Meal replacement shakes offer people a great way to substitute eating a healthy meal of whole food, without having to sacrifice their nutritional intake. This is extremely useful for very busy people and those who are constantly on the go, and it has led to meal replacement shakes becoming some of the most popular dietary supplements that are currently on the market.
However, while drinking meal replacement shakes is very easy, choosing your preferred meal replacement shakes may not be the same story. Whether your aim is simply to skip meals or to achieve weight loss, muscle building, or fat burning, meal replacement shakes will have plenty of options specifically suited to your needs, with their own unique ingredients and formulas.
That is why, for many people who don’t have extensive knowledge on nutrition, picking a good meal replacement shake is quite a challenge. Luckily though, it doesn’t have to be, as we have created the following list of the very best meal replacement shakes in 2023, to make sure that everyone can find a great meal replacement shake that perfectly meets all of their own needs.
Rootana – The Best Meal Replacement Shake Overall
Rootana is a meal replacement shake that is made using an entirely vegan formula, all of the ingredients in which have been scientifically proven to be beneficial to your health. It is also made without the use of any GMOs or artificial flavors, colours, preservatives, or sweeteners.
The Rootana formula consists of pea protein, which is a complete protein and one of the top whey protein alternatives as it has a full amino acid profile.
This is the supported by coconut sugar, golden milled flax seeds, oat flour, sunflower lecithin, and sunflower seed oil, as well as 27 different vitamins and minerals.
This works out to roughly 43 to 44% carbohydrates, 20 to 21% protein, 14 to 16% fat, and 7 to 9% fibre, as well as 400 calories per serving of Rootana. It also gives the shake a perfectly balanced nutrient ratio that allows it to work as a true alternative to eating a balanced meal of real food.
Its varied sources of complex carbs, complete protein powders, healthy fat, fibre, and essential vitamins and minerals are all slow release. This will stop you from getting bloated, keep you feeling full, strong, and healthy for a loner time, and provide many other mental and physical health benefits.
The antioxidants and omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids in the Rootana formula will help to keep your joints healthy and supple, while preventing any damage and repairing any that has already been caused.
The antioxidants will also offer a variety of additional health benefits, such as combatting illnesses, as will the vitamins and minerals (1).
It can also help to lower your ldl cholesterol levels and regulate your overall cholesterol level, reduce your risk of heart disease, slow the signs of aging, and protect you against many illnesses (1).
The coconut sugar will then sweeten the shake and give it a fantastic natural flavour, while regulating your blood sugar levels, instead of spiking them like the traditional sugar or artificial sweeteners you may find in other meal replacement powders would.
Sold in a choice of flavours that includes cacao, original, and vanilla, there are options to suit people of all different tastes, while it can also easily be mixed in only 10 seconds for maximum conveneince.
This all adds up to make Rootana a quick, easy, nutritionally balanced, great tasting, vegan meal replacement shake. It can help everyone from pro athletes to vegans hit all of their daily nutrient requirements and is comfortably the best meal replacement shake on the market today.
Instant Knockout Complete – The Best Meal Replacement Shake For Weight Loss
Instant Knockout Complete is essentially two dietary supplements rolled into one, as it can act as both a meal replacement shake and a protein shake.
Marketed as a fat burning meal replacement shake, it has been specifically made with athletes in mind, particularly those compete in sports like bodybuilding and mixed martial arts, where it is vital that you can stimulate fat burning and lose weight at the same time as building and maintaining lean muscle mass in the build up to a fight or competition.
It is very high protein at 35 grams per serving, which is comparable to many of the top whey protein shakes. In this case though, the protein powders used are all plant based, as its high protein content is from pea protein powder, organic brown rice protein, chia seed protein powder, and soy protein isolate.
Between them, these powerful sources of plant based protein contain all of the essential amino acids that the body needs to build muscle and help it recover after a workout (2)(3).
Beyond protein, the Instant Knockout Complete meal replacement formula also has oat flour, golden flax seeds, MCTs (medium chain triglycerides), pea starch, rice hull concentrate, and large quantities of fibre, vitamins, and minerals.
