Here's the 60-Carb Diet Dr. Eades Used

For most individuals, a well-balanced sensible diet plan is best. It teaches you about the benefits of eating nutrient-dense foods, balances your intake of protein, carbohydrates, and fats, and educates you about serving sizes and portion control.

However, low-calorie diets are excruciatingly slow at taking off the pounds because they are too high in carbs and too low in fat.

While a standard low-carb diet can be quicker, many people practicing carbohydrate restriction ignore the role of calories in weight loss and soon find themselves stalled.

A helpful alternative to counting calories or carbohydrates is weight-loss shakes.

These shakes offer an easy, fast alternative when other dietary approaches to weight loss have failed.

Made with high-quality protein powder, sweeteners, and various flavorings, today's weight-reduction shakes provide excellent nutritional value and are the easiest way to lose weight quickly.

The downside to using shakes as a meal replacement is that they are strictly for weight loss. You still have to learn how to eat properly to maintain your losses and improve your health status.

Dr. Michael R. Eades, author of the Protein Power Life Plan, came up with a way that worked well for him and his patients. If you design your weight-loss program to incorporate the diet principles he used, weight-loss shakes can work well for you, too.

Thin So Fast: Dr. Eades Original Low-Carb Plan

In 1989, Dr. Eades published a book called Thin So Fast. It was a protein-sparing modified fast (PSMF) that was similar to the diet that talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey used to shed 67 pounds several years ago.

At that time, Oprah embraced a product called Optifast.

The program, like most liquid diet programs of the time, consisted of 5 protein shakes per day, rather than using whole foods.

Since most protein powders back then were made of collagen, rather than the high quality protein used today, Dr. Eades spent many hours researching a safe and effective method that would allow him to use weight-loss shakes to shed his excess pounds.

As a result of that research, he created a modified version of the Optifast plan that required less medical supervision. It was less restrictive and what Dr. Eades believed was quite a bit safer.

These safety precautions included eating a low-carb dinner and using a homemade shake recipe for his four meal replacements.

Dinner was:

• 6 ounces cooked weight of lean meat or fish: grilled, baked, broiled
• 1 cup loosely packed salad with 1 tablespoon oil-and-vinegar dressing
• 1 cup vegetables, measured raw before cooking

Occasionally, he had 2 cups of salad or 2 cups of vegetables, instead of both, but most of the time, you were counseled to stick to the plan.

These extra precautions insured that Dr. Eades was getting an adequate daily protein intake.

After personally following this program and ridding himself of his excess body fat, he began putting many of his patients on the weight-loss diet he had created for himself.

PSMF Diet is a Lower Fat, Low-Carb Diet

While all liquid protein diets offer a quick-and-easy way to lose weight, few individuals are able to maintain their fat losses once they reach goal weight. As soon as you return to regular meals, having never changed your bad eating habits, you will quickly return to your previous weight.

And sometimes, you'll even gain more.


Dr. Eades observed that a PSMF Diet was actually a low-carb diet, so he used that epiphany to solve the problem of weight regain. He created a weight-maintenance program to help his patients easily maintain their new weight.

As his research continued, his medical practice gradually evolved into dealing with weight loss exclusively, and in particular – low carb.

The PSMF protocol outlined in Thin So Fast contained 1,000 calories per day. For those following that diet plan, which included Dr. Eades recipe for protein shakes, daily intake was:

• 64 grams protein
• 53 grams fat
• 60 grams carbohydrate

Keep in mind that the above formula isn't what Dr. Eades uses today. Today, Protein Power is higher in protein and fat, and lower in carbs. However, the principle behind his first PSMF program is still valuable for those who desire an easy way to lose weight quickly.

While lowering carbs can help you shed an enormous amount of body fat, due to entering into the metabolic state of ketosis, Dr. Eades writes that this “feat is accomplished much more quickly on the PSMF.”

That's because a low-carb diet contains more fat and calories than a PSMF protocol does.

Although, most low-carb diets don't require you to count calories, those calories still matter when it comes to how quickly you can shed the pounds. However, quick isn't best if you can't maintain those losses.

Dr. Eades Original Homemade Low-Carb Shake Recipe

The Thin So Fast diet plan used 4 homemade shakes, rather than 5. Due to the difficulties in finding good-tasting, complete protein powder back then, Dr. Eades created a recipe that used instant skim milk powder as a base.

• 1 envelope of non-fat dry milk powder (enough for 1 quart milk)
• ¼ cup protein powder (equal to 32 grams protein)
• 1 teaspoon granulated fructose
• 1 teaspoon No-Salt or Morton's salt substitute (for potassium)
• 4 to 6 cups of non-caloric liquid

The above recipe has caused a lot of confusion among low-carb dieters because milk isn't generally allowed on very low-carb diets. And even if it was, it wouldn't be non-fat milk.

