thanks ilovebiochem, im actually not decided as of yet
i currently am on the shakes alone and am fine on them but when u look at what some people do without impact, ie having a cup of tea with milk- no effect, different bars - no effect, piece of chicken or cheese they should not have - no effect, it dawned on me that it isnt unreasonable to sub another of the meals with something cheaper, that has the same kind of carb/fat/protein/cal ration and still get the required effect
and might it be a marketing ploy that these companies do in order to charge the obscene prices, for example a box of mixed products is so much cheaper than 50 of the same flavour, same product in each but the combo means such a hike in price, that is a bit hmmmm
obviously its to try not to be left with the unpopular flavours, but do 50 chocolate really mean such a bigger expense is rational than a weeks mixed shakes supply
in the same way as these plans allow for losses with an additional food, 810 etc, where u have some high protein dense food
the main contention is the vitamin/electrolyte issue and this is, as you say, extremely important when it comes to the electrolyte balance, which is what would need further looking into