I am in the U.S., and I have never heard of those shakes. I am lazy and refuse to cook on fast days (except for making soup), so I am going to use shakes too. I am using Premier Protein shakes. I’m on the 800 calorie fasting version,and these shakes are filling, so I think they will work for me. If your 4 shakes fit your fasting calorie allowance, I don’t see how they can hurt you. But since you are diabetic, maybe ask your doctor about this? Perhaps someone else with diabetes can come on board here and help you. I know many are purists and hate these shakes, but I’m no purist and I feel weight loss shakes can be helpful.

Hi princessleia, right now it is Thursday, 4:35 p.m. in Southern California, Orange County. Where do you live?

This has been a very hectic week for me. Only one Fast day this week! Oh well. That is maintenance on 5:2, At least I won’t gain because I am eating sensibly. I looked over my schedule very carefully, and next Monday and Tuesday are perfect for me – no excuses!

i am newbe too and just this week decided on shake for my fast days.it makes things so simple instead of me bothering about what foods to eat to stay on my calories.i would just the shake.i will be back to read ur progress.i nearly wanted to quit this week.i struggled the previous weeks and didnt get any fast day in till today.i am confident that i will do well with the shake.

Everyone has different tastes with lots of things including shakes. I found some brands OK and others awful. Even within a brand there were flavours I liked or didn’t.

What I mostly did when I used meal replacement shakes was to buy a good quality vanilla shake powder (by good quality I mean that they should truly be a meal replacement and each shake should contain 1/3 of the recommended daily intake of all micro-nutrients – many do not do this and they tend to be cheaper).
Then I used that as a base to add my own flavours. eg:
– add cocoa or chocolate essence for a chocolate shake
– add cocoa and peppermint essence for choc-mint
– for an iced coffee add either a cold expresso or instant coffee powder
– add vanilla paste and a pinch of either nutmeg or cinnamon
– for a tropical smoothie, add a handful of fresh pineapple, coconut essence and ice to the shake powder and chilled water and blend until ice is dissolved
– any essence that you like (eg vanilla, coconut, strawberry, peppermint, chocolate) can be added, but use them sparingly as they can be very intense

Although shakes can be made by using a plastic shaker container, I found I got a nicer shake by using a stick blender so that I could incorporate ice into it and get a thicker shake. I also found that the colder they are, generally the better they taste.

On 5:2 I haven’t used meal replacement shakes, I just have one meal (dinner) on fast days. However a few years ago I was morbidly obese and had over 50kg to lose. I did a medically monitored VLCD (very low calorie diet) for nearly a year and it initially involved replacing all 3 meals with shakes, then after 3 months it became 2 shakes and one low calorie meal. Consequently finding a way of using shakes that were palatable became rather important. Once I found the flavour combinations I liked I tended to stick to a small number of favourites.

If you want to use shakes on fast days I hope you can find an option you like. It might be worth looking at the forum discussion on Michael Mosley’s blood sugar diet website. Because one of their diet options is 800cal every day, they do discuss meal replacement shakes as a suitable option and I expect there is some discussion about brands on their forum.

I have 2 protein shakes on fast days. I find it is better to keep right away from solid food and only drink liquids on fast days.

I do 16:8 Monday to Friday so I just eat lunch and dinner. On my 5:2 days, for lunch I have a USN diet fuel shake (either chocolate or strawberry) with 50 ml milk and top up with water. It’s filling and leaves me with calories to spare so I can have a nicer and hot dinner (I can’t do cold food in the evenings). I also switched to 600 calories recently as doing just 500 calories was making me miserable and dreading fasting days

There are many recipes on the Internet for smoothies instead of food. You can experiment and create a smoothie with as many calories as you need. I used to think you could get all the nutrients by eating right, but that’s not true. That’s why it’s important to take vitamins and natural supplements periodically. For several months I felt tired and had no desire to do anything. But after I bought testosterone supplements here https://www.healthcanal.com/nutrition/best-testosterone-booster-men-over-50, I began to feel great, and the fatigue disappeared.

Although missing a meal altogether can be better, not all meal replacement drinks are created equal in terms of nutrients or quality. If taken appropriately, one product may help you lose weight while another may have the opposite effect.