People often turn to protein shakes to build muscle, but what about for weight loss? Is a protein shake diet good for weight loss as well as gaining muscle mass?
What is a good 7 day protein shake diet plan, and how do you make a protein shake meal replacement for weight loss? Are 7 day protein shake diet results better than other weight loss diets?
In this guide, we will discuss what protein shake diets are, what a protein shake meal replacement recipe looks like, how to follow a protein shake diet, and what to expect for 7 day protein shake diet results.
We will look at:
- What Is a Protein Shake Diet Plan?
- How Do You Make a Protein Shake for Weight Loss?
- Protein Shake Meal Plan
Let’s get started!
What Is a Protein Shake Diet Plan?
A protein shake diet plan is a diet that generally involves using protein shake meal replacement drinks instead of regular meals for a certain period of time.
There are no official 7 day protein shake diet plans, or protein shake weight loss plans that dictate specific protein shake recipes that you have to follow or a certain number of meals and snacks that must be replaced with a protein shake meal replacement drink instead of regular food.
Rather, if you are following a protein shake diet for weight loss, you have the flexibility to decide how long you want to do your protein shake diet plan, what type of protein shake meal replacement recipes you will use, and how many meals you will swap for a protein shake.
With a 7 day protein shake weight loss diet, most people replace at least two meals per day with a protein shake, if not all three.
The beauty of protein shake meal replacement recipes is that you can tailor them to your caloric needs, taste preferences, and nutrition goals.
This is a double edge sword, however.
While the flexibility can help make the protein shake diet more nutrient dense and scalable for people with different caloric needs, it does make it difficult to answer the question:
“What are the 7 day protein shake diet results, or what are the 7 day protein shake diet before and after weight loss results?“
This is because you may replace all of your meals and snacks on a 7 day protein shake weight loss diet with protein shakes, or you may replace a couple of meals and still have a regular meal during the day.
Depending on your weight loss goals, nutritional needs, tolerance for drinking only protein shakes, and logistics of your lifestyle, among other factors, you may use some other structure iteration of a protein shake diet plan.
Furthermore, even answering the questions, “Are protein shakes good for weight loss?” and “Will I lose weight drinking protein shakes?” becomes challenging because the term “protein shake“ is broad and can refer to a range of protein shake recipes with different nutritional facts and calories.
How Do You Make a Protein Shake for Weight Loss?
So, in order to really discuss how to follow a 7 day protein shake diet plan for weight loss or what sorts of protein shake diets results you can expect, let’s look at what a 7 day protein shake diet plan and a protein shake recipe for weight loss might look like more specifically.
What is a protein shake?
A “protein shake” can refer to any high-protein drink.
There are premade protein shake meal replacement drinks that you can buy off of the shelf, either in powdered form in which you add milk or some plant-based milk or as a premade liquid bottle.
Although turning any two bottles of different protein shakes to look at the ingredient labels will quickly demonstrate that the formulations can vary significantly between products, most protein shakes are made with some protein powder or protein isolate.
The type of protein concentrate or protein powder used in a protein shake can be anything from a single-ingredient or multi-ingredient plant-based protein powder like brown rice, pea, hemp, or soy to animal-based protein isolates like whey, casein, collagen, and egg.
However, most commercial protein shakes include a lot of fillers and stabilizers, particularly liquid formulations, so most people who are following a 7 day protein shake diet for weight loss make their own protein shake meal replacement drinks at home.
Homemade protein shake recipes allow you to tailor your protein shake nutrition facts to exactly what you need in terms of the protein shake meal replacement calories, grams of protein, the number of carbs, and even down to the flavors and extra ingredients you might add.
A homemade protein shake diet drink recipe can look like anything from a scoop of protein powder in water or unsweetened almond milk to a meal replacement protein shake with regular milk or plant-based milk, bananas or other fruit, nut butter, etc.
It is also possible to make protein shake meal replacement recipes with whole food ingredients like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and milk instead of protein powder if you want a protein shake without protein powder made from whole foods only.
Also, if you are doing a 7 day protein shake diet plan that replaces all three meals with protein shakes, you can tailor the protein shake calories and recipe to your nutritional needs and goals for each meal.
For example, your breakfast protein shake meal replacement drink will likely have fewer calories than a lunch or dinner shake, and you might use more fruit at breakfast and more veggies at dinner to adjust the grams of carbs that your body needs at different points in the day and the flavor profile.
