Meal replacements: best weight loss approach?
Women aged 18 to 65 years who have used or are using meal replacements are invited to take part in a study which evaluates the effectiveness of these products.
The new research project will be conducted by Flinders University Nutrition and Dietetics honours student Emilee Krollig.
During the next six months Ms Krollig will interview about 30 South Australian women who have used, or are using, meal replacement programs such as Optifast, Bodytrim and Celebrity Slim to lose weight.
The research will explore consumers’ perceptions of meal replacements and their experiences throughout their respective weight loss regimes to better understand the benefits and drawbacks of these widely used products.
“A meal replacement is typically a shake, bar or soup designed as a substitute for a meal, usually with controlled quantities of energy and nutrients to promote weight loss,” Ms Krollig said.
“As meal replacement programs are very intensive, often requiring the participant to replace as many as all three daily meals, it is difficult to comply and this impacts weight loss,” she said.
“Therefore, we want to find out how these programs affect consumers’ day to day lives, including their interactions and relationships with other people, how they feel while they’re on the program and whether they stick to it.”
While scientific evidence shows meal replacements are a successful weight loss strategy in a controlled research setting, Ms Krollig said their actual benefits in “real life” were poorly understood.
“Most of the published studies look at the weight loss or nutritional content but they haven’t asked consumers about how they feel while using them.
“From a weight loss and nutritional perspective, the scientific evidence shows they do work but we want to see how well these regimes apply to real life.
“There are lots of weight loss strategies out there and a lot of highlypublicised options so as dietitians we need to know how our clients find using them so we know we’re recommending the best and most suitable option.”
Ms Krollig said the findings could potentially be used to inform wider studies involving males as well as people who are using meal replacements to lose weight for bariatric surgery.
Those interested in taking part in the research can email Ms Krolling at meal.research@gmail.com
