Meal replacement shakes are quickly becoming the easy way to a more sleek waist, or so is the belief. Many include a meal replacement shake, believing that the inclusion alone can aid weight loss and fat burning. However, that is not the truth. Regardless of what many brands or supplement companies tell you, the use of a meal shake will not catapult your body to health.
A lot depends on the meal replacements. Despite the similar appearance and feel of all meal replacement shakes, there are distinct factors that set them apart from each other – core ingredients, the doses of macro and micronutrients, fiber intake, and even the purpose for which it was made. A lot also depends on the brand and whether the company has put in the necessary hours of research and testing before formulating and marketing the dietary supplement. Because these factors are important, it is vital that you take a closer look at these nutritional supplements before you invest in them. And because everyone is pressed for time, we did just that for you. We compared three popular meal replacement shakes to check whether they can effectively launch your weight loss journey and if sustainable weight loss is something they can provide.
Before we begin, it is vital that you understand that a meal replacement shake is designed to replace just one meal or max two meals (depending on the brand), the heaviest, usually. Some enthusiasts may casually mention that all meals are now in liquid form. This is not a wise decision. Your body needs solid food. Apart from the nutrients that these meal replacements provide, your body would require carbs, proteins, fiber, and healthy fat in an adequate measure. If not available, the body would begin to break down protein and fat available in the body to fuel the biological processes. This would result in a number of health issues, and your skin and hair quality takes a turn for the worse. With that out of the way, let’s look at each nutrient-dense shake.
Shakeology, Garden of Life & PhenQ Complete Meal Shake: Sustainable Weight Loss or Not
#3 – Shakeology
Shakeology Shakes are from the nutrition branch of the fitness and wellness brand Team Beachbody. The brand has been around for a while and has a range of products varying from eating plans to collagen boosts to apparel and tumblers. Once you get to their website, you have to keep track of where you are going and what you are looking for because the website can only be described as ‘busy.’ Shakeology has a range of its own, and the most important feature is that it offers vegan and whey options of the same flavors, of which there are quite a few—something you will not find in even the best Shakeology alternatives.
Shakeology has been formulated to help the body function optimally by providing it with all the nutrients necessary to do so. Designed using only natural ingredients, the shake is meant to not only provide a nutrient-dense meal but is formulated to help muscle growth, support a healthy gut, and also deliver antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and superfoods. The core concept behind Shakeology is to furnish the body with a robust nutritional framework, enabling it to thrive and flourish. For this review, we will be looking at the Vanilla Whey flavor option.
Nutritional Information: Calories – 140, Fat – 2g, Carbs – 15g, Fiber – 6g, Sugar – 7g, and Protein 17g.
#2 – Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Protein Powder
Garden of Life is a wellness brand that offers a variety of products ranging from probiotics, vitamin supplements, and food products to protein bars. The brand caters to almost all age groups, including children. You also have the option to shop for products according to your health requirements or your diet habits. The greatest success story of the brand has to be the multivitamins range and the products designed for prenatal care. The Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Protein Powder is the meal shake option put forward by the brand. The powder is available only as a plant-based option and in a vanilla flavor.
The formula available now is a new and improved formula than the one that was initially released. The nutritional shake is designed to help you lose weight, curb cravings, and fill in the nutritional gaps that occur because of a busy lifestyle. This meal replacement shake claims to be seven products in just one product formulated to be an easy and healthy go-to meal when you simply do not have the time to follow a healthy diet. The shake can support multiple diet options like the paleo or keto diet.
Nutritional Information: Calories – 150, Fat – 2g, Carbs – 13g, Fiber – 7g, Sugar – 0g, and Protein – 20g.
#1 – PhenQ Complete Meal Shake
PhenQ is a brand that exclusively caters to weight loss. This brand, Wolfson Brands, offers only three products, all designed to help you lose weight more effectively and quickly. The products include the:
- PhenQ Weight Loss Pill, read more.
- PhenQ PM which burns fat while you sleep, read more.
- The PhenQ Complete Meal Shake, which is up for discussion now.
Since PhenQ is weight management brand, you would find it considerably easier to get around their website and find more informative than the other meal shakes featured in this guide. This meal replacement shake is designed to provide the body with much-needed energy, curb cravings, and support muscle mass gain with weight loss. The shake is gluten-free and is available in three flavors.
