Today I am interviewing my friend Kate from product review site Lodlois on her recent Medifast experience. Medifast is a clinically studied weight management program. I hope you enjoy the wealth of information she is providing based on her weight loss journey. It may help you decide whether Medifast is the best weight loss program for you or not.
1. Medifast Results: Did Medifast Work for You?
a. How much weight did you lose overall?
Kate: Overall I lost 38 pounds, which was easily three times what I’d lost on any other diet. Unlike many people, I had ZERO success on Atkins, lost a mere 7 pounds after 3 months on Jenny Craig, and never made it past week 2 of South Beach. But with Medifast, I saw the weight coming off from the first day, which made me want to stick with it!
b. How much weight did you lose each week? Do you continue to lose the same amount each week on Medifast?
Kate: On average I lost 3 pounds. My first week was the biggest single loss – 8 pounds! I’d always heard that big, early losses are “all water weight”, but I have a hard time believing that with Medifast since the plan involves drinking well over twelve glasses of water per day. In fact, I’d feared drinking that much water would actually make me gain, but it didn’t!
c. How many inches did you lose?
Kate: I lost 2 ½ inches from my chest, 4 from my waist, 4 from my hips and 2 from each thigh. So, let’s see, that’s a total of… 18 ½ inches in four months!
d. What was your weight before and after?
Kate: Oh man. I do NOT like thinking about my weight when I started, but I was 197 pounds. I went down to 159 pounds. Oddly enough, I don’t mind talking about THAT number!
e. How many clothing sizes did you drop?
Kate: Three clothing sizes and a whole generation – from a size 18 (Women’s) to a size 14 (Misses).
f. How did this make you feel?
Kate: The most dramatic change in my life after losing weight was that I’d wake up in the mornings pain free. Before, I’d spend the first half-hour of the morning wincing as my knees, ankles and feet hurt so much. After the weight came off, I didn’t have that morning paint at all.
Cosmetically, well, I obviously looked better. The weight loss in my belly area was the most noticeable, and for the first time in years I actually had a waist again! My face looked younger, too, since I lost the double (okay, triple) chin and my cheekbones emerged again. Also, thanks to drinking all of that water and getting all of the vitamins and minerals in the Medifast foods, my skin was radiant!
Something that I wasn’t expecting was the surge of energy I felt after the first week on Medifast. I went from having to drag myself out of bed in the morning and nodding off at night in front of the 9 o’clock news to bouncing out of bed and motoring through my day. Granted, part of what turned me into a morning person was how much I looked forward to stepping on the scale (I’m a daily weigher) where I saw a loss just about every single day. But my energy didn’t stop mid-morning, like it once did. I played outside with my son again. I started looking for reasons to get out of the house, and not just to buy new clothes — although that was certainly necessary! I began socializing with friends more, and even took adventurous outings on my own to museums, plays and other cultural events that I’d previously been too embarrassed to try.
The mental benefits really surprised me, though. I’d thought I was okay with my weight. Well, not okay – I never liked being obese – but I’d somehow convinced myself that this was how it was going to be, that I’d tried everything without success and would never, ever lose weight. It’s sad, really, how I’d accepted a lifetime of living in sweatpants and shapeless t-shirts, of never putting on a swimsuit again, of ignoring the latest fashions because my ankles couldn’t handle wearing stilettos at my weight.
In my head, I had this soundtrack that kept telling me, “You’ll never change… you’ll never change… be happy as you are because you’ll never change.” And then I did change, and it suddenly became possible to believe I could do so much more for myself, too!
2. Is it Easy/Difficult to Stick With the Medifast Program?
a. What part of the Medifast program is challenging (difficult) for you?
Kate: I’m not going to lie: the first week was brutal. It wasn’t just hard due to the physical side-effects of getting into ketosis like the headaches and low energy before your body makes that switch. Finding a routine – and Medifast really demands that you get into a routine – was rough. I’d wake up hungry in the morning and start to reach for something sweet only to remember that, nope, I’m not eating that while I’m on Medifast. All I can say is thank goodness for those Medifast bars on busy school mornings, otherwise I’d have gone nuts!
