Does Ensure Help You Gain Weight?
Ensure is a nutritional supplement drink that has been around for over 40 years. It has been helping people for decades to gain weight, keep weight on and supplement their diet when they lack in certain areas of their nutrition. If you are curious about using Ensure or have ever wondered does Ensure make you gain weight, you’ve come to the right place. We will answer many common questions below.
What Is Ensure?
Ensure is a nutritional supplement that is available in ready-to-drink and powder forms. The supplement helps bridge the gap in a person’s diet if they are not consuming adequate calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals.
Ensure contains all nine of the essential amino acids necessary for optimal muscle growth. The vitamins and minerals it provides help build strong bones and support organ, tissue, muscle, nerve, and immune system health.
It has been on the market since 1973 and is the #1 recommended brand among doctors who recommend oral nutritional products to patients.
Is Ensure Good for You?
When used as directed Ensure is good for you and has many benefits. Ensure fills in any nutritional gaps that a person may not get through their diet due to illness or the inability to eat certain foods. It offers complete nutrition to support the immune system, muscle, digestion, heart, and bone health.
Below are a few ways the ingredients in Ensure are good for you:
- Heart health – Excellent source of the plant-based omega-3 fatty acid ALA.
- Digestive health – 4 grams of fiber blend with prebiotic fiber.
- Bone health – Calcium and Vitamin D
- Immune health – Vitamin A, Zinc, Vitamins C, E, and Selenium.
- Muscle health – Up to 30 grams of high-quality protein, depending on the formula.
Who Should Drink Ensure?
Ensure can be beneficial for anyone who feels their diet is lacking in meeting vitamin, mineral, and protein recommendations. If you feel it may help you then talk to your doctor about which Ensure product is right for you.
Does Ensure Make You Gain Weight?
A summary of clinical studies on nutrition intervention with oral nutritional supplements has shown that products like Ensure can help patients gain weight or keep weight by stimulating appetite and help those with poor dietary intake get to or stay at a healthy weight. Ensure was explicitly designed to fill in the gaps or protein, calories, and vitamins that many people lack in their diet. So, the answer to does Ensure make you gain weight, is yes, it can.
How Much Ensure Should I Drink to Gain Weight?
The servings per day that you should consume depend on the particular product itself. The manufacturer has recommendations for many of these on its website. If you are looking to supplement your diet with Ensure to gain weight, your doctor may have personalized recommendations to how many a day or a week you should be consuming to meet the goal weight you are striving for.
Below are some of Ensure’s suggested servings per day:
- Ensure High Protein – 3 servings per day
- Ensure Max Protein – 1-2 servings per day
- Ensure Enlive – 2 servings per day
These suggestions will be something you may want to adjust based on your diet and other health issues.
Is Ensure Good for Weight Loss?
Ensure was designed to help aid in weight gain, not weight loss, because it was developed originally for patients who have a hard time gaining or keep weight on. That being said, it can be used as part of a calorie-reduced diet if weight loss is your goal. Ensure can be good for weight loss if you are active and stay in a calorie deficit, meaning you burn more calories than you consume. If you are looking to use Ensure to help with weight loss, make sure your calories for the day are within the calorie level recommended for you.
Is Ensure Vegan?
Most of Ensures formulas are not vegan. But, Ensure recently released its first-ever 100% plant-based protein shake.
It is dairy, soy, gluten, and lactose-free. Available in vanilla or chocolate, it is ready-to-drink and delivers complete nutrition just like other Ensure products.
Each shake has:
- 20g of plant-based protein via a blend of pea and fava bean
- 180 calories
- 5g of fiber
- 7g of sugars
Hopefully, Ensure will introduce more flavors in the future, but if you are a vegan or vegetarian, the chocolate and vanilla are a great start!
Ensure Plus
One of their most popular products, Ensure Plus, is designed to help individuals gain or maintain weight. It comes in five different flavors, so there is something for everyone. The flavors are milk chocolate, dark chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and butter pecan. This ready-to-drink shake is gluten-free, suitable for lactose intolerant, and is also halal and kosher.