The 35 grams of carbs, 13 grams of fibre, and 13 grams of fat this formula delivers per serving will help to fuel your muscles and give you plenty of energy during workouts. It will then help replenish your glycogen stores and keep your body, heart, and mind healthy as you recover (4).
All of these nutrients add up to Instant Knockout Complete containing 400 calories per serving. This is more than sufficient to fill you up and allows it to work as an effective meal replacement shake, whether you want to lose weight, build muscle, or even stay the same.
When you then add in its delightful vanilla flavour, the Instant Knockout Complete meal replacement powder is easily the best meal replacement shake for those people who are looking for a product that can both replace meals, promote weight loss, and double as a protein shake.
HLTH Code Complete Meal – The Best Meal Replacement Shake For A Low Carb Diet
The HLTH Code Complete Meal meal replacement shake contains 400 calories, 27 grams of protein and 27 grams of healthy fats per serving, all while having just 13 grams of carbs, of which 9 grams come from dietary fiber.
This makes it comfortably one of the very best meal replacement shakes for people who are following an Atkins, keto, or low carb diet to help with their weight loss or fat burning.
The HLTH Code Complete Meal replacement formula consists of a Protein Blend made from whey protein concentrate, grass fed collagen, and egg whites, a Healthy Fats Blend, a Digestive Enzymes Blend, and a Probiotic Blend.
The protein will fuel your muscles during a workout and speed up your recovery when you are finished, to help you build and maintain lean muscle mass. Its fat and calorie content will then totally fill you up, perfectly replacing solid foods and ensuring you stick to your healthy diet (5).
Meanwhile, its net carbohydrate content is low enough to ensure that you are not knocked out of a ketogenic state. This will ensure that your body prioritises burning fat instead of muscle, to help you lose weight in the right way.
Sold in a choice of either Chocolate Macadamia or Creamy Vanilla flavour, the HLTH Code Complete Meal shake is one of the only meal replacement shakes that people of various tastes can use to effectively fill themselves up while following a low carb or keto diet.
This makes it an ideal choice to either promote weight loss or help with muscle maintenance, or even just for people who know that their body does not react well to carbs to keep hunger at bay in a healthy way.
Ka’Chava – The Best Meal Replacement Shake For A Gluten Free Diet
Ka’Chava is a gluten free meal replacement shake and greens powder all rolled up in a single supplement (6). Its 100 percent natural, vegan formula consists of more than 85 different superfoods, all of which have been scientifically proven to benefit your health.
It includes vegan protein powders made from things like amaranth, brown rice protein, sacha inchi, pea protein, and quinoa, as well as various greens, vegetables, berries, fruits, spices, antioxidants, digestive enzymes, fibres, adaptogens, and essential vitamins and minerals.
This incredibly diverse formula lets it offer an amazing range of different health benefits. It even manages to do all of this while being totally vegan friendly, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, GMO free, and free from any artificial sweeteners, colours, flavours, or preservatives.
Even its range of flavours is diverse, as Ka’Chava is available 5 options which include chocolate, chai, coconut acai, matcha, and vanilla. This means that there is almost guaranteed to be an option suitable for you, no matter your taste or what you are looking for in a meal replacement shake.
With 25 grams of plant based protein, 24 grams of carbs, 7 grams of fat, and 6 grams of fibre per serving, it contains more than enough of the essential nutrients that your body needs to replace whole meals.
Meanwhile, at 250 calories per serving, Ka’Chava is a rare instance where one supplement can be used as both a nutritious meal replacement shake or as a healthy snack to keep hunger away until you next eat.
Garden Of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Shake – The Best Meal Replacement Shake For A Low Calorie Diet
The Garden Of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Shake is made of nothing but 100 percent organic ingredients and raw whole foods (7).
It boasts 44 different superfoods, such as fruits, greens, and vegetables, as well as 21 whole food vitamins and minerals, and 1.5 billion CFU of live probiotics and digestive enzymes.
