Losing weight is a matter of burning more calories than you eat. That's the basic formula of many diets, including the Slim fast diet. Let's take a look at the Slim fast diet to see just how effective it can be.

Before determining the general effectiveness of the Slim fast diet let's take a look at just how this diet works. Basically it relies on replacing two meals a day with the nutrition shake -- in this case the Slim fast shake. The dieter can eat a sensible dinner, and can also eat two pieces of fruit and the Slim fast nutrition bar as snacks. At 1200 calories each day this diet is about 500 down from an average female's diet, and 1000 down from an average male's diet. Slim fast recommends exercising while on the diet, but even without that you'll lose weight.

One of the most important aspects of any diet is certainly present in the Slim fast diet – ease-of-use. If diet is too hard to maintain it will never work. Slim fast diet also tells people to drink 6 to 8 cups of water a day – that's a good thing.

The Slim fast diet is lacking in some of the vitamins, minerals and other necessary nutrients of a healthy diet. Most of these are found in the average foods that people eat, but not all are found in the Slim fast shake or nutrition bars. Another danger on this diet is to cut out the dinner meal. they think this will help them lose weight at an even more rapid pace. that's a formula for disaster because a person doing this will be basically starving themselves.

There's a modified version of the Slim fast diet which includes drinking only one shake each day, and eating two regular meals. many people tend to eat junk food at lunch, so replacing that meal with a shake is a good idea.

As long as you maintain a healthy amount of food, Slim fast diet can work for you.

Slim Fast's website has free online support from registered dieticians along with a ton of helpful diet tools. Users get customized diet and fitness plans that help them figure out how many calories a day they need and includes menu plans based on their Slim Fast choices, a BMI calculator, weight loss tools, healthy recipes and eating out guide, and a community support forum where other users can chat online and find weight loss buddies.