Herbalife's main line of products has always focused on weight loss. Most people are familiar with Herbalife from the weight loss shakes that act as a tasty meal replacement. While they have expanded into areas such as focused nutritional supplements for specific conditions such as heart health, arthritis and other such conditions, as well as a high quality range of skin care products called NouriFusion, their "bread and butter" product line (pardon the unhealthy pun) will always be their weight loss range of programs.

Many people are familiar with the original Herbalife weight loss programs - The QuickStart program, The Advanced Program and the Ultimate Program.

The original programs were all base on the Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix, a balanced liquid meal based on the right amount of protein and a number of other nutritional factors.

The shake mix was backed up by Herbalife Formula 2, a B6 supplement in a herbal base that also acted to clean out the villi of the intestines which can tend to get clogged and slow down the absorption of nutrients. Part of the reason we tend to overeat is the inability of the body to effectively absorb the nutrients in the food that we eat.

The third common factor in the original is Formula 3, a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement designed to give the body what it needs, and no more. It is not a megavitamin. it is designed to give the body the required amount of supplements, and it is taken three times a day because these nutrients need to be taken in regularly.

When we jump to the Advanced Program the ShapeWorks Herbal Beverage (formerly Thermojetics) is a definite upgrade. This is a green tea base which is an effective metabolism booster.

On the Ultimate Program we add a high quality intestinal flora and fibre supplement called Florafibre. We also add the Aloe Vera drink designed to further clean out the intestinal tract and ensure maximum absorption of the nutrients.

Two to Three years ago Herbalife surveyed the public to find out the main problems they faced when attempting to lose weight. The two answers came back - hunger, and lack of customer support. Hunger seemed like such an obvious answer but the problem still remained. Herbalife employed a well known nutritionist, Dr David Heber, to solve the problem.

The major issue turned out to be insufficient protein! People were just not eating enough protein to stop their hunger. While this was obviously a problem on such diets as the "Cabbage Soup Diet" the fact that it was also a problem for people on the Herbalife Diet was a bit of a surprise. The Formula 1 shake contains high quality protein. The problem is that people of different sizes need different amounts of protein, and having the correct amount of protein actually helps you to lose weight as well as supressing your hunger in a totally natural way.

Thus were the Herbalife Personalised Protein Programs born. The new programs contained significantly more protein than the original programs. While the old programs contained a single canister of Formula 1 Nutritional shake mix, the new programs contained three canisters of Formula 1 as well as 2 additional canisters of ShapeWorks protein Powder. The emphasis on protein had been massively increased while the supplements had significantly decreased in importance. The basic vitamins of Formula 3 have been included but the main bulk of all the protein programs is the Shake.