The Garden Of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Shake formula centres around an impressive plant based protein blend which delivers 20 grams of protein per serving.
It includes things like adzuki beans, amaranth, brown rice protein, millet, buckwheat, chia seeds, flax seeds, garbanzo beans, lentils, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds. However, the star of the blend is the pea protein, which is considered by many to be the best alternative to whey protein, due to its complete amino acid profile.
It is then perfectly balanced by a range of ingredients like tapioca, alfalfa grass, spirulina, oat grass, barley grass, wheat grass, spirulina, and countless fruits, vegetables, and essential vitamins and minerals.
Its organic fiber blend is from a great range of sources and, when paired with the probiotics and digestive enzymes that it is here, it can greatly aid your digestive system, enhancing digestion and gut health and preventing any bloating.
What makes the Garden Of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Shake especially unique though, is that despite everything it contains, it still only features 130 calories per serving.
This makes it the best meal replacement shake for people trying to suppress their appetite to make consuming fewer calories and sticking to a healthy diet considerably easier, which is especially useful if you are trying to lose weight.
What’s more, as the Garden Of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement Shake is made from nothing but healthy, raw, organic, kosher ingredients and is very reasonably priced, it makes an ideal healthy snack for wide variety of different people.
LyfeFuel Daily Essentials Nutrition Shake – The Best Vegan Meal Replacement Shake
The LyfeFuel Daily Essentials Nutrition Shake is a perfect meal replacement shake for people who want to stick to a vegan, low calorie diet, but who also need help controlling their appetite or increasing their protein intake.
It is made with a blend of plant based protein sources that includes organic brown rice protein and pea protein. This is then supported by flax seed powder, pomegranate extract, grape seed extract, spirulina powder, and varied berries, probiotics, digestive enzymes, greens, and fibres.
This vegan meal replacement formula allows it to deliver 18 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, 6 grams of carbs, and 110 calories per serving, as well as 27 different essential vitamins and minerals and a range of other nutrients, while using nothing that might compromise your ethics.
This is vital for anyone who is trying to build or preserve lean muscle and keep them strong as they reduce their calorie intake or try to lose weight. It will also ensure that your body gets all of the nutrients it needs to stay healthy and function properly throughout the process.
With a choice of both chocolate and vanilla flavours, each of which is very reasonably priced, there is an option to suit a wide range of different tastes and budgets.
This makes the LyfeFuel Daily Essentials Nutrition Shake a perfect choice for vegans looking to balance hunger with their diet and goals.
PhenQ Complete Meal Shake – The Best Budget Meal Replacement Shake
The PhenQ Complete Meal Shake is a meal replacement drink specifically designed to promote weight loss. They claim that it can help to boost your energy levels and control hunger cravings, so you can replace a full meal and shed pounds naturally and in a healthy manner.
The PhenQ Complete Meal Shake formula consists of gluten Free oat flour, whey protein concentrate from milk, Carb 10 (a type of pea starch), fat reduced cocoa powder, xanthan gum, flax seed powder, sucralose, and additional flavourings, and includes no GMOs.
This allows the PhenQ Complete Meal Shake to deliver 254 calories, 15.5 grams of protein, 5 grams of carbs, and 16 grams of fat per serving. This balance is extremely useful for helping people get into ketosis and stay full while doing so, which is a great way to achieve weight loss.
It also has a Vegan Vitamin Blend that contains vitamin c, niacin, vitamin e, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, vitamin b6, thiamin, vitamin a, folic acid, biotin, vitamin k, vitamin d, and vitamin B12, and a Digezyme Enzyme Complex made up of amylase, protease, cellulase, lipase, and lactase.
This very broad range of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals then allows the PhenQ Complete Meal Shake to offer a huge range of mental and physical health benefits beyond weight loss.
Available in a range of flavours that includes chocolate, strawberries and cream, and vanilla, there is an option suitable for people of virtually all tastes.
What will make it particularly appealing to many people though is its very reasonable price tag, which ranks it among the very best meal replacement shakes for people on a budget.
