The human body is 60% water, and the rest is made up of proteins, fats, and minerals. As one can guess, minerals mainly form the skeletal system, and fats serve as energy reserves and help form body structures. Hence, it would be correct to say that the human body is made mainly of proteins and fats.
Thus, proteins make muscles, organs, and most body parts. However, along with proteins, fats are also needed for producing organs, like the human brain contains more fats than proteins. Additionally, proteins and fats are also essential for producing hormones, most of which are either peptides (chain of amino acids) or steroids (derived from cholesterol).
So, the human body uses proteins as building blocks, and fats have a dual purpose. However, carbs mainly provide energy for the growth, repair, and regeneration work.
The human body needs minerals for skeletal system production and small amounts for nerve conduction, cellular communication, and more. Similarly, vitamins are necessary for accelerating metabolic activities.
So, proteins are more like bricks and are highly essential for building a wall, but one cannot solely make robust structures solely with bricks. One needs fats, vitamins, minerals, energy, and more. As one can guess, meal replacement shakes have it all, while protein shakes have only proteins.
If humans consume too many proteins and have an insufficient supply of fats and micronutrients, the human body cannot use proteins to build lean mass. Instead, it has to start using proteins to produce energy. Thus, proteins are good, but they are not sufficient for lean mass gain alone.
Consuming too many proteins with an insufficient supply of fats, carbs, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and other nutrients causes unnecessary stress on the body, as it is unable to utilize these proteins.
What’s the Difference Between a Meal Replacement Shake and a Protein Shake?
The difference is significant. One is a complete meal, and another is just a protein shake. Protein shakes contain just one dietary component.
One cannot survive solely on protein shakes. They mostly contain whey protein, though some may contain other proteins like casein, collagen, vegan proteins, and more.
However, a meal replacement shake contains a sufficient amount of proteins, high-quality fats, and essential minerals and vitamins. But that is not all, as meal replacement shakes contain other vital nutrients like dietary fiber, probiotics, and digestive enzymes.
Moreover, a meal replacement shake is good in the way that it is a blend of numerous nutrients. Thus, it contains whey protein, collagen, and egg white, meaning that it has an excellent amino acid profile. Similarly, it contains a blend of various fats to ensure a sufficient supply of different essential fatty acids. Thus, it is not just about providing proteins and fats. And it ensures that all the nutrients are there and are of the highest quality.
The addition of components like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, digestive enzymes, probiotics, and certain herbal extracts ensures that meal shakes can also exert health benefits.
Meal shakes are not made solely to build muscle. Instead, they are produced by keeping in mind the approach that “food is the best medicine.” Hence, the purpose of meal replacement shakes goes beyond supplying a sufficient number of nutrients.
Regular intake of meal replacement shakes can help lose body weight, normalize metabolism, improve brain health, boost heart health, enhance mood, and more. In addition, a meal replacement shake has an energizing and mood-improving effect. Therefore, it is not merely a food supplement but also a health supplement.
Can Protein Shakes Be Used as a Meal Replacement?
Protein shakes are suitable to supplement a regular diet, but they cannot be used as a meal replacement. Instead, it means that one can use protein shakes to just boost protein intake during periods of high protein requirement, like when building lean mass.
However, meal replacement shakes are altogether a different thing. It is a complete meal in itself. They contain almost all the vital nutrients necessary for human existence. Thus, theoretically, one can survive solely on meal replacement shakes but not on protein shakes.
Proteins are good, and they are building blocks of the body. But the human body needs many other nutrients. For example, it also requires high-quality fats. Fats are necessary for cellular structures and cell membrane production. For example, nerve cells contain more fats than protein. Similarly, fats are also needed for producing sex hormones and more.
The human body needs many minerals, not only for musculoskeletal health but also for nerve conduction, maintaining electrolyte-fluid balance, producing energy, various metabolic activities, and more. In addition, vitamins are needed in small amounts to regulate hundreds if not thousands of body functions.
The human body is the most complex machine, and maintaining it requires complex dietary measures. Meal replacement shakes combine as many essential nutrients as possible to pack in a single food supplement. As a result, meal replacement shakes are close to an ideal meal, filled with every vital nutrient.
So, protein shakes cannot be used instead of meal replacement shakes, and neither to replace meals. However, meal replacement shakes can replace protein shakes and partially replace meals.
How to Incorporate a Shake into Your Diet
Meal replacement shakes are pretty simple to incorporate into your diet. After all, it is a complete meal in itself. Nonetheless, there are a few ways of using meal replacement shakes, and lots depend on the lifestyle and health targets.
Generally, the recommendation is to replace one meal with a meal replacement shake, which could be either breakfast or lunch. It is because meal replacement shakes have sufficient calories to help you stay energized for the rest of the day.
Meal replacement shakes help lose body weight by boosting metabolism, providing vital nutrients, improving fat metabolism in the body, and more. It is not about starving.
If a person uses a meal replacement shake to build muscles, taking half a portion of it about 30 minutes before hitting a gym and another half after a workout may be a good idea.
One may also use meal replacement shakes to replace even two meals. However, that should be avoided until or unless there is a significant reason for doing so. It is because regular meals or food items like fish, fruits, vegetables, and nuts, contain many beneficial organic compounds essential for good health. However, science still has a limited understanding of how these organic compounds work.
Moreover, studies show that vitamins, oxidants, and other nutrients, when taken as food, have more significant health benefits than supplements. For example, consuming foods rich in vitamin C is better than supplementing the vitamin.
Wrap Up
Athletes and bodybuilders often use a protein shake to build muscles and increase lean mass. Meal replacement shakes are enriched with essential fatty acids, probiotics, antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins, which means less need to use other supplements. Using a meal replacement shake, rather than a protein shake, provides a far more adequate supply of nutritional values allowing one to truly replace a meal and not just the protein found in a meal.
