Meal Replacement Shakes

What are they?

After dissecting the ins and outs, the do’s and don’ts of protein shakes, it’s time to move on to the next big boys of the supplement word – weight gainers. The term “meal replacement” is extremely broad, and can cover many a product. Meal replacemeants can come in three main forms, and each of them is basically marketed differently according to whose buying them.

Mass gainers – For those hard core gym goers who want to pack on kilo after kilo of muscle
Weight gainers – For those of us who are a bit on the skinny side and want to bulk up, or for those who just struggle to put on weight in general
Meal Replacement Shake – For those of us leading a hectic scheduele, and struggle to fit in proper meals

So that covers the three main types of weight gainers. They sound very different, but, like protein shakes, there is a catch. All three have one big thing in common – they are essentially the same thing!!! A meal replacement shake, or weight gainer, whatever name you prefer yourself, is essentially just a protein shake with carbohydrates added to it. In theory, this is fantastic. In practice, it is sometimes more nightmare than dream. To fully understand why, we must first look at what a carb actually is.

Not all carbs are made equal

Take a quick look at the picture above – all of these are carbs! Carbs have gained an unfair reputation as being the enemy of getting that slim and lean physique you’ve always wanted. Some carbs are bad, not just bad, some are just plain evil. However, some carb are good, and utterly essential to health in general, as well as for aesthetic and athletic reasons. Carbs cover everything from sugary drinks, fruit, vegetables and sports drinks. Now, depending on your exercise goals, different types of carbs are going to be needed. That’s far too big of a piece to go into here, but the main point is that the one true enemy to your physique goals is sugar. This demon of the food world should be avoided like the plague. It causes your body to spike a hormone called insulin, meaning that your body will refuse to burn stored body fat, and worse still, store more body fat on top of that. Sugar serves a productive purpose immediately after a tough workout, which will be explained later, but outside of this time, stay away!!

When to use them

Well, this depends totally on what you actually want the shake for. If you’re using it in the most literal sense of the term, purely as a meal replacement, then the timing is pretty irrelevant. I personally use them at different times of the day if I know I can’t get my hands on a proper meal.

However, if you want to use them as a post workout shake, then more thought needs to be put into this. Your body requires good carbs and solid protein after a workout – carbs to replenish those that were burned during your workout, and protein to help kick start your muscular recovery process. For that reason, a good quality shake with good amounts of carbs and protein is required. I recommend Kinetica’s Oat Gain here.

So that’s it, right? Time to run to the supplement store, buy the first box of stuff that says Meal Replacement Shake? If only!! The supplement world is an economics driven business, with actual quality and health falling behind in second place. Check out the clip below from “Bigger Faster Stronger”, it shows how scarily easy it is to throw together any old mickey mouse products, and claim that they will strip fat, build muscle etc. Heck, they’d probably tell you it will make your dog sing and dance if it meant making another €50.

Clip from "Bigger Faster Stronger" showing how easy it easy to make your own supplements

When is enough actually enough??

Now I’m not going to name and shame any particular brands, but some brands are just having a laugh at this point. Some meal replacements offer you as much as 50 – 60g of protein per serving, and upwards of 120g of carbs. This is without any doubt, ludicrous. At no point does your body need any more than 25 – 40g of protein per serving. As for the carbs, post workout is when you need the most carbs. And even then, you only really need 1g for every kilo of lean muscle in your body. So for your average guy, you’re looking at maybe 55g at most. The reason for the huge quantities in some shakes is again, economically genius. You use the product faster, you gain weight (not always good weight with these crazy stats) and you go back for more. Another tub bought, another €50 for the company. As your body will simply excrete any excess protein, you are quite literally flushing your money down the toilet.

A solution!!

So when choosing the right meal replacement shake for you, what do we want to look out for? The main thing here is to look at the carb and fat content, but more importantly, the type of carbs and fat. A lot of companies rely on sugary carbs and saturated fats to fill in the calories, rather than giving you some more constructive nutrients such a fibre (your carbs) and both monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. So look for shakes that include high fibre contents, usually coming in the form of things like brown rice complex, oats or if stuck, starch. As mentioned earlier, the only thing setting these meal replacements apart from your straight forward protein shakes is simply the addition of carbs and sometimes fats. Given how difficult it is to get a good quality meal replacement (trust me, there’s a lot more bad ones than there are good), I’d like to give you my easiest solution. There are two different scenarios here, straight forward meal replacement, and a post-workout shake.

Meal Replacement: Get a protein shake, mix it with milk and add a banana to the equation. Nice amount of carbs from the milk and banana, and lots of protein from the powder.

Post Workout: There’s a few way to work around this, but the one that I’ve always gotten best results from is as follows: 300 ml of skimmed milk, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 banana, 1 plum, handful of strawberries, 1 teaspoon of creatine monohydrate (optional).

Why so much – your body has just finished a tough workout, your muscles are crying out for carbs, and quickly. Skimmed milk is higher in sugar than full fat milk so will deliver these carbs faster. Due to the need for carbs, the added fruit is going to speed the carb refuelling. The protein will help muscular recovery. The creatine monohydrate will help to build that muscle up faster, if that’s what your goal is. If you don’t want to pack on size, then just leave the creatine out.

The good, the bad and the ugly

So that’s my personal alternative to meal replacements. However, I’m not going to say that ALL meal replacements are bad, because they’re not. As mentioned earlier, I won’t drag any names through the dirt, but I will sing a few companies praises. As mentioned earlier, the source of carbs is important, and to look for meal replacements containing brown rice complex or oats. So below is a list of a few good ones:

SciVation's Mass Gainer – My number one by far in this department. Uses good quality whey protein, along with getting the carbs from brown rice. Gold star!
EAS Myoplex – Another shake that doesn’t rely heavily on sugary ‘filler’ carbs
Optimum Nutrition’s Whey Gold Meal – Similar to EAS Myoplex, does not rely heavily on sugary carbs.

To sum all this up, if you want to pack on size and strength, without adding any additional body fat, either choose one of the above shakes, or use one of my alternatives. Either way, you’re onto a winning combination! That sums up everything here, until next time, stay healthy!

Written by Maurice Walsh, BSc of Exercise and Health Studies

About the author

Maurice works as a personal trainer and lifestyle transformation coach at The Gym, Rathgar. He also works as a physique model. To get in contact with Maurice regarding training and nutrition go to www.facebook.com/totaltransformationfitness

To follow Maurice on Facebook, visit www.facebook.com/maurice.walsh87