What is the Medifast Diet?

The medifast diet is arguably one of the most effective diet plans today. To date, it is perhaps the only diet plan which has a 100% success rate among people who adhere to it faithfully. Medifast essentially uses “nutrient products” like energy bars and milkshakes to replace most of a person’s regular meals.

These nutrient products are high energy and low calorie products, and have to be taken a certain number of times a day. On the average most dieters take 5 of these nutrient meals a day, and have one regular meal only in the course of the entire day. The single meal itself is known as the Lean and Green meal, meaning it consists mostly of lean meat and vegetables.

Pros of the Diet

The biggest selling point of the Medifast diet is that it works. The nutrient meals themselves are designed to hold off hunger pangs while providing the body with a more limited intake of calories. This decreased calorific intake is mostly what contributes to the weight loss of the diet plan. The bars themselves are nutritional supplements, however, not replacements, hence the need to eat one regular Lean and Green meal a day.

Another good point to the Medifast diet is that the dieters don’t need to starve themselves. The nutrient meals (bars, shakes, whatever) come in a variety of flavors and don’t leave a person feeling hungry afterwards. They contain just enough real nutrients to keep  the body going, but have an extremely low calorie content so a person can snack on them often without worrying about gaining weight.

Cons of the Diet

Now the bad parts of the diet: the first thing about the Medifast products that tends to turn people off is the price. The medifast diet, while one of the most effective, is also one of the most expensive diet forms to take. The nutrient meals of the diet can place a serious ding in a person’s wallet, to the tune of almost $300 a month. The weight loss rate is anything from 2 to 5 pounds a month, so this price can stack up quickly depending on how much weight you want to lose.

Another drawback to the Medifast diet are the side effects of the nutrient meals. While none of them are serious or even remotely fatal, they CAN be inconvenient. For one thing, the body feels a sudden and drastic loss of energy during the first week of the diet as the body adjusts to the loss of calories. This often leads to dizziness and headaches. For another thing, stomach and bowel disorders like diarrhea, constipation, and/or flatulence commonly occur as the body’s digestive system adjusts to the medifast nutrient meals.

Overall

The general conclusion of most people is that the Medifast diet IS good for them. Despite it’s high price, it DOES work, so it’s better than trying out several cheaper diets which may or may not work successfully. Also, while it does have it’s side effects, they are no more or less difficult to deal with than the side effects of some other diet plans out there, so the sacrifice is worth it. Lastly, the most common problem of a lot of conventional diets, namely reduced intake of food which leads to hunger pangs, is overcome by the fact that the Medifast nutrient meals are actually filling and are taken several times a day in place of regular meals.

Diet Plans at a Glance Weight Loss

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.