Last night, I received an email from someone who was considering buying some medifast foods to give this diet a try. She had gone on the website and was a bit overwhelmed at all of the choices. She wanted to know which of the medifast foods I would recommend as being the most tasty and desirable. I will tell you which my favorites are in the following article.

The 55 Medifast Shakes: I realize that there are many of these shakes to choose from but my favorites are what I believe is most every one else’s favorites - the 55. The reason that I believe that these are the most popular is because these are most mentioned on the forums and blogs and also, these are the shakes that are included in the basic package.

The reason that I like these so much has to do with their taste and texture. They are not too sweet, but they are sweet enough. But I really like their texture because you can control it yourself by adding less or more liquid. There are times when I want it to be thick because I sometimes top it with fat free whipped cream to consume it like a dessert. Other times when I want to just drink it at work I will make it thinner so that I can consume it with a straw. I like the Dutch chocolate the best but they are all good. The vanilla is really nice with sugar free strawberry syrup.

With this said, I do sometimes buy the ready to drink shakes so that I always have a “medifast meal” ready to consume for times I am caught without anything to eat and might otherwise eat something I shouldn’t because there is nothing else available. I also am really fond of the banana cr me momentum shakes. The momentum line is meant to speed up your metabolism. I actually buy these shakes for their taste though, not for metabolism.

The Medifast Bars: I love these for a couple of reasons. You don’t have to do anything to them. They are ready to go and they are very good in terms of taste and texture. And, I really can’t think of a flavor of these that I don’t like although the chocolate mint is my favorite because they remind me of the Girl Scout’s thin mint cookies. The only downside with these is that you aren’t given free reign with them. You are limited to one per day because these are a bit more decadent than the other foods.

The Medifast Eggs: I do like these, but I don’t always just eat them plain, as they probably intend. I use them as a base for a breakfast wrap or for a frittata at dinner. Of course, I limit myself to fat free and sugar free pairings but I’ve never had a problem doing this. My results are really good so my theory is that this isn’t hurting me in any way and it’s ensuring that I have a little more flexibility in my routine.

The Chili: I use the chili in much the same way as I use the eggs - as a base for other things. If I feel like cheating on the weekend, I will place this on top of fat free, health food store nachos. No, this practice is probably not endorsed but it works for me and it keeps me from cheating when the rest of my friends and family are having free reign with football food.

The Comfort Liquids: Hot Chocolate and Cappuccino: Both of these are very yummy. Now, it takes some getting used to in order to think of these as an actual meal. But, they are somewhat filling. And they are a nice option first thing in the morning. I’ve been known to mix them together from time to time also.

The Pudding: I sometimes use this dry as an ingredient for baked goods. You can use this in the way that you’d use cake mix to make muffins and such. And the beauty of it is that it’s still diet food so long as you use apple sauce in place of oil. I try to avoid sugar all together, but if I have to sweeten something, I use stevia.

I suppose I should say that, most of the time, I stick to the diet as planned and I would recommend that you do the same. But, sometimes if I feel the urge to cheat I figure that I’m better off tweaking the foods rather than cheating. It’s worked out quite well.

Interestingly, most of my picks are in the basic package so I guess I’m not alone in my preferences. I advised the person who emailed me that it might actually be cheaper for her to buy a package and use coupons than it would be to try to purchase everything separately.

I’ve started to get a lot of correspondence about the new Medifast brownies. It used to be that people would use dry ingredients like the diet’s pudding and hot chocolate to make their own brownie recipes. That’s no longer necessary though because they have just added a new product to the menu that only requires for you to add water and stick the product in the microwave before you end up with warm and diet friendly brownies. In the following article, I will review the taste of this product as well as some of it’s nutritional information.

This product is easiest if popped in the microwave (although you can also make it in the over.) Basically, you just add three tablespoons of water, mix it up, and either microwave or bake it. The instructions indicate that it’s eaten warm, but if you prefer your brownies at room temperature, then you can always wait until it cools down. These come in a box of seven at a cost of $15.50 (or about $2.20 each.) I suspect that they can also be added to a custom package.

