Are Meal Replacement Shakes Worth it?

Quality food source, or just junk?

When it comes to your fitness journey, hitting your macros is a huge part of making progress. Making sure you get in the proper amount of protein, fats, and carbs is key, as proper nutrition helps with so many things. Proper nutrition can help with things like building muscle mass, losing fat, maintaining proper energy levels, regulating hormones and sex drive, and other bodily functions. But, prepping full meals is not always something you may have time for, which is why many people will turn to meal replacement shakes. 

Are these meal replacement shakes going to do the job though?

Meal Replacement Shake Overview

Meal replacement shakes are meant to be exactly what they sound like, replacements for your meals. They are typically powders, much like protein powders, that you will mix with water or another beverage of your choice. Meal replacement shakes have the macronutrients of a full meal, however, meaning they have more fat and carbs than your standard protein shake. These products are meant to be enjoyed pre-workout, post workout, or any time of the day really, as they are there to replace your meals and help you hit your macros.

Pros and Cons of Meal Replacements

There are plenty of benefits to meal replacement shakes, making them an ideal choice for helping you to get in the proper nutrition. However, there are some cons, so let’s take a look.

Pros

• Convenient- Meal replacement shakes are convenient as you can take them just about anywhere and they require little preparation 
• Great macros- Meal replacement shakes provide you with a proper amount of protein, fats, and carbs to keep you full and keep your energy levels up.
• Taste- While you may think that these meal replacements taste just like blended up foods, they typically come in delicious flavors just like your standard protein powders, so they are a nice way to switch up your meals and let your taste buds get something sweet

Cons

• Can be pricey- Think about it, each serving is pretty much an entire meal, so these products will usually not be as cheap as your regular protein powders

What to Look for in a Meal Replacement

When it comes to choosing a meal replacement, you will want something that is quality, to make sure you are only putting the best in your body. There are a few things to look out for in your meal replacement shakes that we will cover.

Macros

You want to find a meal replacement shake that has a good balance of protein, fat, and carbs, and does not lean too heavily on one over the other.

Food Sources

Aside from the actual number on each macronutrient, you want to see where those macros are coming from. For example, you will want a meal replacement that is packed with legitimate, quality whole foods, and not just junk blends and ingredients. 

Our Recommendation

Well, with all of that being said, what meal replacement shake is our favorite?

MUTANT FLEX FOOD

We all enjoy our quick food sources when we are in a hurry, such as protein bars or shakes, as a way to make sure we are getting in some sort of food and hitting our macros even though we may be short on time. However, the problem is that we do know that many of these are packed full of artificial preservatives, additives, or are not coming from legitimate food sources, yet we still eat them. Enter, FLEX FOOD from MUTANT.

MUTANT FLEX FOOD is perfect for when you are short on time or you forget to prep your meal replacement, or life just throws things at you that get in your way. FLEX FOOD allows you to be ready with fast, flexible and complete real food macros on-demand. FLEX FOOD is packed with real ingredients, not junk blends or artificial, to make sure that you are consuming quality macros, BCAAs, and EAAs, getting you quality gains. The team at Gen Iron tried it, and we have to say, FLEX FOOD did far more than we had expected. Let’s dive into it.

What is in FLEX FOOD?

FLEX FOOD contains a grocery list of real food ingredients from kale, broccoli, pomegranate, acai, and avocado to milk, quinoa, flax seed and sweet potato! However, it does not taste like just ground up vegetables and meats, and we will get into that.

Proteins

MUTANT makes FLEX FOOD with a more complete blend of milk protein concentrate (80% Micellar casein), whey (concentrate, hydrolysate, isolate). With most other protein powders, they are either solely milk based or solely plant based, making FLEX FOOD stand out even more.

Other ingredients the proteins come from include fermented pea, and sprouted pumpkin seed proteins. FLEX FOOD contains 92% more BCAAs and EAAs than the collagen-like beef protein isolate other MRPs use.

Greens

Alkalizing greens are important, as they balance out an acidic high protein diet while superfoods and antioxidants help boost immunity and fight endless lifting, dieting, working and whatever else you pack into your life each day. Greens are not something you typically see in your protein powders or muscle shakes, which again makes FLEX FOOD stand out above the competition.

Carbs

Carbs are important for your body to function, and FLEX FOOD’s blend of complex carbs stabilize blood sugar, fuel your brain and give your muscles the energy needed to crush weights! Healthy fats support nerve signaling, hormonal balance, and help decrease inflammation from all that heavy lifting!

Enzymes, Probiotics, and Electrolytes

Digestive enzymes + pre and probiotics ensure you break down and absorb every last nutrient while boosting gut health. Probiotic powerhouse DE111® has also been shown to improve body composition! Quality sea salt, OrganiCal™ calcium and potassium support better muscle function and hydration – no cramping!

Macros

As far as the macros go, there are a total of 170 calories which can be broken down into:

Fats- 3 grams

Carbs- 12 grams

Protein- 25 grams

Price and Flavors of FLEX FOOD

The price and the flavor is a big part of most buying decisions for people. With such a quality product it has to be outrageously expensive, right? Wrong. FLEX FOOD is only $44.99 for a container of 20 servings. That is about $2.95 per serving, which is definitely more than your standard protein powder, but when you are looking at the ingredients and macros is a great price. You are getting a full meal prep that you can prepare in a few seconds, for less than $3.

You can also get a FLEX FOOD 6-pack, which is only $24.99 and you get 6, convenient packets. The convenience of these makes them worth every penny. You are getting all of the nutritional benefits of FLEX FOOD, just in a smaller “to-go” package.

As far as taste, FLEX FOOD comes in two flavors as of now, Vanilla Cupcake and Chocolate Brownie, and while a lot of protein powders or muscle shakes that are packed with ingredients can have a chalky texture or a taste that is nowhere close to what it is advertised as, FLEX FOOD does not do that. FLEX FOOD instead delivers a smooth texture with flavors that actually taste pretty close to the foods they are supposed to taste like. For someone who is really focused on their diet, flavor is a key factor in their choice of muscle shake. MUTANT does not disappoint with FLEX FOOD.

Our Verdict

For us, we tried FLEX FOOD and were blown away by the taste and how we felt after. The fullness we were able to feel made it perfect to consume at any time of the day, and we knew we were getting quality macronutrients. 

Check out the full FLEX FOOD review!

Meal Replacement Shakes Wrap Up

Overall, meal replacement shakes are great for the convenience of hitting your macros wherever and whenever you want. However, when it comes to choosing, there are certain things you need to look out for, and one product that we recommend is MUTANT FLEX FOOD.

Will you be giving it a try?

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*Images courtesy of Envato and MUTANT