I spent a day drinking SlimFast shakes to see if they actually work. Spoiler alert!!! – They don’t.
Well, technically they do work for weight loss – but not for the reasons they want you to think.
Let me explain why SlimFast (and most fad diets) are a complete waste of time and money.
What SlimFast Actually Does
SlimFast markets itself like some kind of magic weight loss solution. Drink their shakes, lose weight, look great. Easy, right?
Here’s what they’re not telling you: All SlimFast does is just cuts your calories.
That’s it. There’s no magic. No special formula. No metabolism-boosting secret ingredient.
You’re drinking a 200-calorie shake instead of eating a 600-1500 calorie meal. Of course you’ll lose weight. You’re eating less food.
How I Actually Felt on SlimFast
I drank a SlimFast shake for breakfast. Within 30 minutes, I was more hungry than before I drank it. My body expected actual food to spend time to digest. Instead it got liquid which goes through the system quicker. My body says “Ok so where’s the rest”.
An hour later? Brain fog, irritability, and I was starving.
I pushed through another 3 hours and had another shake for lunch. The brain fog didn’t go away. I got cranky. My energy was trash, and I felt like absolute trash.
And get this: the bottle claims “4 hours of satiety” – but if you read the fine print, it says “tested in a controlled environment.”
Translation: they tested it on people who probably don’t lift weights, don’t move much, and were already eating very little. Of course a 200-calorie shake feels filling to someone who’s 5’2″ and sedentary.
But for anyone who’s actually active, has muscle mass, or isn’t already starving themselves? It’s not enough food.
The Real Problem with Fad Diets
SlimFast isn’t unique. It’s the same con as every other fad diet out there – keto, juice cleanses, detox teas, whatever.
They all work because they create a calorie deficit. But none of them teach you how to actually eat for the long term.
Before you try any diet – SlimFast or otherwise – ask yourself these three questions:
1. How long can I actually do this?
I felt miserable on SlimFast. Brain fog, constant hunger, irritability.
Could I do that for a week? Maybe, but I’ll probably hate myself.
Could I do it for a month? Hell no.
Could I do it for the rest of my life? HELL NO!
If you can’t sustain a diet long-term, it’s not a solution. It’s just suffering with an expiration date at the end.
2. What’s the plan after I lose the weight?
Let’s say you power through SlimFast for a month and lose 10 pounds. Great.
Now what?
Are you going to drink shakes forever? Probably not.
So you go back to eating “normally” which means eating the same way you did before you gained the weight.
And guess what happens? You gain it all back. Fast.
You need to understand that our fat cells don’t disappear when you lose weight. They shrink, but they’re still there. And when you start eating more again, your body rushes to refill those cells. On top of that, ghrelin (your hunger hormone) comes back harder than ever, making you even hungrier than before you started the diet.
This is why yo-yo dieting is so common. You lose weight, gain it back, lose it again, gain it back again. It’s a cycle that never ends.
3. Am I learning how to actually eat?
This is the biggest missed opportunity with fad diets.
When you rely on shakes, meal replacements, or restrictive diets, you’re not learning anything about food. You’re not figuring out:
- How to make meals that taste good and are lower in calories
- Which foods keep you full vs. which ones leave you hungry
- How to cook recipes you actually enjoy eating
You’re just white-knuckling it through a miserable diet, hoping it works.
What You Should Do Instead
Here’s what actually works for sustainable weight loss:
1. Lift weights and build muscle.
Muscle increases your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. This gives you more room to eat without gaining fat.
THIS IS FOR THE LADIES: You will not look like the hulk and you will not be as big as a man naturally. A woman’s natural testosterone is way lower than the testosterone of a man with low testosterone.
In addition, lifting gives your brain a dopamine hit – which helps you stick with clean eating because you’re getting positive reinforcement from the gym instead of just from food. And then when you eat clean after the gym, you’ll get an even bigger dopamine hit.
2. Learn how to eat foods you actually like.
You don’t need to suffer through nasty bland chicken and broccoli or live on protein shakes. This is another fad diet.
You need to find lower-calorie versions of foods you already enjoy. Burgers, tacos, pasta, whatever – there are ways to make them healthier without making them taste like cardboard.
This is exactly what I did. I used to eat fast food multiple times a week, multiple times a day! But instead of torturing myself with restrictive diets, I learned how to make my own versions at home – high in protein, lower in calories, and actually taste good.
(If you want to know how I tricked my brain into craving clean food instead of junk, read this post.)
3. Focus on the long game.
Weight loss isn’t a sprint. It’s not about suffering for 30 days and then going back to normal.
It’s about building habits you can sustain for years. Eating food you enjoy. Lifting weights consistently. Enjoying yourself responsibly. Slowly learning what works for your body.
That’s how you lose weight and actually keep it off.
How My Cookbook Can Help
I love fast food. Burgers, tacos, fried chicken, pasta, pizza, I can go on and on.
But I also want to build muscle, lose fat, and not clog my arteries or feel like trash after every meal.
So I created my own recipes – high-protein versions of my favorite fast foods that I could make at home. Foods that taste good, keeps me full, and helped me lose weight without feeling like I was on a diet.
That’s what my cookbook is: High-protein recipes that replace your fast food cravings without making you feel deprived. And then cleaner foods but still tasty to help you transition to better eating habits.
If you’re tired of fad diets that don’t work and want recipes that actually help you transition to healthier eating without suffering, keep an eye out for my cookbook.
No shakes. No starvation. No BS.
Just real food that tastes good and gets results.
Check out the video!