughout the day, your metabolism is constantly charged up. Meal replacements can help you squeeze in those extra meals.

You can buy meal replacers in health food stores, gyms, sporting goods stores, pharmacies, and grocery stores. The bar and canned versions are a bit pricey up to $2 a serving. You can save money using the powder form, although the powders take more time to fix.

Author Bio: Georgiy Kharchenko – stimerex, original eca stack, dietary supplements

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: supplements, vitamins, weight loss pills, ephedra, herbs, stimerex, lipodrene, ephedra products