Generally, when making a protein shake after a workout as a recovery snack or a high-protein snack with no carbs or fewer calories as part of a weight loss diet, you might mix a scoop of protein powder with water or unsweetened almond milk.
However, with protein shake meal replacement recipes—when you are drinking a meal replacement protein shake instead of regular food to lose weight—you should add fruits, vegetables, unsweetened almond milk, ice, etc., to bulk up your protein shake, depending on how many calories you want and need.
Many homemade protein shake diet plan recipes include one or two scoops of high-quality protein powder, a banana, 1-2 tablespoons of peanut or other nut butter, and might include other fruits like berries or peaches, Greek yogurt, avocado, or spinach, etc.
As a result, the range and variety of ingredients used in the recipes for protein shakes—whether commercial or homemade—is enormous. Thus so is the resultant nutritional content.
This is why it is virtually impossible to state specifically how many calories are in a protein shake meal replacement drink or what to expect in terms of the 7 day protein shake weight loss results.
That said, when a low-calorie protein shake recipe involves just one scoop of protein powder and water or milk, it will usually contain around 25-30 grams of protein and 200-300 calories (on the lower end for water or unsweetened almond milk and upper end for dairy milk).
Once you start adding ingredients like banana, peanut butter or almond butter, and yogurt for meal replacement, the total calories, fat, and carbohydrates in the weight loss shake increase substantially.
These weight loss protein shakes may provide anywhere between 300-800 calories or so, up to 20 grams of fat, between 15-50 grams of carbohydrates, and 30-40 grams of protein or more.
This is not only a huge range but can also sound like too many calories if you are trying to follow a protein shake diet for weight loss.
Keep in mind that if you are replacing three meals per day with protein shakes and not having any snacks, even drinking three 800-calorie protein shakes may still result in weight loss, depending on your body size and activity level.
Moreover, a more typical protein shake calorie content for a homemade protein shake meal replacement for weight loss has around 400-600 calories at most.
So, for example, if you drink four protein shakes per day that each average 400 calories, you will only be consuming 1600 calories a day on your weight loss shake diet.
As long as this is a caloric deficit for your needs, you will lose fat, and if not, you can drop down to 3 protein shakes per day or reduce the calories in the weight-loss protein shake.
Protein Shake Meal Plan
We created a 7 day protein shake weight loss plan that can be scaled to different body sizes by adjusting portion sizes and/or adding protein shake snacks throughout the day if you need more calories.
Use a high-quality protein powder without any fillers, artificial sweeteners, added sugars, or chemical ingredients.
Note that the 7 day protein shake meal plan includes only protein shakes, but you can add real food snacks or have regular dinner or another meal if you prefer.
Additionally, it is just an outline for a protein shake meal plan; you can adjust the recipes and the duration you follow this weight loss plan.
Here is a good 7 day protein shake diet plan for weight loss (mix and match your protein shake meal replacements):
Invigorating Breakfast Protein Shake for Weight Loss
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or oat milk
- 1 cup of frozen mixed berries
- ½ cup of frozen riced cauliflower (you won’t taste it—we promise!)
- 1 small, peeled beet and the greens
- 1/3 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (any type)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Peaches and Cream Protein Shake Breakfast Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or oat milk
- 1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh sliced peaches
- 1/2 cup frozen sliced banana
- 1/3 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup ice
- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and/or ginger
Keto Protein Shake Lunch Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 ripe avocado
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 scoop (30 grams) of keto chocolate protein powder
- 2 tablespoons of cashew butter or almond butter
- 1/2 cup ice
Superfoods Weight Loss Protein Shake Lunch Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 cup fresh baby spinach
- 1/2 cup frozen cauliflower rice
- 2 Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 1 tablespoon of chia seeds
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Protein Shake Dinner Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 large frozen banana sliced
- 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder
- ½ cup cauliflower rice
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup ice
Weight Loss Protein Shake Snack Recipe
- One scoop of protein powder mixed with unsweetened almond milk (200 calories)
Keep in mind that a protein shake diet is not sustainable.
Even though you may experience some impressive 7 day protein shake weight loss results initially, some of the weight may be regained when you start eating regular food again, depending on the change in nutritional content and number of calories on your protein shake diet vs regular diet.
Check out some of our top diet guides to find a healthy, sustainable weight loss diet that works well for you.
