Shakeology review

Shakeology is a health shake and dietary supplement that is packed full of proteins, carbohydrates, fruits, and fibres.

While it doesn’t quite count as a complete meal replacement shake, Shakeology isn’t just a protein shake either. It is intended to supplement a healthy diet and is focused on reducing food cravings, losing weight, and consuming enough healthy foods.

Shakeology failed to earn a place on the list of best meal replacement shakes but we’re not certain it should be written off so easily.

In this Shakeology review, we’re going to look at the pros and cons of this not-quite-a-meal-replacement-shake shake and find out if it has anything to offer.

Shakeology Review Overview

Don’t want the details of the Shakeology review? Here’s the short version: It’s not bad, but we don’t recommend it.

And Here’s why:

  • Sugar: While overall the ingredients are healthy, Shakeology contains too much sugar for a truly healthy shake, including 5g of added sugars, which seems completely unnecessary.
  • Price: Shakeology is one of the most expensive shakes on the market and the price tag does not reflect its superiority, there are better meal replacement shakes available.
  • Certification: Shakeology is not certified organic or gluten-free. Other, more affordable meal replacement shakes, are.

If you’re interested in the details, read on.

Shakeology Ingredients in Detail

As with any meal replacement shake analysis worth reading, this Shakeology review will begin by taking a good hard look at the ingredients.

The ingredients, and the proportions in which they are included, are the most important aspect of any shake. Meal replacement shakes need to contain a complete nutritional package.

A Complete Nutritional Package

If you’re going to replace a whole food meal with a shake it’s vitally important to choose a shake that contains a complete nutritional blend that includes the essential macronutrients—carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibre—and a decent amount of micronutrients—the essential vitamins and minerals.

Whole foods contain a huge variety of macro and micronutrients, a good shake will do the same and take it a step further by providing the nutrients in a measurable, controllable, and easy to consume form.

Because they are measurable and controllable, using shakes can be a great way to achieve a calorie deficit, which is beneficial if you want to lose weight. This is because you can easily calculate the number of calories you are consuming by tracking the number of meal replacement shakes you’ve consumed each day.

But it is important not to sacrifice your health for the sake of weight loss.

This can be done by ensuring the shake you choose contains many healthy foods and all the macro and micronutrients your body needs to thrive.

Shakeology claims to be a superfood nutrition shake. The founder and creator of Shakeology designed the shake with her husband in mind. He hates eating vegetables and so to overcome his bad eating habits she created Shakeology, filling the shake with everything he was missing out on.

As you will see, Shakeology does contain a reasonably balanced and complete nutritional mix that makes it suitable as a food substitute while losing weight.

Shakeology Ingredients List

The ingredients of each Shakeology shake vary slightly depending on the flavour, but otherwise consist of the following five proprietary blends and a few extra ingredients.

The Protein Blend: pea protein, flaxseed, quinoa, rice.

The Super Fruit Blend: Camu-camu, acerola cherry, blueberry, bilberry, lycium  berry, luo han guo, pomegranate, rose hips.

The Super Greens Blend: Chlorella, kale, matcha green tea.

The Adaptogen Blend: Ashwagandha, astragalus, cordyceps, maca, maitake, reishi, schisandra, chaga.

The Digestive Enzyme Blend: Yacon root, chicory root, bacillus coagulans, amylase, cellulase, lactase, glucoamylase, alpha-galactosidase, invertase.

Shakeology Nutrition Facts (Per 40g Scoop)

The five blends, along with a couple of additional ingredients, can be broken down into the following macronutrient categories: carbs, proteins, fibre, sugars, and fats. We will now look at the benefits of each and assess the amounts included in the  Shakeology meal replacement shake.

Carbs (17g): The carbs in Shakeology are all ranked low on the glycemic index, which means the energy they contain is made available to the body slowly.

Low GI carbs are preferable to high GI carbs in a meal replacement shake because you want to feel full rather than enjoy a quick burst of energy.

Carbs with a low GI can be fully utilised by the body whereas high GI carbs will likely be stored as fat because unless you are sprinting or doing some other high-intensity exercise, the body simply doesn’t need all the energy they flood it with.

Proteins (16g): Shakeology has a range of vegan-friendly options that rely on plant-based protein sources and another range that uses whey protein isolate. In an effort to avoid GMOs, the company shuns the use of soy for its plant-based protein shakes, instead, they have focused on pea protein, flax, quinoa, and rice protein.