And, to be honest, my family really, truly complicated things at first. I think a lot of people who try to lose weight run into this same problem: supposedly well-meaning family members who offer “helpful” suggestions which basically amount to cheating on your diet. When we’d sit down to dinner, my plate often had so much less food than theirs — before I learned to serve fish on most nights, which is basically twice as large a serving as beef. In the beginning, when they’d hear my stomach growling even though my plate was empty, my husband and kids would say, “Oh, surely you can have just a little bit more.” But I knew that giving in to their suggestions would just sabotage my weight loss. You wouldn’t believe how often I volunteered to do dinner dishes just to give myself an excuse to get away from the table and their “helpful” suggestions!
b. What challenges did you face?
Kate: Let me be clear about one thing: Medifast isn’t for wimps. If you talk yourself into having a candy bar because you “earned” it (or because you’re having a bad day, or because you’re just going to take a day off from your diet, or whatever) you’ll pay for it. For one thing, you won’t lose weight. For another, once you kick yourself out of ketosis, you might actually see your weight go up for a bit when your body’s glycogen stores start holding onto water molecules again. Sure, you’ll lose that once you’re back in ketosis… but that’s assuming you don’t get frustrated and quit your diet altogether!
That said, planning can make Medifast much easier. Plan to succeed. Plan to cut yourself no slack. Plan how to say “No” to people who suggest you just have a bite of this or that, or who urge you to take a night off from your diet to go out for drinks. Plan your week’s Lean and Green meals and shop for them all at once so you’re never caught short of ingredients. Plan to bring Medifast Shakes or Bars with you on outings. Plan to drink your water and – voice of experience here – plan to know where the bathrooms are if you’re leaving the house until your system’s used to your increased liquid intake!
Most of all, plan to never, ever be caught hungry without a Medifast meal waiting for you. One way to make sure that happens is to keep a box of Bars in your car, and another couple in your purse. If you work in an office, keep a box of Medifast Shake mix there along with a glass and a spoon so you can whip one up when you’re hungry. Make most of your Medifast meals first thing in the morning if you can. I bought three small thermoses right away and got into the habit of making oatmeal and two soups when I first got up. That way I knew I had three meals waiting whenever I got hungry, and if needed I could grab a thermos to take with me to my son’s karate practice, for instance. Also, if you’re going out for dinner at a restaurant, plan to stay on your diet by looking up their menu online to find what will work as your Lean and Green, then don’t look at their menu again when you get there! Order your food, ask for a “to go” container when it arrives, and don’t take a bite until you’ve separated what you can eat from what you’ll be saving for tomorrow.
Plan to succeed and plan how you’re going to help yourself succeed, and you’ll find it’s not nearly as hard as you’d think.
c. What part of the Medifast program helped you stick to the plan and lose weight?
Kate: I couldn’t have done Medifast if it weren’t for that Lean and Green meal. Don’t get me wrong: most of the food was filling. Soup, after all, is comforting and contains so much water that after the first few weeks I’d literally find myself struggling to finish my serving! Plus, even at my very hungriest, I could look at the clock and know I just had to ride out two hours before it was time for my next Medifast meal. When I first started on the diet, that two hours seemed like a very, very long time. Fortunately, Medifast.com also allows a daily snack to help you through those crazy-hungry times: some celery, a container of sugar-free Jello, pickles… the approved snacks are spelled out in the plan.
But if you think about all of those meals – five Medifast meals, a snack AND a Lean and Green dinner – that’s a lot of eating! As hard as it is to believe, once you’ve been doing Medifast for a while you actually get to the point where you think, “Oh man, I have to eat again?!” The answer is: yes, you do have to eat that often to keep your metabolism chugging along, but you also get to pat yourself on the back for reaching the point where you’re not constantly thinking about shoveling more food into your face!
d. If you believe Medifast is easy, explain why.
Kate: Look, Medifast isn’t easy. NO diet is. If losing weight on any plan was easy we’d all have followed that one and there would be no point in reading this. That said, I actually found Medifast – with its limited food options and restrictions – far easier than any other diet. Why? Because all of the thinking was done for me. I didn’t have to count calories, carbs or fats, or track foods in some journal or online. I wasn’t given a generic menu involving all sorts of foods I don’t like in the first place. All I had to do was eat five Medifast meals per day and one Lean and Green, and 96 ounces of water. Ta-dah: a recipe for guaranteed weight loss. And by “guaranteed” I mean GUARANTEED: it is absolutely impossible to follow the Medifast Plan 100% of the time and NOT lose weight.
