Can I live on just supplements? Good Idea / Bad Idea?

[CygonX]

I can certainly appreciate the value of a healthy diet, but I have only found it possible to “eat right” via supplements versus real food. Concerning real food, it seems that everything that taste good, isn’t good for you. And anything quick and easy (i.e. fast food), is likely to contain transfat or etc. So I have found myself consuming mostly Myoplex Lite RTD and Protein drinks. Oddly enough, it’s quick and easy to do, and I get more done not wasting time preparing healthy meals. On top of these I of course take a lot of other supplements, multi-vitamins, and etc.

So the questions is, has anyone done just supplements for an extended period of time and survived?

[transXisomer]

if you don't eat anything solid and eat only liquid supplement stuff, prepare for the runs

[Weeezy]

i have never tried doing that...and im not expert but i am pretty certain that the body needs whole foods..and the best way to lose/weight...gain lean mass is to eat primarily whole foods...

[NateW]

Ive done like 2/3 meals in a day before as shakes but it sucks shakes and bars didnt give me enough energy to do anything

[kplayon]

There is no way your body is getting the right amount of nutrients and calories and "solid" source of protein & carbs and such from just taking protein shakes and supplements. They are called supplements for a reason.

Prepare for a shutdown if you do so IMHO

[growstrong]

I agree... this would not be a good idea. First of all I think some sort of solid is necessary but also like others have said it would be close to impossible to get all the necessary vitamins/minerals etc from just supplements. would be poppin pills all day long!

[CygonX]

I am doing about 8x Myoplex Lite a day with 2x protein shakes, and usually a sandwich of some kind, with more lean meat than bread, and a lot of chicken generally, baked, grilled, and anything i can do to it to reduce the redundancy. (Man am I sick of chicken) but minus the supplements, I only get one or two meals in as it is. that and I found a clear protein drink that doesn't taste like chalky-ass, so I have been drinking 2 or 3 of those a day with Glutamine Peptide and etc. And 1.5 - 2 Gallons of water. I've cut back on my totally fat calories during PCT, but really I've been only doing the 1 or 2 real meals per day for like 4 months. And many days, no real meal at all, I tend to lose a lot of fat that way too, I I seem to have better more stable energy levels burning fat than carbs.

In the interest of science, I think I am going to try to find all the right supplements so I can ditch real food altogether. I will do some research and find out what Meal Replacements I can use most successfully. I really think I can find supplements that meet all the nutritional requirements in this day and age. I'd only really be screwed if I was depending on something a supplement had on the label that it didn't really contain I guess. Once I get the supplements I don't already have stocked up I'll see how long I can go without real food before something quits working and log the results

[NateW]

haha link us to the log.

[LLLLern]

supplements are just that supplements and not intended on replaceing you total intake . You should be eating whole foods and using supplements to help get those added callories,bcca's,proteins exe.
not to replace them

[GeneGnome]

TERRIBLE idea. The absorption of viscous fluids is going to be way less than solids. This is because they will cruise through the GI tract much faster than solid foods.

Anything you see on a label of a liquid meal replacement may be the contents in the bottle, but you won't be absorbing anywhere near that.

And this is of the least of your problems; you will increase your risk of GI cancers, drastically increase the risk of ANY ageing related diseases (e.g. alzheimer's and other cognitive diseases, or cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, skin cancer and other cancers, diabetes, etc etc) because of the lack of phytonutrients and other constituents in whole foods that are absent from meal replacements. Plus you are eliminating the majority of mechanical and chemical digestion which will drastically alter gut-brain cross talk and acute cognition will be altered. Along with a host of other things.

I suggest learning the importance of whole foods on GI and overall health. Not everything is bad for you, your rationalization is absurd. Find new fruits in the grocery store or go to cultural grocery stores. You will find something to satisfy hedonic cravings. Buy fresh foods and learn how to prepare them in different ways.

A certain early death for sure if you consume a majority to all of your nutrients in supplemental form.