Optifast Protein Plus Explained

Optifast VLCD Protein Plus is the higher-protein shake inside Optifast's very low calorie diet (VLCD) range. Its published nutrition information panel lists 28g protein per 63g serve, against 20g per 53g serve on the standard Optifast VLCD shake (both retrieved 2 September 2026). That is where the "40% more protein" line comes from, and the arithmetic checks out exactly: 28 divided by 20 is 1.4.

The range is genuinely confusing to shop. There are shakes, soups, bars and desserts, two separate shake lines, and panels that change with the flavour you pick. Protein is usually the reason someone looks up Protein Plus specifically, and it is not the only number that moves between the two shakes.

This article puts both published panels side by side, explains why a very low calorie program carries a higher-protein option at all, and draws the honest line between a supervised weight-management program and an everyday nutritional formula.

What is Optifast Protein Plus?

Optifast is a very low calorie diet range from Nestlé Health Science, sold in Australia through the pharmacy channel. Protein Plus is one of two shake lines within it. It is published in three flavours (Chocolate, Vanilla and Coffee) in a 10 pack, and the Chocolate and Vanilla panels are identical figure for figure.

Optifast describes the range in its own words as "specially formulated meal alternatives to support your nutrition during weight loss", and lists six benefits on the product page: "28g protein per serve", "Low in lactose", "Source of fibre", "Complete nutrition", "Low in calories" and "Gluten free" (retrieved 2 September 2026).

Two practical notes before the numbers. Optifast does not publish a price on its own site, because it sells through pharmacy rather than direct, so cost is set at the counter. And "meal alternative" is the operative phrase: these sachets are designed to stand in for meals inside a defined program, not to sit alongside them.

If the question behind your search is which VLCD brand to use rather than which Optifast shake, that is a different comparison and it has its own page: learn more in the Optifast and OptiSlim referee piece.

This article is general information, not medical advice. A very low calorie diet is a clinical weight-management program, and decisions about starting, continuing or stopping one belong with your doctor or the dietitian supervising it.

How is Protein Plus different from the standard Optifast shake?

Chocolate panel against Chocolate panel, from Optifast's own published nutrition information. The last column is arithmetic on the two figures shown, so every call is checkable.

Figures are Optifast's own published nutrition information for the Chocolate panels of both shakes, retrieved 2 September 2026. Flavours vary and brands reformulate, so check the current label before purchase.

One flavour warning matters more than the rest, because it is the number most likely to be wrong wherever else you read it. On the standard Optifast VLCD shake, Chocolate, Vanilla and Coffee list 12.7g sugars, Banana and Strawberry list 10.1g, and Mocha lists 9.5g. A single sugar figure quoted for "Optifast" without naming the flavour can be a third out.

So the real differences are a larger 63g serve, 8g more protein, 47 more calories, and far less sugar. Dietary fibre does not change at all. Both shakes list 3.6g, which clears the 2g per serving that Schedule 4 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code requires before a food can make a dietary fibre content claim, and sits under the 4g needed to call something a good source. That is exactly what Optifast's own wording, "Source of fibre", reflects.

Why does a very low calorie program offer a higher-protein shake?

A very low calorie diet replaces ordinary meals with nutritionally engineered formulas for a defined period. It is a clinical tool for weight management with a start and a finish, and it is frequently run with a doctor or an Accredited Practising Dietitian involved from the beginning.

When total intake falls that far, the body draws on its own tissue for fuel, and not all of what it draws on is fat. In the STEP 1 trial's body-composition sub-study, roughly 40% of the weight lost was lean mass (Wilding et al, New England Journal of Medicine, 2021). That trial studied a medicine rather than a shake program, but it measures the thing a higher-protein sachet is built around: what happens to lean tissue when intake drops quickly.

That is the whole logic of a Protein Plus variant. Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass, so protein is one of the few levers a clinician can pull inside a program whose calorie ceiling is fixed by design. Rapid weight loss, reduced eating and medically induced weight loss all put the same pressure on the same nutrient, which is why higher-protein options keep appearing across this whole category.

Eating less for any reason changes the nutrition maths; learn more about what a reduced appetite does to daily intake, or read the wider question of how much protein you actually need.

What else is on the Protein Plus label?

The protein number gets the marketing, but several other rows change how the sachet behaves. All of the following are from Optifast's published panel and ingredient list, retrieved 2 September 2026.

• Lactose is the headline difference, not protein. 0.63g against 11.7g on the standard shake. Because lactose accounts for nearly all of the standard shake's sugars, cutting it is what takes sugars from 12.7g down to 2.2g.
• Low in lactose is not the same as dairy-free. The ingredient list opens with milk proteins (calcium caseinate 25%, sodium caseinate 12%, whey 10%), and the allergen line reads "Contains Milk, Soy, Fish."
• Fish oil is in the ingredient list, so a marine fat source is present. No numeric DHA or EPA amount is published, so no omega-3 figure can be quoted for it.
• Prebiotics, not probiotics. Fructo-oligosaccharide and inulin appear in the ingredients. No probiotic culture and no collagen are listed on the panel.
• Sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame potassium, and the pack carries a phenylalanine warning, which matters to anyone managing phenylketonuria.
• Gluten reads "nil detected" across all three columns of the panel, and the pack is sold as gluten free.