3. Compare Medifast to Other Diets
a. Have you tried other diets? Which ones?
Kate: The first diet I ever went on was the Cabbage Soup diet. As it happens, I love cabbage, so that wasn’t terribly hard. But that plan doesn’t teach you how to maintain your weight once you’re off of it, so I regained every pound within a week. (I also developed a hatred for cabbage that lasted for the better part of a year, though we’re now back on somewhat friendly terms.)
I tried Atkins, too. C’mon, who doesn’t like the thought of eating steaks, burgers, butter, bacon and cream and losing weight, right? Only, I didn’t lose much – maybe five pounds or so – and my skin had more breakouts than it did when I was a teen! (Don’t even get me started about the gastrointestinal side-effects of that diet’s fiber-deficiency, either!)
For three months I suffered through the Jenny Craig plan, and I do mean “suffer”. Their pre-packaged, frozen “heat and eat” food tasted like frost-bitten cardboard, and I only lost 7 pounds in three months. (My bank account was much lighter, though!) I’ve heard they’ve since changed their foods, but I’m not about to try them again. Any diet that doesn’t involve teaching you to prepare your own meals while you’re losing the weight and then helping you transition from their foods to feeding yourself once you’ve reached your goal – like Medifast does – is less interested in your success than in turning you into a lifelong customer!
I didn’t make it past the second week on South Beach, mostly because there were too many options giving me too many choices to make. I’d stand there in my kitchen trying to come up with an approved meal, and my brain would start hurting! The next thing I knew I’d be nibbling this or munching on that while still not having figured out what I could or couldn’t eat. It wasn’t long before I realized I wasn’t really “doing” South Beach at all… I was just grazing in my kitchen with their printed diet plan in my hand.
b. How do you compare Medifast to other diets?
Kate: When you’re first trying to lose weight – especially when you have a lot to lose (more than 50 pounds, for instance) – you aren’t nearly so interested in “how” a diet works or what you “ought” to eat/not eat. Let’s face it: if we grasped that information to start with, we’d have been eating properly all along and wouldn’t need a diet in the first place. When you’re ready to lose weight, you want to lose weight, darn it! You want results! NOW!!!
With Medifast, I started losing weight reliably, consistently, and in larger amounts faster than I’d seen on any other diet. So, yes, it seemed more difficult to really get “into” at first because it’s strict, but when you’re down 8 pounds in the first week alone, “strict” quickly starts seeming like a very, very good thing.
c. What is it that you like in Medifast when you compare it to other diets?
Kate: Success. I’m one of those scale-obsessed people, which might seem strange since I’d let myself get obese, but prior to Medifast I’d always been able to rationalize “Oh, it’s just a half pound, or a pound, or two pounds… it’s all water. I’ll lose it next week.” Except I never did.
Well, starting on Day One with Medifast, I’d step on that scale and just about every single morning I’d see an actual loss. Oh, it might’ve only been 0.2 pounds, but that’s 0.2 lost! And after a while I found myself thinking, “Oooh, it’s 0.2 pounds lost, or a pound, or two pounds, and it’s all FAT! I’m really doing it this time!”
Man, you just can’t beat that feeling.
4. Medifast Transition Phase
Did you follow the Medifast Transition Plan where you gradually decrease Medifast meals and eat more regular food? If yes, explain:
Kate: Unfortunately, I didn’t get to follow the Transition phase due to a medical emergency which required me to completely go off Medifast at once. Under my doctor’s instruction, I resumed eating 3 regular meals per day. Well, needless to say, I immediately “celebrated” being off Medifast by eating some of the things I know I shouldn’t have been eating – not then, not now, not ever.
I did manage to maintain my weight for a few months, but when my health issues began restricting my mobility I promptly piled the pounds back on. To make things more frustrating, had I been on Medifast while being essentially restricted to bed I’d still have lost weight.
