The way that diet drinks or diet shakes work is simple. Most of them are designed to be used as a meal replacement for one or more meals a day (depending on the drink you choose). They give you a variation or mix of protein, carbohydrates, nutrients, vitamins and minerals...and, most importantly for most dieters, they fill you up so you feel as if you've eaten, even though you technically haven't.

There is plenty of evidence that these drinks & shakes can help you lose weight. The fact that you are getting nutrients without actually eating a meal can be useful and, if you combine them with a healthy weight loss diet program, you can actually see the pounds slip off way faster than you put them on!

Now this might sound great, but diet drinks won't do everything for everyone.

Firstly, they are not designed to be used all of the time. They can be a great way of boosting a healthy diet to maximize the weight you lose, but, they shouldn't be used over long periods. They are a great short term solution if you simply want to lose a few pounds in a few weeks but it's not great for your health to carry on using diet drinks for an extended period.

So, if you want a short term fix then diet drinks may tick all your boxes. There is one other problem to consider here as well however...you may, for example, be able to get into that bikini so you can hold your head up high at the beach, or you might be able to drop a couple of dress sizes to get into the dress you want to wear for a big party...but, what happens when you give up your diet drinks and go back to regular eating?

Fact is, even if you still stick to your weight loss diet, you'll probably gain back some of that weight again. As soon as you start replacing the meals that the drinks allowed you to skip, the pounds will probably come back. So, diet drinks might be a good way to lose some weight for a specific occasion or simply to kick-start your weight loss campaign to give you a flying start...but they may not suit you forever.

So use them the way they are meant to be used, and remember that at some point you'll need to find other dieting solutions if you want to see longer term benefits.