PhenQ Complete Meal Shake addresses the two biggest obstacles to your goal weight – #1 – healthy food tastes horrible, and #2 – not everyone has the time to plan and cook nutritionally balanced meals three times a day. Both these concerns are very true. While other meal replacement shakes add a number of frills to make the product more enticing, PhenQ sticks to the basics – a tasty shake that is easy to make. The shake is designed to get the metabolic rate into motion and to start the AMPK response in your body. AMPK is the body’s natural tendency to burn fat and maintain a healthy diet, but the mechanism is significantly slowed by age, stress, and unhealthy habits. PhenQ sets this system back into motion.
Nutritional Information: Calories – 180, Fat – 3.5g, Carbs – 21g, Fiber – 4g, Sugar – 2g, and Protein – 16g.
More details on PhenQ Complete Meal Shake, available here, visit now!
All three products can be mixed with water, milk, or vegan milk alternatives.
What Benefits Can You Expect from Each Meal Replacement Shake?
Apart from well-rounded nutrition, each meal replacement makes claims of how the shake can influence your health. However, these claims have to be tested, and that can be done by looking at the ingredients and the customer reviews. We shall get to those in a bit, but for now, here is a list of what the dietary supplements promise to do.
| Team Beachbody Shakeology | Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Protein Powder | PhenQ Complete Meal Shake |
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The lists above are statements made by the brands themselves, and so far, Garden of Life is lagging behind. The meal replacement webpage fails to provide a thorough rundown of the health benefits, unlike Shakeology and PhenQ, which meticulously outline their advantages. That being said, let’s take a look at what is included in each of these products.
The Meal Replacement Shake Formulae
Meal replacement shakes can either include food ingredients and/or artificial ingredients. The latter usually consists of synthesized vitamins and minerals that could be drawn from food, but it is cheaper and easier to acquire and use the artificial kind. Not that artificial ingredients are lesser in any way. On the contrary, they are a few that are designed to be more bioavailable that the original. However, for those customers who prefer to go for 100% natural products, meal replacements may prove to be out of reach.
The Shakeology Ingredients
Shakeology uses proprietary blends to sort its long list of natural ingredients. With each serving of the meal replacement, you get a healthy dose of essential nutrients like vitamins A, C, D, E, K2 and 6 B vitamins and minerals like calcium, iron, iodine, magnesium, zinc, selenium, chromium, potassium and sodium. Since we are looking at the Vanilla Whey shake, there is going to be whey protein in the mix. But for the whey flavors, you have vegan options.
Proprietary Superfood Blend
This is the heaviest group of ingredients and includes a whey protein, pea protein, quinoa, flax seed, pea fiber, yacon root, acerola juice powder, chicory fiber, astragalus, organic chaga, maitake mushrooms, and many others. Not all inclusions are organic, though. This group is meant to be the chief source of essential nutrients – macro and micro included.
Proprietary Protein Blend
This blend includes whey protein, flax, quinoa and pea protein. Protein takes longer to digest so these ingredients keep you full for longer and proteins are also responsible for muscle growth and protein synthesis, stamina, and endurance during physical stress.
Proprietary Superfruit / Antioxidant Blend
With inclusions like Camu-Camu, bilberry, lyceum berry, Luo Han Go, and others, this blend is dedicated to the reduction of free radical stress, supporting the immune system and improving the body’s resilience against disease and infection.
Proprietary Supergreen / Phytonutrient Blend
Chlorella, spinach, kale, and matcha green tea make up this group. A rich source of dietary fiber, vitamins, and vital minerals, these green leafy vegetables are excellent ways to improve health and well-being.
Proprietary Adaptogen Blend
Adaptogens are natural ingredients that help the body better cope with physical and mental stress. Herbs like ashwagandha, astragalus, cordyceps, maca, maitake, Reishi, Schisandra and Chaga. Traditionally used to relax the mind and body, these herbs still feature in cultural medicine.
Proprietary Pre and Probiotics / Digestive Enzymes Blend
This blend includes yacon root and chicory for prebiotics as these foods are rich in fiber that feed the gut bacteria, Bacillus Coagulans is the probiotic included and the digestive enzymes consists of amylase, cellulase, lactase, glucoamylase, alpha-galactosidase, and invertase.
