Clinical Studies

CLINICAL STUDY: MEAL REPLACEMENTS

“Increased Protein Intake Using Protein—Enriched Meal Replacements Compared to Conventional Protein Intake and Meal Replacements in Overweight Subjects”

Marion Flechtner-Mors, Ph.D. and Herwig Ditschuneit, M.D. University of Ulm, Germany

What was the study about? This study enrolled 110 people who were overweight and followed them over a 12 month period to establish the effect of different levels of protein in the diet on weight management.

What did the study subjects have to do? Part 1 of the study lasted 3 months. One of the groups - the high protein group - followed a weight management program with two meals replaced by Formula 1(European Formula) shakes made with milk and extra protein in the form of European Personalized Protein Powder. The other group got a standard amount of protein in the diet. They did not use a meal replacement shake and were instructed to eat a standard amount of protein from an all-food calorie controlled diet.

For the remaining nine months of the study, both groups used one meal replacement shake a day as part of their plan, and the groups maintained the different levels of protein intake in the diet they had consumed during the previous three months.

What happened? The overall finding confirmed that drinking protein-enriched meal replacement shakes lead to more effective weight-management than limiting calories alone. The study showed us that when counting calories, drinking two Formula 1 shakes as meal replacements is a more effective way to manage weight than a conventional food diet.

A significant additional finding was that at the end of the study, 64 percent of those in the high protein group were considered to be at much lower risk of common health problems associated with being over-weight, compared with 41 percent who consumed the standard amount of protein.

Have the results been published yet? An abstract - or short summary - of the study has been presented this year at the European Congress of Obesity in Geneva, Switzerland, and the global conference of The Obesity Society in Phoenix, USA.
The full paper has also been submitted for publication to a prestigious scientific journal and the authors are waiting to hear of confirmation of acceptance.

NOTE: A clinical study is a study that is conducted by a group of researchers on human subjects to answer a particular question or hypothesis.

Marion Flechtner-Mors Ph.D. is a member of Herbalife’s Nutrition Advisory Board.

An extensive questionnaire generated responses from more than 200 U.S. Herbalife Independent Distributors who provided information about their weight-loss programs and results. Distributors reported weight loss in a range from 4 pounds to 167 pounds and a reduced body mass index (BMI) of 1.5 points to 24.1 points, suggesting that ongoing consumption of Herbalife® products is associated with weight loss in that range, with a corresponding improvement in BMI.