• Home
• Diet Plans
• Articles
• Diet Coupons
• Supplements
• About
• Contact

Medifast Diet

Can You Lose Weight with Medifast?

If you're tired of fad diets, you may want to give Medifast a try. Medifast focuses on portion control and low calories. It's supposed to help you lose weight faster than other diet programs. However, that claim is open for debate. One of its main selling points is that it's easy to use because there are no points to count. This is obviously a dig against Weight Watchers and their points system. Instead of points, Medifast operates on a 5 & 1 Plan.

Medifast and the 5 & 1 Plan

The Medifast 5 & 1 Plan allows you to eat 6 meals per day. Five of the meals must consist of Medifast products. And the sixth meal can consist of regular food purchased from your grocery store. The meals can be eaten in any order. So you can have four Medifast meals, the plain meal, and then another Medifast.

Some people are put off by the price of the Medifast meals. There's no way around buying the meals because, in order for the plan to work, you must have 5 Medifast meals per day. Prices for the meals range from $140 for two weeks worth of food to $275 for four weeks worth of food. It's worth mentioning that meal packages do contain a lot of food. For example, the women's four week package includes:

• 49 Shakes (Dutch Chocolate, French Vanilla, Strawberry Creme, Banana Creme, Orange Creme)
• 28 Nutrition Bars (Oatmeal Raisin, Caramel Nut, Chocolate Mint, Chocolate)
• 21 Oatmeal Packets (Apple Cinnamon, Maple & Brown Sugar, Peach)
• 28 Containers of Soup (Tomato Creamy Soup, Chicken Noodle, Beef Vegetable Stew, Chicken & Wild Rice)
• 7 Banana Puddings
• 7 Cappuccinos

That's a lot to choose from, so you won't get bored with the menu. You can also order individual products. Four weeks of Medifast requires approximately 20 boxes of meals. So you can substitute any item you want, as long as you're sure to get the right amount. Considering the ease of use, the price seems to be worth it if it's in your budget. You don't need Medifast products for your daily Lean & Green Meal. Simply prepare a well–balanced meal consisting of lean protein, salad and/or other vegetables.

What's the Transition?

The transition period begins after you've lost the desired amount of weight. The purpose is to gradually return to eating foods that Medifast didn't allow. For example, you'll be allowed to once again eat fruits and dairy products. Slowly adding these calories back into your diet gives your body time to readjust. Medifast even has a Transition Plan to help with the process.

During the first four weeks of transition, you'll add a different food group each week. The first week allows more vegetables; the second week adds fruits, and then comes dairy and whole grains. The length of your transition depends on how much weight you loss. If you lost less than 50 pounds, your transition should last for 8 weeks. If you lost between 50 – 100 pounds, your transition should last 12 weeks. Anything above 100 pounds requires 16 weeks of transition.

Following the transition period, Medifast encourages maintenance. The purpose is to help you retain your weight loss and healthy eating habits. There's also emphasis on exercise. Medifast has an exercise guide that shows you how to incorporate exercise into the Medifast program.

The main complaint about Medifast is the cost of the food. Other than that, it seems like a pretty good diet program. However, you should do more research and look into other diet programs. Find the one that's best for you.