Nutrition wise, these are similar to Medifast’s other meals. One serving is 110 calories and has 2 grams of fat, 11 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fiber. There are only15 grams of carbs and 8 of sugars, so this product is as glycemic friendly as most of the other meals. But, considering the fact that these are so diet friendly, how do they taste?

They’re not at all bad. I probably would not mistake them for something that you buy in an upscale bakery, but those foods would not be allowed on my diet either. Considering that these are so low in calories and carbs (and aren’t restricted like some of the bars are,) they are much better than I expected. Often, diet desserts have an odd texture (which is usually too dry and crumbly) and a weird after taste because there is not enough sugar. Neither of these issues are present with the Medifast brownies.

They are sweet enough but there is no overtly artificial taste. And, they do contain some chocolate chips, which is a nice touch. The chocolate flavor is noticeable and pleasant but not overpowering. I’ve found that if I add a touch more water (you have to be careful that you are only adding a tiny bit more because if you add too much, they won’t set up quite correctly,) I can make the texture a little more chewy, which I prefer. However, my coworker likes a more firm texture so she actually adds less water. You’ll have to experiment with what works best for you. I like to eat them cold, but I think that most people prefer them hot. I’ve even heard of some people breaking them up and consuming them with the shakes to make sort of a mock dessert.

Overall, these new brownies are a nice addition to the Medifast diet and, based on some of the questions that I’ve been asked about this product, it appears that it’s quite popular. People were often making their own brownies on this diet, but having them right on the menu is much easier.

I’m sometimes asked to share some of the tips and tricks that I used along the way to lose a decent amount of weight on medifast. Sometimes people assume that I have some mysterious “secret” or that I found a way to cheat but to still make progress. These assumptions aren’t entirely true. There were some things that I learned which definitely made life on this diet easier, but there was never any major cheating or deep dark secrets.

In the following article, I will discuss how you can lose weight on medifast in what should be a relatively quick and painless process.

Understand And Embrace Ketosis: Before I really researched the meat and potatoes of this plan, I assumed that medifast allowed you to lose weight because you were limiting your calories. This is true, but this assumption is really over simplifying things. There are actually two ways that the weight comes off. The first is probably what you suspected. You’re eating a restricted amount of calories. But, you’re also going to be restricting your sugar and carbohydrate intake while bumping up your protein and fiber consumption.

Now, before you think that this sounds difficult, know that the company pretty much does the work for you. The foods have been modified to meet all of these criteria. You really do not have to do anything other than educate yourself about how to prepare a “lean and green meal.” As long as you eat what’s in your order and follow the instructions, this is already taken care of.

The reason that this is so important is because ketosis is where your body begins to turn on its fat stores rather than using carbs to fuel itself. This makes your weight and fast loss somewhat accelerated. And, this also makes some of the actions that you may be tempted to participate in (like skipping meals) extremely ill advised.

Yes, you will be eating six times per day on medifast. This is accomplished through five of the diet’s meals and one larger “lean and green.” This may seem like a lot. But, the meals are small. Although you may be tempted to cut out one or two of these meals each day, resist this at all costs. In order for ketosis to happen, your body needs support through eating. If you skip this, you place ketosis in jeopardy which in turn means that you might be losing less weight than you may have hoped.

Understand That Your “Lean And Green Meal” Is So Important: I sometimes have people who email me and ask if they can just eat one of the diet meals in place of this main meal that you fix yourself. While it’s understandable that it’s very nice to have your meals already done for you, the “lean and green” is there for a reason. The doctors who developed medifast understood that it’s important to get fresh foods and they also knew that, eventually, it was going to be important for dieters to learn how to plan for and make their own healthful meals. You may think that you’re taking the easy way out by skipping this, but in the long run, it’s not the greatest idea.