Shakeology uses organic cane sugar and stevia as a sweetener.
The Garden of Life Raw Meal Formula
Compared to Shakeology, the list of ingredients in this meal replacement shake would appear less impressive. In addition to the macronutrients, each scoop of the raw meal powder would provide you with vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and all the B vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, calcium, potassium, and chromium. These nutrients also make up the Whole Food Vitamin and Minerals Blend. Here, too, you would find proprietary blends.
Organic Sprouted Protein Blend
Garden of Life raw meal goes to the trouble of sprouting the grains before they are processed to a powdered form. The blend includes pea protein, brown rice, amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, chia seeds, adzuki beans, flax seeds, garbanzo beans, lentils, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.
Organic Flavor Blend
An exclusive flavoring group which includes vanilla, erythritol, other natural flavors, sea salt and stevia leaf.
Organic Fiber Blend
Consisting of tapioca, gaur gum, and flax meal make up the fiber blend, which also doubles up as prebiotics to promote gut health.
Organic Fruit and Vegetable Blend
The largest proprietary blend in the product, this group of ingredients comprises spinach, baobab, apple, beetroot, broccoli, carrot, tomato, green bell pepper, and several other additions. This group is the source of vitamins and minerals, which leads us to wonder why a proprietary blend was created exclusively for the nutrients.
Organic Greens Blend
Alfalfa, spirulina, oat grass, barley grass, and wheat grass make up this group. This also helps this meal replacement to work as a greens powder supplement.
Probiotic and Enzyme Blend
The digestive enzymes featured here include lipase, protease, aspergillopepsin, beta-Glucanase, cellulase, and several others. And probiotic content includes Bacillus subtilis 250 million CFUs.
The PhenQ Complete Meal Shake Formula
Unlike the other meal replacement shakes, PhenQ avoids the proprietary blend drama entirely. Instead of packing the supplement to the brin with food ingredients, PhenQ Complete Meal Shake uses the most potent of ingredients that provide the maximum number of benefits. This automatically eases digestion. Each serving of PhenQ Meal Replacement Shake includes vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and the complete B complex and sodium which makes up the Vegetarian Micronutrient Blend.
Gluten-Free Oat Flour
Even though oat four is easy to digest, it moves slowly through the digestive system which suppresses appetite and also feeds the probiotic gut bacteria. The flour can regulate blood sugar levels and help with weight loss efforts.
CARB10™
Derived from pea protein, this ingredient can absorb complex carbs so that it does not spike blood sugar levels. This ingredient can also be used as a protein powder and can be used for muscle growth, preserving muscle mass, and increasing protein synthesis.
Whey Protein Concentrate
Rich in nine essential amino acids, whey protein is the go-to supplement for those who wish to improve lean muscle mass. The amino acids are also needed for a number of biological functions like cognitive performance, promoting a feeling of fullness, and the production of neurotransmitters.
Flaxseed Powder
A tiny superfood, flaxseed is rich in healthy fats, fiber, and healthy carbs. They also provide anti-inflammatory support, promote heart health, and are instrumental in checking obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Digezyme™ Enzyme Complex
A trademarked component with alpha-amylase, protease, lipase, cellulase, and lactase, the Digezyme Enzyme Complex facilitates easy digestion of the meal replacement and the meals that follow. This complex ensures that the food you consume is converted into usable energy and that very little is stored as fat.
*Note – Even though all three meal replacement shakes have been through quality tests before being released to the market, there may still be a chance of allergies or drug interactions. Please consult your doctor or dietician before you start the use of these or any dietary supplement. This is especially pertinent if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or if you suffer from any pre-existing medical condition.
Where to Buy These Meal Replacements?
Buy Shakeology
Shakeology can be bought directly from Amazon, GNC, or the official Team Beachbody site where you will be treated to the whole range that they have to offer.
- Available in café latte, tropical strawberry, cookies n’ cream, chocolate, and vanilla flavors, you also have the option to purchase just one flavor at a time or try a flavor combo box. The cost is the same at $129.95 per bag or box.
Shipping charges are extra. You could also opt for a monthly subscription. There is a refund policy in place in case you are dissatisfied with the product, you only need to get in touch with customer service to avail of it.
