Needing to lose 35kg. My doctor suggested doing meal shakes twice a day. But the calories are so…… low?

Background context: I am a woman, 155cm tall 90ish kg.

Considering I’m short and other health stuff I really need to lose 35 kg. I’m at the highest weight I’ve been and I would like to “at least” hit “close to” the healthy BMI range (cuts off at 60kg) by end May 2025.

I have tried to lose the weight before, 3 years ago. I got close to the 64 mark – then Christmas hit and I started a PhD. I have been bingeing lots in 2022-3 (largely because of PhD stress). Now things are more normal – and since I’m close to my final year of degree I want to lose the weight properly.

The problem is I remember how to calorie count and I was quite obsessed with it last time. I think that backfired and led to binge troubles. I want to lose more carefully now without triggering stuff like this again.

Knowing it’s not really possible to do this, I want to try losing this weight “as mindlessly as I can” so I can free up brain space for PhD stuff. By this I mean gym + 10,000 steps + dinner. Meal shakes for breakfast and lunch. And not getting too hooked into the counting stuff.

Here is where my question comes in. My doctor suggested a meal shake twice a day so I only have to think about making a nice dinner. It’s not a bad idea, but the meal shakes she suggested are only 250 calories. 2 of those and I wouldn’t even get to a third of 1500 calories – I don’t want to go lower than 1500. I think I remember when I used to eat under this while losing weight before, that would trigger cravings. And the other thing she said was “no snacking”.

I feel like her advice here is a little crazy because of the extreme low calories. Maybe she doesn’t realise “how low” they are each? She did throw around the phrase VLCD though so I think she does know what she’s saying, but I don’t think I can go that low because I am trying to use my brain all the time and want to build in healthy habits eg exercise. I have tried VLCD before pre-PhD and I was tired.

Now to the question. Should I do 3 meal shakes (20g protein each), dinner (as long as it’s around the 300-400 cal mark with lots of veg), and 2 snacks – say, hummus and carrots for one, and a banana for the other? Do you think something like this would work?

I am on a relatively low income (solely PhD stipend) and so thinking about just dinner will save a lot of costs and meal prep. I often have trouble getting enough protein, so maybe that’s where shakes could help. What do you think?