Aye, but from my understanding the low carb helps increase the insulin resistance where as losing the weight helps with the production of insulin with the aim being more insulin production which you're generally more sensitive to. I may very well be wrong, and i'm certainly no expert, but don't you need it to be relatively low carb, maybe not excessively low, to aid in achieving any improvement in resistance? I know lower carb is also supposed to make the weight loss side of things more effective as someone posted a quote from the professor saying that if you used shakes with higher carb weight loss would likely be slower so...even though they call it a low cal diet isn't it really also a low carb diet too? Especially when you look at the list of things you should and shouldn't eat when mimicking the study.
Laharvey, if you look at the asda meal replacement shakes they are less carb than the slim fast ones, and only £4 for 12 servings (24/30 approx). however If you make them up with unsweetened almond milk they are only 15g carb a shake and 160 ish calories. They come in strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. I think the chocolate ones, which taste nice anyway, actually taste better with the unsweetened almond milk, its kinda nutty chocolate then. If you get the almond milk, check its unsweetened and should have very little carb, the sweetened stuff is not at all similar. Tesco, asda and morrisons all do it and it was recommended to me on these forums.
I've also tried atkins shakes which you make with water. Again chocolate, they have 2 grams carb total. OMG they taste like S&^&. However, again, if you make them up with almond milk they become around 3g carb and taste much better and less watery.
I lost 2 stone with the asda shakes and almond milk so they are more than sufficient for this diet i feel. I've only started using the atkins ones as i'm only a few weeks from the end so wanted to do a couple of weeks super low carb and its helped me drop another 1/4stone in the last 4 days. When the diet ends ill be back on the asda ones for breakfast cos they are actually pleasant. Also, the atkins ones are not fortified with vitamins and such, unlike the asda ones, so personally i wouldn't be keen on using them for anything but a short burst, and i take a pro-biotic multi-vitamin everyday to try an compensate.
Hope this helps.