Overview
- Introduction
- Calculate Calories
- Meal Timing
- Cleaning
- Measuring Progress
- Conclusion
- Comments
Introduction
Meal replacements have been around for a long time. They have been mostly targeted for special use cases like…
Recently, a product called Soylent has made it trendy for everyday normal people to use meal replacements. The creators had very successful crowdfunding and venture capital funding which you can see here.
Since then, many competitors have been created. 'Blendrunner' is a site that compares them all here.
I chose Plenny Shake Vegan because it's the least expensive one that doesn't contain lactose and is available in the US. Shipping takes about one week.
An average person needs about 2,000 calories daily. Plenny Shake costs about $6 for 2,000 calories, so that's about $2 for one meal.
Every meal doesn't need to be Plenny Shake. Although I've been doing only Plenny Shake for all my meals since March 20, 2017, I do not recommend doing it 100% right away. I suggest starting off just replacing breakfast and getting used to the convenience. Work your way up if you want.
Calculate Calories
An average person needs about 2,000 calories. However, we all have unique calorie needs. You can calculate your specific daily calorie needs here.
Take the number that you calculated and divide that by 3 to get the amount of calories needed for one meal.
For example, if you calculated 2,000 calories, you would need about 667 calories for one meal.
According to the Plenny Shake Vegan nutrition label here, 100 grams of Plenny Shake contains 405 calories. That's about 4.05 calories per gram.
Take the amount of calories you need for one meal and divide that by 4.05 to get the amount of Plenny Shake needed in grams.
For example, if you needed 667 calories for one meal, you would need about 165 grams of Plenny Shake for one meal.
The most accurate way to measure is using a food scale like this. Get a shaker bottle like this 28 ounce one for average sized meals or this 45 ounce one for larger meals. Zero it out on the food scale. Add the Plenny Shake powder until you get the weight in grams you calculated for one meal.
Shaker bottles have measurement lines in ounces on the side. For water, I suggest noting the number of ounces the Plenny Shake powder takes up and doubling it. You can experiment with adding more or less water to your preference of being thicker or more watery, but doubling the number is a good starting point.
For example, if you added 165 grams of powder, and it went up to the 12 ounce line on the shaker bottle, I would add water until it measures 24 ounces.
You'll still need additional regular drinking water not mixed with the powder. Also, sugar free gum like this is recommended after the meal.
You can meal prep if you are on the go. Make sure the shaker bottle with the powder inside is sealed. You'll also need a vacuum insulated water bottle like this or this with ice and enough water for mixing and drinking.
Just put everything in a bag and it's ready to go anytime. If you are doing 100% Plenny Shake, you can meal prep with three sets of shaker and water bottles like this.
If you are only doing Plenny Shake for one meal, you can use calorie tracking apps like this to calculate the calories for your other meals to make sure you are reaching your daily calorie goal.
Meal Timing
If your calculations are correct for one meal, you should be able to go 5 hours between meals.
If your goal is to lose body fat, you can reach ketosis (fat burning state) in your sleep. Here's an example schedule.
- 05:00 am – Wake Up, Meal Prep, Workout
- 07:00 am – Breakfast
- 12:00 pm – Lunch
- 05:00 pm – Dinner
- 10:00 pm – Sleep
In this example, there is an intermittent fasting period between 5:00 pm and 7:00 am where you go 14 hours without eating anything. Since you've been eating every 5 hours, you'll go to bed starting to feel hungry, but you'll wake up not hungry. This is possible because your body is using your stored fat for energy as you sleep. Working out on an empty stomach will also help use energy from your fat instead of from recently eaten food.
Cleaning
I try to rinse the bottles right after each use. Plenny Shake comes off the shaker bottles fairly easily. Shaking hot water inside several times and rinsing the spout area immediately after use then air drying is usually enough.
Sometimes if I have a busy day, I end up washing all of them right before I go to sleep. Those times, I'll do a deep clean using vinegar and a bottle brush since they've just been sitting all day unwashed.
Be sure to let the shaker bottles completely dry before using them. You do not want moisture trapped inside. When in doubt, do a smell test before use. If it smells bad, you need to do a better job cleaning.
Measuring Progress
You can use a weight and body fat scale like this to keep track of your progress.
For inspiration, you can use this body search site to find photos of people who are similar to your body goals.
Conclusion
Pros
- Saves time. It only takes 30 minutes of my day. That's including meal prep, drinking, and clean up. Also no travel or waiting in line for shopping since it gets shipped directly to me.
- Calorie Counting is easy.
- Inexpensive. Cheaper than fast food and you don't need to refrigerate, cook, or waste food.
Cons
- People think you are weird.
- You may need to buy new clothes if your weight changes drastically.
- It takes awhile to get used to the taste and mouth feel. It feels grainy like drinking wet sand.