Medifast Diet Review
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Medifast Diet Review Basics:
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Overview |
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The Medifast diet has been around since 1980 and is now recommended by over 15,000 doctors across the USA as they like to point out at every opportunity! Medifast is a meal replacement diet like Slimfast® or the Cookie Diet™. The idea is you drastically cut down your calorie intake by replacing most of your normal meals with their low calorie food, then in the evening you have a small meal of lean meat and vegetables to round off the day (actually you can have it whenever but I guess most people have it in the evening). The diet is supposed to be about 800 – 1000 calories a day which will cut out a lot of calories for most people and force you to lose weight. I’d usually say that the calorie level was too low but this diet has been tested in clinical trials and there are both doctors working for the company and 4 doctors on the company scientific advisory board, so you have to assume it is safe (but consult your doctor before you try it!). They claim you can lose up to 5 or 7lbs a week with their diet, but from what I’ve seen people say then it will probably be more like 2 – 3lbs and you’ll only achieve the other figures in the first week which even they admit will be partly water loss as well while your body adjusts to the new diet. The first week is where your body starts to adapt to the lower calorie intake and also where your body starts to adapt to the low carbohydrate intake too, this means you might be tired, irritable and hungry. After about a week your body is supposed to enter ketosis where you start to burn fat instead of carbs for fuel, and your hunger should subside and your energy levels increase. You are supposed to have 5 of the Medifast meals a day alongside the 1 normal meal, which will set you back around $75 a week if you buy a months worth at a time. What makes or breaks this diet though is the food. Some people love it, some people hate it, I purchased some apple & cinnamon oatmeal, Maryland crab soup, banana pudding, scrambled eggs and the cinnamon crunch bars. The oatmeal was strange, it kind of didn’t taste good or bad… the crab soup was very spicy and I wouldn’t be able to eat that again, the pudding was delicious, the scrambled eggs were ok, I have seen people add spinach and things to them to make them more palatable which is probably what I’d do, then the bars were sort of strange, but I would have no problem eating one of them a day. So you might need to try things out to see if you like them, I’d probably be fine with a different soup and different oatmeal, and you can get shakes too which I forgot to order so they’d be a good way to top up your choices. After you reach your target weight you are supposed to go into the transition phase where you start to slowly add in things like fruit and whole grains while slowly increasing your calorie intake, and then you go into your maintenance phase which is how you eat for the rest of your life. The problem is that those phases are not really covered in that much detail, you need to have the book to stand a chance of understanding how to do it (I think you get that free if your join their VIP club which is free, it is just where they automatically ship you your food each month). Yet even with the book I didn’t feel it covered the maintenance plan in enough detail. It does give you tips on how to eat healthily and it tells you what to introduce and how, but you are supposed to work out the amount of calories your body burns naturally each day, then tailor the amount you eat to match that, so you don’t put on or lose any weight. Yet it doesn’t tell you how to monitor the calorie intake of the new foods you are adding in, and it still asks you to eat 2 – 3 of the Medifast meals a day which would not be something I’d look forward to. You can just use the Medifast diet to reach your target weight though and then turn to something like the South Beach diet which teaches you how to eat healthy food for the long term (the book is only $10ish so it is easy enough to buy when you need it). There is a free online community where you get access to registered dieticians to answer your questions and there are active discussion boards to talk with people on the plan and motivate each other. There is also a comprehensive tracking facility where you can track your weight, what you eat, your goals, your measurements etc. Exercise is covered briefly in the online membership and in more detail in the book, they ask you to do around 20 – 60 minutes, 3 – 6 times a week, but most people I have seen talking about the diet do little or no exercise. I’d recommend trying to go out walking 3 times a week just to help the process and improve your cardiovascular health at the same time as you lose weight. All in all this is an ok program for people who lack the time or motivation to cook healthy meals and snacks every day, although you have to pay for the privilege! I have seen lots of people online who have lost weight with this so it does seem to work, but I think the maintenance phase needs to be explained better so you don’t lose all your hard work when you get to your target weight.
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What’s do you get? |
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With your order you get a welcome pack which contains some leaflets on how to follow the diet and some other information, plus a short DVD which takes you through a lot of the background behind the diet and how to get the most out of it. You also get a little container to help you measure out the water to mix with the meals and to mix shakes in etc. The food and drink comes in boxes of 7 servings each, you can choose from a whole range of different items including: - Iced tea/cappucino/hot cocoa/fruit drinks We also purchased the 212 page book, you get that for free with a VIP membership I believe, else it is $19.95 |
Medifast Diet Review – The Good & The Bad:
Pros
- Easy to prepare each type of food
- Easy to follow, just eat 5 of the meal replacements a day then make yourself a proper meal at anytime following their guidelines
- Provides you with lots of important vitamins and minerals in each meal and uses soy protein to try and curb your hunger as well as maintain your lean body mass
Cons
- Expensive
- Expects you to keep on buying and using the Medifast meals even in the maintenance phase (although only 2 or 3 a day)
- Some people like the taste of the foods, others hate them, if you don’t like the taste of the foods then you are not going to stick to it
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User Comments |
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The comments are varied online, but lots of people report good weight loss on this diet, although a few people gave up as they were too hungry and cheated. Opinions on the food vary massively, the eggs seem to be the things people dislike the most, but there are a growing number of unofficial recipes online where you can use the meal replacement packet, add some extra ingredients to it and turn it into something totally different! (there are about 4 of them in the official book too) Of course that will add calories to it, but most of the recipes try to be calorie conscious, and it does add variety into the diet to help you not get bored. You can find recipes at places like this. |
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Customer Support |
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You can contact them by phone or email. I tried both, the phonecall was picked up quickly and I placed an order easily, later on I sent in a question via email and had a response just over 2 hours later. You also get free access to the MyMedifast.com community site where there are active discussion boards you can ask questions on if you have problems or need advice, you can also ask their registered dieticians for support in there or via email which is a great addition. So they deserve 5 stars for customer support (even if they did send my order to the wrong country… but then they expressed me a new one to make up for it!). |
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The Medifast diet was given a rating of stars by InsideYourDiet.com
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