Orgain Organic Meal All In One Nutrition Powder – The Best Organic Meal Replacement Shake
Orgain Organic Meal All In One Nutrition Powder is a complete meal replacement shake that uses organic ingredients to mix the effects of protein shakes, green powders, and fruits and vegetables into a single meal replacement supplement.
By delivering 20 grams of protein, 25 grams of carbs, 7 grams of fibre, 5 grams of fat, and 230 calories per serving, it can comfortably supplement all of the essential nutrients that you would get from eating real food, while being very convenient and keeping your hunger at bay.
Sold in a pair of great tasting flavours that includes Creamy Chocolate Fudge and Vanilla Bean, there are options to suit people of differing tastes. This means that virtually everyone who is following a strict organic vegan diet can meet their nutritional needs, without having to break the bank.
There is even an option available as ready to drink meal replacement shakes called the Orgain Organic Nutrition Shake.
This means that you can take your meal replacement shakes with you when you are travelling or on the go, without having to worry about carrying any meal replacement shake powders or shakers around.
Exante Meal Replacement Shake – The Most Customisable Meal Replacement Shakes
Exante Meal Replacement Shake is a meal replacement powder that provides users a great deal of choice on how they buy and use a meal replacement shake.
Exante’s meal replacement shakes are available in a choice of 5 flavours that includes banana, chocolate, cinnamon swirl, strawberry, and vanilla, each of which can be bought in a single serving sachet or a seven serving tub, so you can place orders however you like.
Containing 18 grams of protein, 17 grams of carbohydrates, 5.1 grams of fibre, and 6.6 grams of healthy fat per serving, all while boasting just 200 calories, the Exante Meal Replacement Shake is a perfect choice to help you hit all of your nutritional needs while you lose weight or try to avoid gaining weight.
It also makes the Exante Meal Replacement Shake one of the very best meal replacement powders for people who do not just want to replace whole meals but who also want a snack that will keep their hunger cravings under control and help them to stick to a healthy diet as they head towards their weight loss goals.
Huel – The Most Popular Meal Replacement Shake
Huel meal replacement shakes are easily one of the most popular meal meal replacement shakes currently on the market, and the company also produce some of the other most popular meal replacement supplements as well.
With a range that includes protein bars and hot, savoury, whole food sachets, Huel is a good meal replacement shake for people planning to replace a large part of their diet with meal replacement supplements, as it gives you a great deal of control and flexibility over your diet and nutrition.
The Huel meal replacement shake is made from an incredible range of whole foods that includes things like coconut, cranberry seed protein, rice, oats, flaxseed, kombucha, peas, sunflower seeds, and tapioca.
This ensures that is is packed with things like antioxidants, probiotics, phytonutrients, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. They are also vegan, gluten and soy free, low calorie, low sugar, and high fibre, and there are also extra high protein and low carb choices available.
Sold in a choice of chocolate and vanilla flavours, as well as in single servings, large tubs, or bulk bundles, there are Huel choices to suit virtually everyone, which is a large part of the reason why their meal replacement shakes are some of the most popular around.
Final Thoughts On The Best Meal Replacement Shakes
There are many meal replacement shakes currently on the market, and the majority are a very good option to help you meet your dietary needs. That said, while most meal replacement shakes are at least somewhat effective, none of them come close to being as good as Rootana.
A vegan meal replacement shake that is high protein, comes in 3 flavours, has enough calories to fill you up and replace full meals, without bloating you or making you gain weight, and has ingredients that offer a wide range of benefits, it is among the best meal replacement shakes in virtually every area, which earns it the title of the very best meal replacement shake overall.
If, for whatever reason, you feel it is not right for you, one of the other choices on our list of the best meal replacement shakes in 2023 surely will be. For everyone else though, we highly recommend that you give Rootana a try and see what makes it quite so great for yourself.
Resources:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541064/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6142015/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6212987/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6019055/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/
- https://examine.com/foods/gluten-free-diet/
- https://examine.com/summaries/study/12rrD1/
About Jordan kally, MA, CSCS