Herbalife's meal replacement gives me the shakes

Open up the Herbalife website this is what you will be greeted with:

 
A pretty immense celebrity endorsement. For those that haven't heard about him, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best footballers of all time; this is because his excellent technical ability is built on a foundation of incredible power and athleticism. Looking at what he's achieved , if he drinks this stuff then it must be good, surely?

The reason they can get this kind of endorsement is because Herbalife is an incredible company. In 2010 they recorded sales of 4.3 billion USD. The company help millions of people to manage their weight by replacing their meals with 'meal replacement shakes'. These shakes are a low calorie option, which have a relatively high levels of protein while keeping fat and carbs low.

With all that out of the way, I guarantee that even if it was delivered to him first thing every morning, Ronaldo would not have a Herbalife meal replacement shake for breakfast. 

Herbalife is a good way of losing weight, but then again so is starvation. The truth is that neither of them are healthy. Herbalife products buy into the notion that being thin is healthier than being fat. But if you are shedding muscle and bone along with your fat, whilst sending your metabolism to an all time low leaving you feeling fatigued and hungry, is that getting healthier or is that getting thinner?



Herbalife is the best example of what is wrong with the health and fitness industry. If you want to make a lot of money off of vulnerable people then this would be the way to do it.

First you approach them with the products, you promise them sincerely that if they use these products then they will lose weight. That's not a lie, they will lose weight. They take the products and begin to achieve what they want.

Give it 6 months and they have invested a lot of money in what are quite expensive products when you consider their actual nutritional value. They have lost weight and are now happy with their appearance.

They have a stark choice, either they continue to take these products for the rest of their life, or they go back to eating just food. If they go for the latter option, they have a problem as the reason they were unhappy in the first place was that they didn't know how to control their intake to maintain a healthy body.

So they gain weight again, they're trapped.

The only way to get a healthy body in the long term is to have a healthy diet.

The only way to learn how to eat healthily is through discipline and self control. The actual answer is a very simple one, eat nutritionally dense, unprocessed food as much as possible.

Herbalife is a quick fix, and unless you fancy being on meal replacement shakes for the rest of your life, avoid it.