Calories in Meal Replacement Shakes

By Matt Smith

Published: April 9, 2025

It’s somewhat common for people to have knee jerk reactions about calories, but considering nutrition is kind of our thing, we thought it’d be worth weighing in and saying our piece. See, calories aren’t bad, in fact they’re downright essential and there’s no escaping that fact.

However in the marketplace for meal replacement shakes there’s a tendency for them to be considered nothing more than weight loss tools, and though they can be effective for that, some brands have attempted to capitalize on this idea and have released meal replacement shakes with very low calorie counts. As you can see from the table below, we don’t agree with this idea, but why?

Well in this article we’ll be exploring that very question. We’ll be explaining why more calories can provide you better value for money, will be better at actually replacing a meal and even how a higher calorie count can provide better weight loss results.

Let’s see how Rootana’s calorie count stacks up with the competition:

Rootana

Ka'Chava

Huel

Lyfefuel

400 Calorie Serving

No (240 calories)

No (110 calories)

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The Ideal

With Rootana we’ve aimed to create the best product we possibly could, and though it’s such a common thing to hear we really do believe we’ve managed it, and are very proud of the product we’ve come up with.

Though our roots are small with our founder essentially just experimenting in his kitchen, he eventually teamed up with nutrition scientists in order to perfect the formula, and for calories they decided that 400, with the option for adding an extra scoop to reach 600, would be the ideal amount in many different aspects that we’ll be discussing today.

Value For Money

Though it must be funny in a rich man’s world, money is something the vast majority of us spend a lot of time and effort trying to manage. This has made value something that a lot of people… well, value! We’re all bargain hunters to some degree, and that’s why we’ve provided a meal replacement shake that respects your money, providing ample value for it.

How do calories come into this? Well let’s break things down and compare Rootana with Ka’Chava, as they provide a nice contrast. Ka’Chava provides 240 calories and charges $69.95, whereas Rootana provides 400 calories and charges $49.99. This means that per 240 calories Ka’Chava charges $4.66, where Rootana charges only £3.57 for 400 calories.

As you can see Rootana provides excellent value, being able to provide more for less than its competitors.

Replacing a Meal

One of the main hurdles for the modern meal replacement shakes was trying to distance themselves from what were called meal replacement shakes in the 60’s, that were essentially low calorie milkshakes. This led to a slew of health problems for the consumers of these early meal replacement shakes, who were often left malnourished from the ordeal [1].

Luckily nowadays we’re well past that, and it’s even safe to replace every meal if you so choose, as long as you’re still drinking enough calories [2]. The average person has between 200-400 calories for breakfast, 500-700 calories for lunch and around 1,000 calories for dinner, with about 400 calories per day on snacks. Now imagine if you just replaced lunch with a 200 calorie meal replacement shake?

First of all you’re going to be very hungry before your next meal, which we’ll discuss in more detail further on, but you’ll feel very low energy and lethargic, as well as experiencing hormonal fluctuations that can cause you to be irritable and difficult to work with (we’ve all be hangry before).

Fuel Your Day

We all know the numbers here, it’s on the label of everything food related that we buy; it’s estimated that the average man should be eating 2,500 calories per day, or 2,000 calories for the average woman. This has been worked out by scientists to be enough calories to maintain your health and bodily functions without putting on excess fat, so if you drop below this level for too long you’ll end up suffering for it, as your bodily functions begin to struggle without the energy necessary to perform their tasks.

This is why it’s so important that meal replacement shakes provide a decent amount of calories. These products are marketed as a replacement for an actual meal, and so that’s what we aim to provide our customers here at Rootana; a full meal replacement product.

Fight Food Cravings

Meal replacement shakes are also commonly marketed as weight loss products, and they can be a great tool for weight management in a variety of scenarios. If there’s a very low calorie count, it’s intuitive to believe that this would make a better weight loss product, but it’s actually the inverse that’s correct.

Let’s recall a question we posed early, what if you replaced your regular 500 calorie lunch with a 200 calorie meal replacement shake? Now for weight loss, this sounds great, as you’re setting yourself up well for a calorie deficit, but are you really? It might not be much of a challenge on the first day, a couple of hunger pangs but you’ll make it to dinner and feel fine, but you’re setting yourself up for failure in the long run as you’re much more likely to fall into bad habits for snacking and over-portioning in order to make up this hunger.

On the flipside, if you replaced your dinner with Rootana, a meal replacement shake with 400 calories that is packed to the brim with fiber and complex carbohydrates, both of which help you stay fuller for longer, you’d be a lot less likely to fall into such habits. Sure you might lose weight faster the first way, but it’s not the healthy way to go about it.

Conclusion

That’s our article on calories in meal replacement shakes. Hopefully now you understand the value of a meal replacement shake that provides a decent amount of calories, as you’ll save money in the long run by purchasing something like Rootana.

At Rootana we’ve prioritized providing people with more than just a gimmick weight loss product, and have provided what we were always looking for in meal replacement shakes; A product that actually replaces a meal, with a formula of real food ingredients that provides 400 calories per serving, with the option to add an extra scoop for 600 calories.

Finally, it’s super important to get enough calories for overall health. It’s just not healthy to lose weight by essentially starving yourself of essential nutrients. You need to prioritize the long-term gain and help yourself to develop good habits rather than trying to race to the finish line. You’ll end up unproductive, difficult to work with and fundamentally start down the path that leads to poor habits, so make the right choice and try Rootana today.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ROOTANA

The Nutrition You Need. And Nothing You Don't.

Complete Nutrition: Perfect Balance of Macros, Vitamins & Minerals

No Sweeteners: No Stevia, No Sucralose, No Aspartame, No Acesulfame K, No Monk Fruit

No Half Measures: 400 Calories Per Serving

Tastes Like Real Food: Because It Is Real Food

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The Nutrition You Need. And Nothing You Don't.

Rootana is a 400 calorie complete meal, with 27 vitamins and minerals. And no unwanted extra ingredients.

Complete Nutrition: Perfect Balance of Macros, Vitamins & Minerals

Rootana is a perfectly balanced combination of complex carbohydrates for slow energy release, the right amount of protein for a balanced meal and all 27 vitamins and minerals.

No Half Measures: 400 Calories Per Serving

Many meal shakes are simply too low in calories and too high in protein to be a complete meal, meaning they're little more than a protein shake. Rootana fuels you effectively and has the perfect macro split for a balanced meal.

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No Sweeteners: No Stevia, No Sucralose, No Aspartame, No Acesulfame K, No Monk Fruit

We don't include any sweeteners as they don't provide any nutritional benefit and may have short or long-term unwanted effects. Rootana is naturally flavored with a small amount of coconut sugar.

Tastes Like Real Food: Because It Is Real Food

With no sweeteners like acesulfame k, aspartame, stevia or sucralose (Splenda), Rootana tastes like real food. That means no artificial after taste and none of that bloated feeling that many sweeteners cause.