Having a high percentage of proteins in a meal replacement shake helps to prevent hunger and junk food cravings. With 16g of protein per 40g serving, it’s fair to say that Shakeology is among the most protein-rich shakes available.

Fibre (6g): For the serving size, Shakeology contains a decent proportion of fibre. Fibre plays an essential role in digestion and blood sugar regulation. Fibre helps the body to process food gradually, avoiding those blood sugar spikes that result in the body creating fat reserves.

Containing 6g of fibre per 40g serving, Shakeology has all the fibre you’ll need to enjoy smooth digestion and stable blood sugar. What’s more, Shakeology’s digestive enzyme blend contains probiotics and prebiotics that will prepare your stomach and ensure you have a healthy gut, further improving your digestion.

Fats (3g): Compared to other shakes, Shakeology is a low-fat option with just 3g of fat per serving. Typically high-performance meal replacement shakes contain around 6g per serving.

If you want to keep fat to a minimum in your diet then Shakeology is ideal. However, there are benefits to getting enough of the right fats that shouldn’t be overlooked, even for those using shakes to lose weight. According to Weight Watchers, eating monounsaturated fats, such as those found in olive oil, avocados, and almonds can actually help to reduce belly fat.

Shakeology gets around this by suggesting you consume their shake in combination with a diet of nuts, seeds, and avocados. Since Shakeology doesn’t claim to be a complete meal replacement shake this seems reasonable, however, if you’re looking for a shake that contains a complete nutritional package then Shakeology’s lack of healthy fats is a big con.

Sugar (7g): Some people like to save the best till last, but in this Shakeology review we’ve saved the worst till last. Shakeology’s sugar content is perhaps the shake’s biggest flaw. The 7g of sugar per serving is divided between 2g of naturally occurring sugars and 5g of added sugar. We simply cannot fathom why they decided to add 5g of raw sugar to a diet supplement.

Based on similar serving sizes, most top meal replacement shakes, such as Instant Knockout Complete, contain only 1.5g of sugar. Some sugar is unavoidable as it is naturally present in healthy ingredients. But added sugar is completely avoidable, as well as being unhealthy and unnecessary.

Shakeology Vitamins and Minerals

Thanks to its superfruit and super greens blend Shakeology is packed with vitamins and minerals. These include vitamin C, D, E, B12, B6 and K1, niacin, magnesium, chromium, calcium, and iron.

The rich mix of vitamins and minerals included in Shakeology is the most compelling aspect of the shake. That said, there are other shakes available with equally impressive amounts of vitamins and minerals that you might want to consider first. Many of them are a lot cheaper than Shakeology, which is one of the most expensive shakes available.

Shakeology Meal Replacement Shakes 

There are several Shakeology shakes to choose from, including both vegan and vegetarian options, and a whole host of different flavours. Shakeology recommends mixing the powder with almond milk, oat milk, or water, as you would with protein drinks, in a blender bottle.

Vegan Protein Shakes

The vegan Shakeology meal replacement uses plant-based proteins. The vegan Shakeology flavors and vegan chocolate, vegan vanilla Shakeology, vegan strawberry, and vegan peppermint mocha.

Whey Protein Shakes

Shakeology also makes whey protein shakes that feature whey protein isolate in addition to the plant-based proteins. The overall amount of protein is the same, however.

Like the vegan shakes, the Shakeology whey protein shakes are available a variety of flavours, including vanilla, strawberry, café latte, chocolate Shakeology, and strawberry.

Shakeology Review Conclusion

It is possible to drink Shakeology every day, but it is advisable to continue normal eating habits at the same time.

The Shakeology ingredients mix has not been designed to supply you with everything you need and has some nutritional gaps.

Instead, Shakeology is focused on supplementing your food intake, ensuring that you get all the nutrition you need even when you don’t have time to take care of yourself.

Shakeology promotes healthy digestion using digestive enzymes, maintains healthy blood sugar levels, encourages healthy cholesterol levels, boosts the immune system, prevents food cravings, supports healthy bacteria, increases nutrient absorption, and aids weight loss.

However, it also contains artificial sugar in the form of organic cane sugar. In total, this amounts to between seven and eight grams of sugar depending on the flavour.

What’s more, Shakeology shakes are low in essential fats. These fats may actually help you to lose weight and it is an oversight that they have not been included.

Therefore, it is important to keep eating whole foods even while using this dietary supplement.

 

 

 

 

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