Herbalife Diet

The Herbalife Diet is for people looking to lose weight and improve their financial health. (The "financial health" angle results from a multi-level marketing component of the diet.) Consisting of high-protein shakes and herbal supplements, the Herbalife Diet works on the theory that a high-protein diet curbs hunger and raises the body's natural metabolism while consuming less calories. The company also offers energy drinks and skin products. Some of the products are vegetarian, some are even kosher or halal.

Costing about $4-$5/day, the Herbalife Diet plan substitutes breakfast and lunch with protein shakes, herbal supplements and multivitamins. For dinner, Herbalife dieters eat a well-balanced meal, with no food restrictions, and cell-activator capsules. Most people stay with the Herbalife Diet until they achieve their weight-loss goal. Herbalife dieters are encouraged to join the network marketing network by becoming part of the direct-sales team. Herbalife believes that the plan's success and visible results in its users lead to effective marketing.

How It Was Started

Herbalife was started in 1980 by Mark Hughes who lost his mother to unsafe dieting practices and wanted to create a safe dieting plan. Herbalife is a publicly traded company (NYSE: HLF) retailing in 70 countries through a network of 1.9 million independent distributors.

Clinical Studies

In August 2008, findings were published from a study conducted at UCLA's Center for Human Nutrition. Doctors studied 100 overweight people over one year to examine the effects of protein supplementation in meal replacement shakes using Herbalife's "Formula 1." A similar study was conducted at the University of Ulm in Germany. Both studies found the meal replacement shakes could aid in weight loss and that those people with higher protein diets lost more body fat. The German study also concluded that high-protein shakes could reduce metabolic syndrome risk factors.

Cautionary Notes

Herbalife products used two ingredients that contained ephedrine alkaloids, but after the USDA banned ephedrine in 2004, Herbalife has since ceased using the two ingredients. There is also doubt that the diet contains healthy levels of nutrients and calories to build healthy muscle mass or to maintain a healthy immune system.