I wound up having to educate my doctor about Medifast a bit. Like many people, she was under the impression it was an “all liquid” diet and assumed it was nutritionally deficient. At my last visit to her office I brought several boxes of my Medifast foods for her to look at. The nutritional content is right there on each box and clearly shows that every Medifast meal provides an optimized balance of protein, fiber and carbohydrate along with the vitamins and minerals we all need. In one day of Medifast foods you’re getting at least 100% of your USRDA of essential vitamins and minerals, something that can’t be said for Weight Watchers, South Beach or other “cook your own food” diets. That blew her mind!
And now that my health problems have been addressed, she’s actually thrilled I’m going back on the Medifast plan.
4. Cheating on Medifast
a. Did you cheat on Medifast? Describe what you did.
Kate: I hate to say it, but yes, I did cheat. Medifast does not allow alcohol, which can be very difficult for people whose social lives involve getting together with friends for cocktails. That definitely described me, so I dealt with it by limiting myself to wine (1-2 glasses) or vodka and club soda (also, 1 or 2) no more than twice a month.
My other cheat probably wasn’t so bad, but here it is: when I’d get the craving for potato chips or crunchy food I’d slice up a cucumber, pat it dry and let it reach room temperature, then sprinkle Nu-Salt (which is basically potassium, something that people who are drinking huge quantities of water need) and pepper on it. You’d be amazed how good cucumbers can taste when you feel like you’re being “naughty” eating them!
b. Did you still lose weight? How much?
Kate: Every time I met friends for drinks I’d refuse to weigh myself the next day. I knew I wouldn’t lose weight and, due to alcohol’s ability to dehydrate the body (which can lead to rebound water-retention), there was a risk I’d have actually gained. Hence, I just didn’t weigh myself the next day. The day after that I’d be at my pre-drinking weight. So I probably stalled my weight loss for that one day, but continued on.
c. How much did cheating sabotage your diet?
Kate: Truthfully, without those two things I might’ve gone on a bigger food-binge. With both the occasional cocktail or plate of cucumber slices I felt like I was making Medifast work with my life, and that made sticking to it possible for longer than any diet I’d been on.
d. Do you think Medifast would have worked better for you under different circumstances? Explain.
Kate: This is a hard one, since I’m both a mom and a foodie. As a mom, I initially felt bad for not serving my family their favorite foods at dinner, but there was no way I could sit at the table watching them eat things I couldn’t have, too! That got easier as time went on, mostly because they complained less. I think seeing me lose weight motivated them to keep me motivated, if that makes sense!
As a foodie, I absolutely love to play in the kitchen. Baking is one of my favorite stress-relievers, and since we don’t eat anything with high fructose corn-syrup or white flour, buying commercially baked goods at the grocery store just isn’t an option. Those first couple of weeks when I was baking – but not tasting – were awful! Compounding this, I’d chosen to start Medifast in mid-November, right before the holiday – and holiday baking – season. Talk about tough! But I made it through, albeit by baking only the necessaries like bread and just a few cookies to pass out at Christmas. After that, it was much, much easier.
5. Gaining the Weight Back after Medifast
a. Did you Gain ALL the Weight Back?
Kate: No, and I’m not going to!
b. How much weight did you gain back?
Kate: Of the 38 pounds I lost I gained back 21. I’m back in my size 16’s which I hadn’t yet convinced myself to get rid of. Now I’m rather grateful I still have them, but as soon as I’m back in 14’s these clothes are going straight to the donation box!
c. Why did you gain some weight back? Describe how specific activities in your lifestyle resulted in you gaining the weight back.
Kate: Again, I had a medical emergency that required immediate bed rest, while at the same time my doctor insisted on three regular meals per day. Well, I wasn’t the one cooking those meals; my husband was. Let’s just say that he’s one of those people blessed with an amazing metabolism but a horrible sense of portion size, and I’m cursed with believing one should finish what’s on one’s plate. The combination resulted in a speedy regain of 21 pounds.
c. How did gaining the weight back make you feel?
Kate: Regaining the weight was quite possibly the most depressing experience of my life. I’ll never forget when I was finally able to get up and around, and I stood on the scale that I’d been ignoring that entire time. Seeing a number there that I thought I’d said goodbye to forever? I just stood there and cried.
e. What did you conclude?