It contains:
- 350 calories
- 16 grams of protein
- 27 vitamins and minerals
The manufacturer recommends that the greatest quantity of this product consumed is 6-8 servings per day.
Does Ensure Plus Make You Gain Weight?
Yes. It can make you gain weight. Ensure Plus is specifically formulated to help you gain and maintain a healthy weight. Speak to your health care provider about your current weight goals so that you can come up with a meal plan that includes the right servings of Ensure Plus for you.
Related: Free Printable Meal Planner for Download
Ensure Max Protein
Ensure Max Protein is one of the companies most popular products. It delivers a boost of all the essential vitamins and minerals a person needs while providing 30 grams of protein and only one gram of sugar. In six great flavors, two with a caffeine kick of as much as a cup of coffee Ensure Max Protein has something for everyone.
Its flavors include:
- Milk Chocolate
- Milk Chocolate with Caffeine
- Cafe Mocha with Caffeine
- Mixed Berry
- French Vanilla
- Creamy Strawberry
These ready-to-drink shakes are gluten-free, halal, kosher, and suitable for those who are lactose intolerant.
Ensure Powder
Ensure Original Nutrition Powder is the original supplement drink powder. With 9 grams of protein, it is the lightest in protein, but for those who like a powder, this can easily blend into a smoothie with fruit. This can be a great supplement. Its protein is a bit lower, which can also be helpful for those just looking to use the powder as a snack and not a meal replacement.
Ensure High Protein
In milk chocolate, vanilla, creamy caramel, and strawberry flavors Ensure High Protein has 16 grams of protein and just two grams of sugar and fat. It is designed to help keep a person feeling full of strength, energy, and the ability to stay active. Like many other Ensure products, it is halal, gluten-free, kosher, and suitable for those with lactose intolerance.
Ensure for Diabetics – Is Ensure Good for a Diabetic?
Ensure products are not designed for individuals with diabetes. The same company that makes Ensure also makes Glucerna. Glucerna is specifically designed for people with diabetes. It contains more slowly digestible carbohydrates to help minimize a blood sugar response. If you have diabetes and are looking for a drink supplement, it may fit you better. Ensure products can fit into a meal plan for those with diabetes. It is recommended that if you have diabetes, you consult your healthcare provider before adding any adult nutritional products or supplements like Ensure.
Ensure While Pregnant
If you feel that you are not meeting all your nutritional needs during pregnancy, Ensure can quickly get in the protein, calories, vitamins, and minerals you need. Ensure is safe for pregnant women as long as consumed in moderation. It can be beneficial if you have cravings for low-protein foods. By having one or two servings of Ensure a day, you can meet your protein needs.
Ensure is also great if you are experiencing morning sickness and nausea. You may have a hard time eating solid foods, and it can give you a nutritional boost during those times.
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Ensure While Breastfeeding
Ensure products can safely be consumed by breastfeeding women to help meet their nutritional needs. If you are breastfeeding, you should always follow medical advice if you plan on drinking more than one serving per day of any Ensure product. Many women lack an appetite or have a hard time meeting the caloric needs for breastfeeding. Using these shakes can be very beneficial while breastfeeding.
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Ensure Side Effects
Ensure is generally considered safe to consume for most people. There are a few side effects to be aware of and a few cases where the vitamin levels in the drinks can interfere with those on certain medications. According to Heathline, side effects such as nausea, flatulence, and constipation have been reported, although most consumers indicate these side effects dissipate when they consume the products consistently. Other side effects can include muscle cramps, irregular heartbeat, and shortness of breath.
Those on blood-thinning drugs should speak to their healthcare provider before consuming Ensure regularly. Most of the products contain over 20% of the RDI for vitamin K, which can decrease the ability of blood-thinning drugs to prevent the formation of blood clots. If you suffer from galactosemia, a genetic disorder characterized by the inability to convert galactose into glucose, you should also speak to them before using Ensure as a supplement to your diet.
Bottom Line,
Ensure has so many benefits for people who are pregnant and not pregnant. Like any nutritional supplement, if you are looking to use regularly and have a preexisting health condition, it is best to speak to your doctor first. They may have advice on which Ensure product is right for you and answer the question does Ensure make you gain weight.
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