Veggie Blog

Herbalife weight loss products: what to know before you try them

Genetics plays a real role in obesity, but your habits matter a great deal too. Your genes can make you more likely to gain weight, but they do not decide your weight on their own.

For most of us, genes set a range for our weight, and our food choices and activity decide where we end up within it.

Nonetheless, most of us tend to put on weight as we age. And if there is one thing we cannot prevent, it is aging. But we can avoid eating more and exercising less as we get older. Above all, you need strategies for controlling what you eat, strategies that work.

Some people turn to weight loss products. These include products sold as diet pills, but also products described as herbal or nutritional. One well-known brand is Herbalife.

What Herbalife products are

Herbalife’s best-known weight loss products are meal replacement shakes, along with teas and supplements. They are not a breakthrough in herbal medicine; the shakes are mainly protein powders with added vitamins and minerals.

Popular products include the Herbalife Formula 1 shakes in flavours such as strawberry, tropical fruit and vanilla.

Users often say that the shakes taste good and are easy to use. Prices vary, and over months the cost can add up compared with ordinary healthy food.

The claims, checked

Here is a look at the advantages that are often claimed for these products.

1. Claim: you lose inches as well as pounds, and the products tone and shape the body and stop fat from coming back. No product tones the body; only exercise builds muscle. And like any diet, weight lost with shakes often returns when people go back to their old eating habits.

2. Claim: the products help you lose weight and give your cells the nutrients they need every day. A shake can replace a meal with fewer calories while providing vitamins and minerals, but it does not give everything a varied diet does, such as plenty of fibre.

3. Claim: the products taste good, which is why so many people are satisfied. Taste is a matter of preference and says nothing about whether a product works.

4. Claim: you can eat more of the foods you love without worrying about gaining weight. This is not true. You still need to eat fewer calories than you burn to lose weight, unlike what is promised for some diet pills or weight loss patches.

5. Claim: the products help you cut calories, so losing weight works better. This is the part that holds up: studies show that meal replacements can help people lose weight when they are used as part of a calorie-controlled diet.

Some products are also said to curb your appetite while you lose weight. Protein and fibre can help you feel full, but there is no magic effect. Be aware too that case reports have linked some Herbalife products to liver problems, so talk to your doctor before trying them, especially if you have a health condition, take medicine, or are pregnant or breastfeeding.

The bottom line is that preventing weight gain means eating fewer calories when you are not active enough to burn them off. If you want to try these products, use them as one part of a balanced diet and an active lifestyle, which is the real key to losing weight and keeping it off.

In the end, healthy habits are what will help you reach the weight you want.