Guest blog - Are protein shakes good for weight loss?

At Noisy Guts, we put your gut health first. While we formulated Superflora protein shakes with gut health in mind, many of our loyal customers use Superflora to help achieve their weight loss goals. But are protein shakes good for weight loss? We asked life, weight and wellness coach Rebecca Goodacre. Here’s what she said:

As a weight loss coach, I love supporting people to create healthy habits and mindsets that they can continue for the rest of their life. I am often against any form of diet, pill, shake or potion as I feel like they are a short-term solution, are temporary, and not taking people’s best interests to heart.

But when I met Josephine from Noisy Guts and experimented with Superflora, I was sold on introducing Superflora to my clients.

Not only do I love the philosophy of Noisy Guts and its goal to support people with debilitating gut issues to get back on track, but after trialling it myself I found it will support my weight loss clients to recalibrate their natural hunger hormones so that they can clearly experience the sensation of fullness.

You are only overweight because you eat more food than your body requires for fuel. So when you reconnect with your body and listen to your body’s natural cues of hunger and fullness you can eat in a way that provides your body with an even flow of energy throughout the day. That means without the afternoon slump.

Superflora provided my body with both a good serving of fibre and protein that allowed me to feel fuller for longer while not switching off my body’s natural signals of fullness like processed foods do.

And because I love ensuring I eat a diverse range of plant foods, I popped a little spinach, kale, frozen strawberries, cucumber, and a ¼ avocado into my lunchtime shake. This kept me feeling satisfied until dinner.

Eliminating snacks enables my body to access existing fat stores it already has for fuel, rather than the muesli bar or biscuit that you might consume between meals. I like to call it ‘eating in’. More often than not, snacking is a conditioned action, and you are not often physically hungry when you eat. Think about when you come into your house. Do you head to the fridge or cupboard?  

Your physical hunger is a subtle feeling in your stomach, and most of my clients are unfamiliar with what their hunger scale feels like because they don’t allow themselves to experience hunger. Therefore, they have not been able to access the energy source, or fat already stored on their body.

A culprit to your fearing hunger may be diets that have seen you counting points, weighing or measuring food. This may have left you feeling hungry, deprived, restricted, fatigued and drained from having limited food and having to spend so much brainpower thinking about food!

With so many combinations of food and liquid, you could add to the Superflora shake you would have some fun experimenting with plant foods and various kinds of milk you love. You can check in on your hunger levels before dinner (or lunch if you are using Superflora as a breakfast shake), to check that you are experiencing a small amount of physical hunger and not ready to eat someone’s arm off.

Enjoying your shake and experimenting with what you CAN put into it also helps stop those unwanted feelings of restriction and deprivation that can be created in our minds when focussing on the foods we can’t have.

In saying that… you are an adult, and you CAN totally have anything you want to! Don’t let your brain tell you otherwise. It is just a choice you are making to honour a goal you have created. Your brain is one of the biggest obstacles when losing weight, so managing it is important.

Losing weight does not have to be hard and you don’t have to be miserable in the process. When you have planned to have a Superflora protein shake ahead of time you will find it takes the drama out of what you are going to eat and will free up time and brain space to create other more enjoyable activities in your life. Activities that create natural pleasure aside from thinking about weighing or measuring food.

So …. are protein shakes good for weight loss? 

Not all protein shakes are created equal but there is certainly a place for Superflora in my weekly food intake. I will enjoy it at lunch when I know I won’t have time in my schedule to prepare food or sit down to eat it. It will be a great planned addition for the car when work or family schedules call. Either way, I know it is a great source of fuel to get me to dinner and will feed my gut with goodies and probiotics that it loves, preventing the afternoon lethargy and bloated feeling that can often come from more processed gluten-rich meals like bread or pasta (which should be reduced if you are losing weight).

My overall take on Superflora is that Noisy Guts want to give you back some control and freedom over your health. They want to give you a choice to use their protein shakes in a way that works for you, whether this is to support irritable stomachs or lose weight. This aligns with my belief that you always have the best wisdom for you and what fuel gives you great energy for the day.

You are the expert on your body and are the best judge of what makes it feel amazing.

Not all protein shakes are equal

Protein shakes can be a great solution when you need food fast, but don’t want to resort to fast food. They’re quick and easy to make so you’ve always got a hassle-free way to eat well, even on your busiest of days.

If you want to read more about how to choose a protein shake, read our Ultimate Guide to Protein Shakes.