I have tried out both Slimfast and Almased – and below is my honest opinion about them. I hope that this helps!

Product Review – Slimfast and Almased

Have you ever tried any of those weight loss – protein shake type products? I have the two most popular locally available brands in my pantry – Slimfast and Almased. They can be used as part of a weight loss program, and I think they work a little. I do not believe that either of these products will cause the weight to just disappear, upon drinking them. It would be nice if they were miraculous and the weight just fell off, but I mostly live in the real world. This morning I tried to keep going with my diet and lifestyle overhaul, and I brought these two babies back out of the cupboard.

I have tried both of these products many times before (they were gathering dust in the pantry).

Slimfast Weight Loss Protein Shakes

For years, I have occasionally used Slimfast. I typically drink it once per day at lunch time as a substitute for lunch and I do love the Original Vanilla flavour. Having a Slimfast makes me feel like I’m having a McDonald’s shake or something like that. It would probably help to add some ice cream – but I think that’s against the rules. I have no issues with dairy products so this is a good product for me, but it’s not for everyone.

Slimfast Is Satisfying and Tastes Good

A Slimfast instead of a meal – leaves me feeling full, and helps me to avoid the around the house munching of all the yummy salty things in my fridge. Now that my husband is home making me breakfast and lunch everyday I haven’t been Slimfasting at all – because you can’t have a Slimfast with a soup and grilled cheese sandwich – well you can, but just NO. I think the saying is “Just say no”.

Slimfast Ingredients

The only hesitation I have regarding Slimfast, is that it does seem to have a lot of funky ingredients in it, but apparently one shake provides about 1/3 of my daily vitamin requirements so I like that – for short term. It’s ingredients include emulsifiers and preservatives, which is fair enough to make it seem shake-like but I’m not sure why they need so many types of sugar and artificial sweeteners – regular table sugar, maltodextrin, fructose and high fructose corn syrup, sucralose and acesulfame potassium. I guess that’s why I love the flavour so much. It also has hydrogenated soybean oil, which is saturated fat which produces trans fatty acids. I’m no dietitian, but this can’t be good for me in the long run.

I also am prone to kidney stones, and they have happened to me every once in a while over the years – some time after consuming Slimfast. There are always people inquiring as to whether Slimfast causes kidney stones here and there online, and the answer seems to be no. I can find no evidence of that but I have read that too much protein in my diet can cause kidney stones. So that makes me worry. I get sore kidneys just thinking about it. If you’ve ever suffered from kidney stones, you will understand the fear of causing them!

In summary – Slimfast tastes good, is filling and seems to have a lot of my daily vitamins in it. It fills me up enough to avoid one meal and snacking, so I think that is a positive thing. On the negative side, there are a lot of ingredients that do not seem natural in Slimfast, so I would be worried about consuming this over the long term.

So I decided to have a nice Slimfast shake for breakfast, but of course there was no milk, and then I thought – AHAH – rice cereal (I’m trying to reduce wheat) – still no milk. So then I thought, OK I’ll try an Almased. It doesn’t need milk!

Almased Weight Loss Shakes

I had bought Almased because I read an ad for it, and it seemed after reading the ad that the product was healthy and miraculous for weight loss. From the website –

“WHAT IS “THE ALMASED WEIGHT LOSS PHENOMENON™”? 

High-quality non-GMO soy, enzyme-rich honey and probiotic yogurt – Almased’s high-quality ingredients have a high biological value. It provides you with all the essential amino acids from plant and animal protein.” It states that Almased has ” NO artificial fillers, flavors, added sugars, preservatives or stimulants. ” So I thought that sounded a little better for me. So I pulled out my blender, threw in some frozen blueberries, cherries, a little orange juice and some Almased powder.

There are a variety of smoothie recipes on the website, and in the instructions. I enjoyed my smoothie. The powder itself is not flavourful, so it’s really what you add to it. The problem is I was hungry again in an hour. The product is supposed to “keeps you full for 4-6 hours“.

So I’m not too sure how this diet shake substitution is going to work out. I need to be consuming something healthy, but it needs to keep me full if I’m going to avoid that constant snacking and lunching.

In Summary – Almased doesn’t taste like much on it’s own, but tastes nice with blended berries, fruit or juice. It appears (on the surface – to an untrained consumer) to have more natural ingredients than Slimfast. Unfortunately, when I mixed the Almased as recommended on the label – I just did not stay feeling full for very long. I don’t think this product would work for me as a meal substitute for weight loss.

My husband was feeling a little sorry for me and went shopping for groceries and made me salmon, kale salad and steamed broccoli for dinner.

I feel spoiled (but I’m still hungry).

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