Kate: When I stood on my scale crying, I’d only regained fifteen of the twenty-one pounds. The other six that followed were purely the result of pity-eating. “Oh, I’m fat again. I’ll never succeed. I’m always going to be fat for the rest of my life, so what does a half pound, a pound, two pounds matter?”
Then I realized, it does matter because I matter. This is my body. This is my life. I get one of each, and I’ll be darned if I’m letting fat keep me from enjoying them. I had another medical matter to get through, but this time I came at it with the determination to tell my doctor about Medifast so she could be on board with my weight loss plan. Meanwhile, I’ve started exercising again – something that’s absolutely necessary to my medical condition – so that’s helped me hold steady at “only” gaining back 21 pounds.
e. What would you advise others do after they are off Medifast?
Kate: I have no doubt in my mind that if I’d gone through Transition, continued to weigh my foods, as one does with the Lean and Green meals, and had kept at my previous level of activity (which was pretty high, since losing weight had given me all sorts of energy), I wouldn’t have regained.
See, that’s one of the secret benefits of Medifast: you really do get to the point where you don’t want huge quantities of food. Not only do your eyeballs adjust to an appropriate portion size, your stomach does, too. (Unfortunately, my husband’s eyeballs and stomach are bigger than mine and, well, I was feeling so cruddy medically that I just didn’t argue.)
6. Did You Feel Hungry?
a. How did your hunger feeling progress throughout the Medifast diet? Did you feel hungry at the beginning? Did the hunger go away later?
Kate: Make no mistake: I was STARVING the first few days. Fortunately, the program has snack recommendations to get you through that awful time. Then, once your body kicks into ketosis starts burning your stored fat and your appetite plummets. (I used to point at my fat belly and refer to it as my “Coleman cooler” since that’s my energy was coming from ketosis burning off the flab there!)
b. How hungry did you feel the first day, the second day, a week after being on the program?
Kate: The first day was actually not the worst one, possibly because I was excited to be trying something new. Also, with the increased water intake, I felt uncomfortably full! Day Two was another matter. I woke up ravenous and snapped at my family while standing there making my morning shake. Once I’d had it, things were a bit better, but again, those approved snacks saved the day (and possibly at least one of my family members’ lives). Day Three wasn’t so bad. I actually didn’t watch the clock and wound up realizing I was late having one of my soups. Day Four was really the last time I got felt crazy-hungry, because by then I was in ketosis and burning fat like crazy.
c. On a scale of 1-5 (where 5 corresponds to feeling extremely hungry and 1 corresponds to not feeling hungry at all), describe your levels of hunger throughout the period you where on Medifast.
Kate: Most of Week One was a 5, no doubt about it. Every week went down after that until I’d almost reached a 1. Then, because I’m female, I had a week – which repeated itself monthly – where I’d bounce between 4 and 5 for a couple of days.
d. What did you do to feel less hungry?
Kate: I always ate all of my Medifast meals. That’s where my vitamins and minerals were coming from and, besides, I’d paid for them already! But when hunger got unmanageable I’d have one of the approved snacks – celery sticks, a pickle, a cup of sugar-free Jell-o or a cup of bouillon – and more water. And, of course, I occasionally indulged with a plate of cucumber chips. (Seriously, they felt like an indulgence by that point!)
7. How Were Your Energy Levels While on Medifast?
a. How was your energy the first days?
Kate: For the first three or four days, I was a slug. Mind you, I wasn’t a model of physical activity before that, but those first few days I felt like I had a flu. Zero energy. Tired. Lethargic. Just getting off of the sofa and walking up a flight of stairs to my bed felt taxing. But, I knew that would pass.
b. How was your energy later on the Medifast program.
Kate: Let me put it this way: after I was well into ketosis and had lost my first 10 pounds, I asked my son to go on a walk with me. This struck him as odd, since I’d never been all that fond of walking before. (My feet always hurt!) After we turned the corner off of our street, I challenged him to a race. He won, of course, but he couldn’t believe I actually had enough energy to try running. Ten pounds earlier, I wouldn’t have imagined it, either!
8. How Did You Like Medifast Food?
a. How did you like Medifast food as a diet food overall?
Kate: As with any program, there were some foods I liked, and some that I didn’t. Overall, I thought they were fine. I know, from reading the Medifast forums, that some people would whine about how a certain soup didn’t taste as flavorful as they’d expected. That never bothered me – Medifast also allows a certain amount of condiments and spices, so you really can boost flavor without going off of your diet.