Still, many people who believe in Dr. Eades have tried the recipe anyway, since that was how he corrected his own weight problem. Most of these people have insulin resistance and/or blood sugar issues, so they experienced elevated blood sugars and other problems associated with elevated insulin levels.

Few have taken into account that the problem was created and used before the Protein Power Life Plan was written. Plus, Dr. Eades and his patients were moving from a standard American diet of 300 to 400 carbs per day down to 60.

They were not trying to go from a low-carb diet of 20 to 30 carbs to a diet filled with milk-based weight-loss shakes.

Best Option for Weight-Loss Shakes Today

While the idea of consuming 4 protein shakes and 1 low-carb meal per day can be useful for those who need to get the weight off quickly, skim-milk powder isn't a good option for those who are already in ketosis.

The only exception to that is low-carb milk.

Low-carb milk is 3 carbs per cup, which will set you back a total of 12 carbs for the milk portion.

In the comments section of a personal blog post written by Dr. Eades, a reader inquired about the doctor's use of skim-milk powder in the above recipe. To the reader, meal replacement shakes appeared to be a better option than a diet of chicken breast and salad every day.

Dr. Eades responded that at the time he created and used this recipe, the only protein powders available commercially were used by body builders and tasted wretched. He only used the skim-milk powder to cover up the taste of the expensive, but necessary, protein powder.

More importantly is what Dr. Eades said he would do differently today:

“Were I doing a PSMF now, I would simply use one of the good protein powders available almost everywhere.”

I'm pretty sure he would say something similar about the fructose. It's not needed today.

And isn't healthy anyway.

Moving from Thin So Fast Weight-Loss Shakes to Low Carb

In addition to a variety of whey protein powders that actually taste good today, you can also find a wealth of recipes to help you vary your shakes. Since shakes will make up most of your weight-loss meals, don't avoid seeking out new recipes and ideas. Keeping your shakes varied can prevent you from getting bored.

Programs that promise quick weight-loss results can easily tempt the dieter into following a meal plan that isn't healthy. The Thin So Fast diet program is one of the easiest ways to lose weight, and according to Dr. Eades, it can still be an effective way to regain your health.

The key is to make sure that you carefully move from a diet of mostly weight-loss shakes to a healthy low-carb diet. This can be accomplished by replacing your 4 diet shakes and 1 good meal with a diet plan that closely resembles Atkins Induction.

This transitional diet begins at 20 grams of carbs per day for the first 2 weeks. This will take you from a low-calorie, low fat diet to a higher calorie low-carb diet designed to help you maintain your weight.

After you make that initial switch, Dr. Eades has you begin to use a dependable carbohydrate counter, so you can add an additional 20 carbs per day to your menus.

The additions can include foods, such as fruit, low-calorie breads, or any healthy food choice you want. However, it's a good idea to return foods to your diet very slowly, so you can be aware of any food sensitivities you might have.

Once you've been at the 40 grams of carbohydrates per day for about 4 or 5 weeks, you can increase your carbohydrate total by another 20 carbs. Thereafter, the additions continue upward every couple of weeks until you discover your personal maintenance level for carbs.

According to Dr. Eades, most people “can tolerate between 60 grams and 90 grams per day” on maintenance, but keep in mind that this is a generality.

“You need to fine tune your diet until you find the carbohydrate intake that allows you to maintain your weight precisely where you want it to be.”

For example, Dr. Eades has shared online that he often eats 4 baby potatoes with his evening low-carb meal. He doesn't have a list of acceptable foods like Atkins does. Whatever fits into your carbohydrate tolerance is allowed.

Maintenance Warnings

Dr. Eades warns that if you don't understand that dieting is a life-long process, even moving to a low-carb diet can backfire. There is nothing magical about getting to a specific weight. Achieving goal doesn't fix your metabolism where you can eat anything you want.

Altering your eating habits is the only way to stay thin, and that alteration requires dedication, effort, and awareness.

But that doesn't mean that a low-carb diet is boring or not sustainable. People fall off the wagon regardless of the diet they choose to help them get the weight off.

A low-fat diet can be just as boring as a low-carb one. It can also cost more than a low-carb one does.

What's important is that you enjoy the food you're eating.

While Eades assures his readers that you can easily recover from an occasional indulgence, by restricting your carbs until you drop the weight, he warns that these vacations from low-carb need to be saved for very special occasions.

It's vital to the success of your diet that you seek out new and creative food ideas that fit into your low-carb lifestyle because the best and easiest way to maintain your weight after reaching your goal is to make a low-carb diet your new way of life.