Meal-replacement products just quick fix, warns doctor

PHARMACISTS WHO promote low-calorie meal-replacement products encourage a cycle of failure, a leading weight management consultant has said.

Dr Donal O’Shea, who runs the weight management clinic at Loughlinstown Hospital and is chairman of the Irish Heart Foundation’s Nutrition Council, has warned that such over-the-counter products “do not work”.

Dr O’Shea has encouraged the public to be wary of “quick-fix” approaches which he says are useless long term for more than 95 per cent of people.

“If we have learned anything, it is that for most people slow weight loss is the only way to lose weight successfully and keep it off,” he said.

While welcoming the increasing role of pharmacists in healthcare delivery, he warned that the role came with “responsibility”.

“By promoting meal-replacement products, pharmacists are in danger of encouraging a cycle of failure in people attempting to manage their weight.

“I have seen people with real health problems resulting from very low calorie approaches, such as meal-replacement products. I cannot say it enough, quick fixes do not work.”

He said there was “no such thing” as a shortcut to weight loss and said, “it takes time and the real key to success is to understand and accept this fact”.

The Irish Heart Foundation has said very low calorie diets of less than 800 calories a day are not recommended.

It says not only can they result in weakness, dizziness, constipation, hair loss, nausea and irritability but they also fail to produce long-term results.

The foundation instead recommends a moderate approach to weight loss by reducing calorie intake by 500-1,000 calories a day to produce a steady weight loss of 1-2 pounds a week.

Maureen Mulvihill of the Irish Heart Foundation said quick-fix products failed to educate people on the basics of healthy eating or how to change their behaviour for long-term benefits.

“Despite successfully losing weight on such diets in the short term, people eventually revert to a more regular diet which most often results in reverting to old habits and weight gain.”