Also, it’s very important that you understand and follow the guidelines that medifast will give you for preparing this meal. Think about it this way. You’ve worked very hard in being compliant with your other five meals and therefore are not going to have any problem with ketosis. But, if you chose foods that are high in calories or carbs in your main meal, then you have potentially negated all of your hard work and may jeopardize your potential fat burning and weight loss. It’s just not worth it to risk this.

There are lots of resources on the medifast site and also on third party blogs that provide recipes and tips to help you with this. Making the most of this meal doesn’t have to mean being a gourmet cook or being overly restrictive. It just means being smart about your choices.

Don’t Be Overly Restrictive Or Too Hard On Yourself: I know that it might sound like I’m being overly restrictive or strict. I don’t mean to be. I know first hand that their is some leeway in this diet. I myself add sugar free syrups to many of my diet meals as well fat free cheese and sour cream. This has not had any negative impact on my weight loss. Also, you don’t have to be hard on yourself or to over think this. The research and counting really has been done for you. There is no need to over analyze any part of the process. You really can limit your responsibilities only to following the plan.

It’s also important to understand that most every one cheats at some point. This is built into the medifast diet. It’s not that big of a deal unless you allow it to continue on so much that you don’t revisit your goals and continue on with the plan. A couple of days of cheating isn’t likely to derail you too badly. But if you never get back on the diet, then obviously your weight loss is going to stop as soon as you are no longer following the diet.

It’s my opinion that as long as you follow the medifast plan to a reasonable degree and keep at it until you see the results that you want, there is no reason that you can’t be as successful as many others have been.

I have to admit that I’ve been receiving questions about this diet plan for a while and waited until now to write an article about it. The reason for this is partially because I don’t have any personal experience with the New Lifestyle diet. My experience lies with Medifast. However, after doing some research on the newer diet for a while, I’m going to offer some basic comparisons between the two diets in the following article.

The Basic Outline Of Both Diets And The Foods Offered Are Somewhat Similar: Actually when I first looked at the foods for New Lifestyle, I was wondering if I was on the wrong website. The foods are very similar to those offered on Medifast. What I mean by this is that the shakes, protein bars, soups, stews, cereals, chips, and hot chocolates are all there. The two overlap very much in this regard.

Also, the idea of both diets is meal replacement. You’re basically asked to eat the food that the diet company provides rather than your regular meals. Both of these plans have you eating 5 (Medifast) to 7 (New Lifestyle) meals per day and then one healthy meal that you make yourself which is mostly based on lean protein and low glycemic vegetables.

So your experience on both of these diets might be similar in terms of eating small meals often (most of which you don’t make yourself) and then eating a main meal once per day. In general, the foods should be high in proteins and low in sugars and carbs so that your body can get into ketosis where it’s not burning carbs but is burning your own body fat. This is what supposedly makes both of these diets work.

Costs Comparison: Both of these diet plans offer packages as well as individual items for sale. In my experience, most dieters will opt for the package as this makes the cost per unit quite a bit cheaper. I’ve been noticing this perception that New Lifestyle is cheaper, but I don’t find that to be the case in real life. Yes, if you compare both basic women’s programs, New Lifestyle runs $273.00 and Medifast runs $299. But, this does not tell the whole story. Because, at least from my own experience, Medifast almost always offers very generous coupons which take your price on a package down by at least $50 in many cases. This alone makes a huge difference and they will often offer free food.

The Questionable Ingredients In The New Lifestyle Diet Foods: You may have already gathered that my experience lies with only one of these diets, which I’m pretty happy with. This fact alone might make me biased. I have had people ask me if I would consider switching based on costs. But, as I’ve said, I actually don’t believe that Medifast is more expensive when you use coupons.

However, the real kicker for me is some of the ingredients in the other diet (which include corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, and aspartame.) Now, by no means am I an expert, but even I know that these are foods that are considered unhealthy and not diet friendly. Not only that, but the corn syrup especially is not conducive to getting into ketosis.