Also, for some of the foods that tasted yucky initially (I used to despise the oatmeal) it’s often a matter of waiting and trying again later. By the second month, oatmeal was my favorite breakfast item!
b. How did Medifast food taste (on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is horrible and 5 is delicious)?
Kate: I’d give most of it a 3 with some of them a 4. Oh, and the Hot Cocoa? Yeah, that’s a 5 in my book!
b. Describe 3 or more foods you liked. Why did you like them?
Kate: My three favorites were the Hot Cocoa, which I had every evening, the Maryland Crab Soup (add a dash of hot sauce and some paprika, and it’s yummy) and the Peanut Butter Crunch Bar (which tasted sinfully good).
c. Describe 3 or more foods you did not like. Why didn’t you like them?
Kate: Ugh, the Chicken and Wild Rice soup drove me nuts! Even if I made it in advance in a thermos and let it sit soaking for hours, that rice still felt like I was chewing rocks! I didn’t particularly like the Honey Mustard Pretzels, either, but that’s probably because I don’t like the combination of honey and mustard. (I’d ordered them accidentally, when I’d meant to get the Cinnamon Pretzels instead.) And the Pudding – any flavor – had a taste and texture that I never, ever got used to.
9. Lean and Green Ideas for Medifast
a. Describe what you eat for Lean and Green. Give at least 5 different options.
Kate: Here are 5 options.
1. Grilled flank steak (marinated in soy sauce, red wine vinegar and chili pepper flakes) and steamed veggie medley (zucchini, broccoli and mushrooms) seasoned with Mrs. Dash.
2. Egg white frittata containing chopped spinach, 5 sliced black olives (which count as a ‘healthy fat’ serving) and shredded zucchini. (You wouldn’t believe how large the serving size is egg whites when it’s your protein for the day. I had to eat my frittata in two sittings!)
3. Taco salad. Basically, a green salad with 4 ounces (post-cooking weight) of seasoned 98% lean ground beef topped with salsa as your dressing. (Salsa, by the way, became my favorite salad dressing: it’s fat free, adds the right amount of moisture, and provides a nice zing!)
4. Shrimp sautéed in chicken broth and a squeeze of lemon juice with minced garlic and spinach, and a small green salad topped with salsa.
5. Bun-less turkey burgers made with ground turkey, 1 tsp. minced red onion, chopped capers, and 1 oz. of crumbled Feta (on the ‘healthy fat’ list), pan-fried. Wrap the burger in a lettuce leaf and have some steamed zucchini on the side. Yum!
10. How Did Medifast Change Your Eating Habits?
a. Did Medifast change the way you shop and cook? Explain
Kate: I’m obsessive about drinking water now, thanks to seeing what a difference it made in my appetite and even how my skin looks. When I cook dinner, it’s more often than not something that would qualify as a Lean and Green, though I serve homemade rolls or pasta, or sometimes rice or quinoa, as well these days. And I never, ever leave home without a healthy snack in my purse. It’s just too easy to get hungry and drive through some fast-food place, but I refuse to eat fast food anymore!
11. Medifast and Loose Skin
a. Did you experience loose skin after losing weight with Medifast?
Kate: No, and I don’t know whether that’s due to the fact that I only lost 38 pounds, or because for years I’ve been diligent about moisturizing the instant I step out of the shower.
12. Medifast and Exercise
Did you perform any form of exercise while on Medifast. If yes, what type of exercise and at what point during your weight loss journey?
Kate: I really didn’t consciously start an exercise program, I just became more active. I know some people I’d met on the forums had signed up for gym classes or took up running. Those things don’t work for my life, so rather than feeling bad for signing up then skipping, I just skipped completely. But I did start moving more: cleaning house, going for walks, just getting out and doing more things.
For a while there, if I was sitting still it meant there was something wrong with me. After my latest medical problem, I bought a recumbent bike. Now if I’m sitting still, I’m pedaling on my bike. (Yep, even while typing this!)
13. Medifast Side Effects
a. Did Medifast food make you constipated? What did you do to tackle this?