The micronutrient block is substantial, as it has to be in a product designed to replace meals: 380mg calcium, 160mg magnesium, 955mg potassium, 7.2mg iron, 4.4mg zinc, 40mg vitamin C, 3.4µg vitamin D and 36µg vitamin K per serve. That potassium figure is unusually high for a shake of any kind, and it is one of the reasons this category belongs under supervision rather than in a shopping trolley on a whim.

For the clinical nutrition category next door, which is built for a different job again, learn more in the read on Sustagen and in what changes about protein needs after 65.

Who is the Optifast program for?

A VLCD is a clinical program rather than a diet product, even though it sells across a pharmacy counter rather than on prescription. It is used for weight management, it is a phase rather than a way of eating, and the exit from it is planned as carefully as the entry. Optifast's pharmacy-only distribution reflects that: there is a counter, and someone behind it, between the shopper and the program.

Three things follow, and they are the reason this article stops short of telling anyone what to do.

• Nothing on this page is a reason to start, stop, or change a program. If you are on one, the person supervising it holds the full picture, including your medications, bloods and history.
• Swapping products inside a program is a clinical decision. Protein Plus and the standard shake are not interchangeable on calories, sugars or lactose, and a program is built around specific numbers.
• The finish line is part of the program. Ask the clinician supervising yours what the plan looks like after the sachets, because that conversation belongs with them and not with a brand.

General information, not medical advice. Any decision about a very low calorie diet program, or about any medication, belongs with your doctor.

A VLCD shake and a daily nutritional formula are not the same product

This is the distinction the search results blur, and it is worth stating plainly. A VLCD shake stands in for a meal, inside a program, for a defined number of weeks, usually under supervision. A daily nutritional formula does none of those four things: it sits alongside whatever someone is already eating, with no program, no schedule and no end date.

Neither is a version of the other, and comparing them nutrient by nutrient would be misleading, because they are formulated to different jobs. One is engineered to be most of a day's intake. The other is engineered to top up a day of ordinary food that has gaps in it.

Australian food is full of those gaps. Over 90% of Australian adults do not meet dietary guidelines (AIHW), and fewer than 1 in 20 eat the recommended serves of vegetables (ABS, 2023). That is the everyday problem a daily formula is built for, and it has nothing to do with programs.

The gaps widen for anyone eating less than they used to, whatever the reason; learn more about which nutrients fall away first when intake drops.

What HLTH+ is, and what it is not

HLTH+ is not a VLCD, not a weight-loss product, and not a substitute for either shake described above. It is an Australian-owned and made Formulated Supplementary Food under the FSANZ Food Standards Code, made in facilities complying with Good Manufacturing Practice, and built to supplement ordinary meals rather than replace them.

One 55g sachet carries 30 essential daily nutrients. The label reads 30g protein per serve, 7g dietary fibre, 5g collagen, 10 billion CFU Lactobacillus Plantarum Postbiotic plus prebiotics, and 60mg DHA. It also carries a balanced multivitamin profile. Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass, and dietary fibre contributes to regular laxation. Sugar sits at 1.5g in the Women's formulas and 1.7g in the Men's, with none added, and the product is dairy-free, gluten-free and low GI with a 5-star Health Star Rating.

The formulation logic is the part that differs most from a one-size range. Rather than a single formula for everyone, HLTH+ is dietitian-formulated to the Nutrient Reference Values published by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and the New Zealand Ministry of Health, in life-stage versions: Women's, Women's 50+, Men's and Men's 50+.

A serve is RRP $6.00, or $5.10 a day on a 28-serve subscription. It is sold at hlthplus.com, and online through Amazon AU and Chemist Warehouse. For how it reads against the everyday shake category rather than the clinical one, learn more in the review of The Man Shake and the protein comparison written for women.

Not sure what your everyday routine is actually missing? The ✦ Find My Formula quiz takes 30 seconds and shows what your current stack is not giving you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Optifast Protein Plus?

It is the higher-protein shake in Optifast's very low calorie diet range, published in Chocolate, Vanilla and Coffee in a 10 pack. Optifast describes the range as "specially formulated meal alternatives to support your nutrition during weight loss". Its panel lists 28g protein per 63g serve (retrieved 2 September 2026).

How much protein is in Optifast Protein Plus?

28g per 63g serve, on Optifast's own published panel retrieved 2 September 2026. The standard Optifast VLCD shake lists 20g per 53g serve, so the "40% more protein" claim is exact: 28 divided by 20 is 1.4. Per 100 calories, Protein Plus works out at 11.2g against 9.9g.

What is the difference between Optifast Protein Plus and the standard shake?

A bigger 63g serve, 28g protein instead of 20g, 250 calories instead of 203, and 2.2g sugars instead of 12.7g on the Chocolate panels. Dietary fibre is identical at 3.6g. Lactose is the biggest gap: 0.63g against 11.7g (figures retrieved 2 September 2026).

Does Optifast Protein Plus contain lactose?

It lists 0.63g of lactose per 63g serve and is sold as "low in lactose", against 11.7g on the standard Chocolate shake. Low in lactose is not dairy-free: the ingredients list milk proteins, and the allergen statement reads "Contains Milk, Soy, Fish" (retrieved 2 September 2026).

Is a daily nutritional formula the same as an Optifast shake?

No. A VLCD shake replaces meals inside a supervised program that has an end date. A daily nutritional formula such as HLTH+ is a Formulated Supplementary Food that sits alongside normal eating with no program and no end date, supplying 30g protein per serve and 7g dietary fibre.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Decisions about a very low calorie diet program, or about any medication, belong with your doctor.