Buy Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal
Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal can also be bought from Walmart, Amazon, GNC or the official website and is available in
- 18.52oz bags for $29.59 and
- 37.04oz bags for $55.19. The first order ships for free. The refund policy for this product is unclear.
Buy PhenQ Complete Meal Shake
PhenQ Complete Meal Shake can be bought exclusively from the Official PhenQ Website, Click here! And is available in strawberry ‘n cream, chocolate, and vanilla flavors.
- A bag of 7 meals would cost $20.95. If you opt to purchase two bags at once, you get the third bag at a price of $13.95. There is a subscription option, but it is at capacity for now but may open up in the future.
PhenQ also offers a 60-day money-back guarantee that ensures that you get a refund if you are not 100% satisfied with the product.
Which is the Best Meal Replacement?
When looked at individually, all three are great meal replacement shakes. They allow you to consume a nutritionally complete and healthy meal with fewer calories than the standard fast-food order. None of them use artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, or chemical additives. Nutritional values are mentioned by each product, and they are easy and convenient to make.
However, if you were to compare them and look at them from only a weight loss point of view, we have a clear winner for several reasons.
While Shakeology and Garden of Life are wellness brand giants, but they both have a great flaw – the use of proprietary blends. Using these groups to cluster ingredients together is generally looked down upon in the dietary supplement community. Many brands use blends when they want to hide fillers and/or use more of a cheaper ingredient while including pricier components in little more than name. Even though, we can’t ensure that theses 2 meal replacements do either but the use of the blends has created a doubt in our minds. Garden of Life does not even mention the dosage of each blend, which is either just lazy or an oversight from the research and marketing team.
Shakeology has overdosed on a number of nutrients. Considering that the shake is designed to replace just one meal, the nutrient overdose may lead to health issues as the same nutrients could be consumed with forthcoming meals.
Garden of Life advertises itself as more of a protein shake than a meal replacement. Even the jar says that it is a protein powder. However, as far as protein shakes go, Garden of Life does not qualify.
If you are trying to lose weight, you could add a meal replacement shake to keep a count of calories. However, neither Shakeology nor Garden of Life were designed to exclusively promote weight loss. That only PhenQ can do because the brand is dedicated to fat-burning and weight management. Instead of providing a multitude of benefits and nutrients (which PhenQ does anyway), this meal replacement adds calories, healthy fats, and nutrients that could fuel exercise. This would explain the higher calorie count PhenQ uses. There is no point trying to work out when your body is busy trying to fight fatigue.
To see the difference between the three shakes, here is a side-by-side comparison of the three.
| Shakeology | Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Protein Powder | PhenQ Complete Meal Shake | |
| Purpose | To provide a nutritionally balanced meal. | To fill in the nutritional gaps left by bad diet habits. | To provide healthy nutrition while trying to lose weight. |
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| Cons |
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| Audience | Men & women over the age of 18 looking for a healthier meal option. | ||
| Allergens | Dairy and manufactured at a facility that processes dairy, soy, nuts, and dairy. | Sesame seed | Dairy |
| Price | $129.95 | $29.59 per bag | $20.95 per bag |
| Refund Policy | No standing policy | No standing policy | 60-day money-back guarantee. |
| Where to Buy? | You can buy Shakeology from Amazon, GNC, or the official website. | You can buy Garden of Life from Amazon, Walmart, GNC, or the official website. | PhenQ Complete Meal Shake is exclusively available on the Official PhenQ Website, tap here! |
Summary & Verdict
When it comes to weight loss, many turns to protein shakes to satiate hunger because they contain fewer calories and may also aid muscle growth. However, to support your journey to a healthier body, protein alone does not do the trick. Your body requires the right combination of nutrients that keeps your body functioning optimally, promotes a feeling of satiety and also provide your body with the strength to exercise or simply get through the day,
When comparing Shakeology, Garden of Life and PhenQ Complete Meal Shake, we concluded that PhenQ was the only meal replacement shake that is most able to support weight loss, among the other two. Unlike the other meal replacements, it provides more calories for energy, lesser ingredients to avoid dangerous interactions and provides the body with nutrients that support fat burning and weight loss. PhenQ Complete Meal Shake is the product that we recommend.
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