Kate: For the first few days, it sure did. I tackled it by continuing to drink my water and taking some Milk of Magnesia. It all worked out, so to speak.
b. Did your hair fall out? What did you do?
Kate: Actually, quite the opposite. My hair got thicker and shinier than it had been in years! Turns out, I was Vitamin D- deficient, and since Medifast provides over 100% of your USRDA of that vitamin, it’s no wonder my hair started looking great! (I’ve continued Vit. D supplements at my doctor’s recommendation since.)
13. Medifast and Overall Health
a. What other improvements in your health did you see after losing weight with Medifast (i.e GI Tract problems have disappeared, skin is clearer, etc)?
Kate: Well, my skin and my hair looked better than they had in ages, and my legs were finally pain-free. But the truly great improvement was a mental one: I remember playing tag with my son in the yard one day and thinking, “I haven’t felt this young in years!” And that’s really when it hit me – I was just feeling right again.
Losing weight gave me self-confidence, not because my body was smaller, but because I’d taken control of my life, I’d claimed my right to be happy with how I felt, how I looked, and how I lived. What I’d always thought impossible – losing weight – was something I’d achieved. Me. No one else had done it for me. No one else had turned away the fries or the pizza. No one else. No one. Me. And if I can accomplish that, well, what else can I accomplish?
Life changing. It’s truly, truly life-changing.
14. Medifast – Is it Right for Me?
a. Who would you suggest Medifast is good for?
Kate: Who isn’t it right for? If you’re busy, Medifast is perfect: you grab a bar, a shake or a packet and take it on the go with you. If you’re not into cooking, it’s perfect: you just add water or open your Medifast meals, and get a rotisserie chicken and salad from your grocery store. If, on the other hand, you love getting creative in the kitchen then you’re going to really enjoy the challenge of coming up with exciting Lean and Green meals.
In other words, Medifast is perfect for anyone who really wants to use weight. But you have to really want to lose it. This isn’t a diet where you get to play with portion sizes and still expect to succeed. You can’t have a candy bar and stay in fat-burning mode. You’ll have to be willing to be hungry – sometimes very hungry – the first few days.
You have to learn to say “No” to your mom’s home-cooked treats (“Oh, but I made your favorite!”), your friends (“C’mon, take the night off and eat pizza with us”) and your frenemies (“Aren’t you worried you’ll regain all of your weight once you go off that diet?”)
You have to learn to say “Yes” to some things, too. Yes, dieting is hard work. Yes, you could have that treat but it just means you’ll be fat longer. Yes, you’re ready to succeed. Yes, you’re going to give it your all. Yes, feeling healthy, thin and fit is better than being fat. Yes, you’re going to stay on your plan today, tomorrow, and however long it takes to lose your weight.
There’s an old saw about “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, of course.” Well, here’s the great thing: you just have to do Medifast one packet at a time. And YOU CAN!
Thank you Kate for answering my questions so thoroughly. I am sure many of our readers who want to learn about Medifast will find your testimonial very useful. Kate can be contacted at venomousme [at] gmail [dot] com. If you decide you want to try Medifast, use any of the Medifast coupon codes provided above to get a $66 discount. You can’t use two promo codes at the same time.
What Are Your Medifast Concerns?
When I was digging through the blogosphere and Googling the daylights out of the web, I found tons of people saying good things about Medifast. I studied the reports and Medifast testimonials of hundreds of happy customers in various blogs and forums and hand-picked those that gave the best answers to my questions. Read them over and decide for yourself whether Medifast will work for you. They were pretty persuasive for me.
1. How Does Medifast Work?
2. Is Medifast For Me?
3. Would I Like The Food?
4. How Much Does Medifast cost?
5. Will I Gain The Weight Back?
6. Will I feel energy depleted?
7. Is It Difficult To Stay On The Program?
8. What Are The Challenges I Will Face?
9. Will I Feel Hungry?
10. Is Medifast A Liquid Diet Like Optifast?
11. Medifast versus Nutrisystem
12. Medifast versus Weight Watchers
13. Could I Get A Refund?
14. Medifast Before And After Testimonial
15. How Can I Get Started? Medifast Tips
16. Medifast Journal – A Success Story
17. Medifast Testimonials
18. Medifast Results – Inches Lost
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