Research

Energy balance

Incorporating 1-2 meal replacements per day into a traditional lifestyle intervention significantly increases weight loss compared to traditional lifestyle intervention alone in overweight premenopausal women.

To lose more weight, replace 1-2 of your main meals daily with a nutritionally complete meal replacement shake or bar (approx. 220 kcal). Combine this with a daily goal of walking 10,000 steps and following a 1200-calorie diet plan. This structured approach has been shown to nearly double weight loss compared to diet and exercise alone in overweight women.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Comparison of the dietitian-led groups showed that women using meal replacements maintained a significantly greater weight loss (9.1%±8.9% vs 4.1%±6.4%) (P=.03).
Judith Ashley et al. · Archives of Internal Medicine · 2001

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with 113 participants, 1-year duration, but with a 35% dropout rate and intent-to-treat analysis showing smaller (though still significant) effects.

Source

Weight Control in the Physician's Office

Judith Ashley et al. · Archives of Internal Medicine · 2001

DOI 10.1001/archinte.161.13.1599

rct · n=113Cited 167×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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