PITTSBURGH -- You may have heard about it, on the radio or in a magazine, but does the replacing two meals a day with a smoothie really help you loose weight?

Channel 11 put the 'Right Size' Smoothie Diet to the test and asked two of our volunteer dieters to follow the smoothie plan. Was it successful?

Lori Celani, 33, is hoping the smoothie diet will work for her. "I think it will be interesting, it will keep me from eating all the junk," said Celani.

Lisa Papariella, 26, agrees.

Before the pair began, they were weighed and measured by University of Pittsburgh exercise physiology grad students. Each woman's height, weight, and body fat were recorded and calculated.

Lisa and Lori both needed to lose at least 30 pounds to be at a healthy weight.

Here’s how the 'Right Size' Smoothie diet works.

Substitute smoothies for two meals a day, and take supplements that contain appemine. Appemine is the maker of the smoothie called a metabolism manager.

UPMC dietician, Dr. Leslie Bonci, said appemine contains mostly green tea extract.

"There have been studies that have looked at green tea extract that show it may have a thermagenic or a little more calorie burning metabolism effect, it's not an appetite suppressant," said Bonci.

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Click here for Lisa Papariella's Diet Diary
Click here for Lori Celani's Diet Diary
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Channel 11 caught up with Papariella and Celani after they'd been on the diet for almost four weeks.

"I feel like I’m starving," said Papariella. I either have a smoothie for breakfast and dinner or breakfast and lunch depending on my plans for that night.

Papariella said she is getting encouragement from family and co-workers. "At work I was trying to have a piece of candy one day and it was snatched out of my mouth and given an apple instead," said Papariella.

Once the challenge ends, Papariella said she won't be drinking smoothies anymore. "It’d be something you could do for a month get your weight off then have another plan to go on afterward," said Papariella.

Celani has found ways to make the smoothie taste better by adding fruit or yogurt.

"It’s not as bad as I thought taste-wise; it's pretty good actually," said Celani.

Celani also said the smoothie does have one annoying side effect. "It cleans you out I guess that's the best way to say it," she said.

According to UPMC dietician Leslie Bonci that may be because the smoothie mix contains fructose.

"Some individuals find fructose can have a little bit of a laxative effect," said Bonci.

After four weeks how are the smoothie dieters doing?

So far, Celani has lost a disappointing one pound, Papariella fared only slightly better, dropping only two pounds.

The two still have two more weeks before the diet challenge is over. November 30 Channel 11 will announce the dieters’ final weight loss.

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Have words of encouragement for Lisa or Lori? Click here to wish them well as the Great Diet Challenge enters the final week.

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