In my opinion, it just doesn’t make sense to change over to a diet that includes these questionable ingredients. I have read on some of the forums that the taste of the New Lifestyle foods is not as good as Medifast, but I don’t have personal experience with that. I can say that I’m happy with what I’m doing and with my results. Since it’s not broken, I just can’t see fixing it with a plan that includes ingredients that I don’t endorse in their foods. I would never consume these things in my “lean and green meal.” so why would I eat them in my diet foods?

I often get questions about the cost of Medifast. I get questions about the cost per day, the price per week, the cost per month, and the price per pound. Of all of these, the cost per month is probably what I am asked about the most. This makes sense because the most economical way to buy food in this plan is as part of a monthly package. This brings your cost per meal down by a good deal. I’ll discuss the monthly price of the Medifast packages below.

The Cost Of The Medifast Women’s Diet Program: When most people ask about the price of this plan, they are mostly asking about the 5 plus 1. This is the plan that Genie Francis and Kristie Swanson are on and promote. This is the basic women’s plan where you eat five of the diet’s provided meals and make one “lean and green meal” on your own. Now, when I say the provided meals, I don’t just mean shakes, although shakes are a popular choice. There are over 70 foods to chose from which becomes a good thing after a while.

Anyway, the starting price for this one is $299 for 143 meals (about $2.00 a meal.) But that is before taking any discounts, specials, or coupons which are almost always running. At the very least, you can often get 2-3 weeks of free food, but sometimes there is a $55 off special running. Of these, the free food is actually the better deal because it is worth more monetarily. However, whichever discount you chose, you should never pay full price.

The men’s and diabetics packages are the same cost ($299 before any deductions) and have the same amount of meals (143). There are some specialty packages that cost a bit more, which I’ll go over now.

Specialty Or Enhanced Medifast Packages: For each of the basic packages (men’s, women’s diabetic), there is an enhanced version which basically adds in omega 3s for heart, nails, hair, and skin health. This doesn’t add a lot onto the cost (it comes out to be around $327 before coupons), so if you have cholesterol or heart issues, this might be worth your while, but many just stick with the 5 plus 1.

The Price Of The Medifast Momentum Line: This is the most expensive monthly package that they sell, but the reason for this is that it adds the “momentum” products which are the flavor infusers, cappuccinos, and shakes that have ingredients meant to boost your metabolism. These meals contain a bit of caffeine and the active ingredient in green tea to rev your metabolism. There is some literature which suggests that adding in the momentum line can burn as many more calories as a brisk walk, but they only wanted you consuming three of the momentum products per day.

One trick to know is that they don’t consider the flavor infusers (powder you add to water like crystal light) to be a meal. This counts toward the water requirement instead. But the cappuccinos and shakes do count toward your meals and they only want you having three per day. So, if I do use these, I go heavy on the flavor infusers. This package is the most expensive option at about $350. However, again, this is before you consider any of the specials or promotions running. And, the momentum products do sell individually if you’d like to go that route.

The other day, I received an email from someone who wanted to know if it was really necessary to order the medifast shakes online. She had made the decision to diet, wanted to get started right away, and asked me, in part: “what’s to stop me from just buying one of the protein shakes at the grocery store and then getting the same results Let’s just use the new special K protein shakes as an example. What makes the one of the shakes different (or better) than the other ” I’ll answer these questions in the following article.

A Quick Review Of Ketosis: Before I actually take a look at both of the products, I want to quickly explain ketosis, which I’m going to be talking about a lot. This is a place that you want your metabolism to go because if you can get there, your body will begin rapidly and efficiently burning fat. This happens because you aren’t giving your body as many carbohydrates while giving it more protein. The higher protein helps it complete this mission by giving it enough fuel to do it’s job. The lack of carbs ensures that your body burns fat since it can’t burn sugar. In my comparisons below, keep in mind that you need both a high amount of protein and a low amount of carbs and sugars to be able to accomplish this.

A Quick Comparison Of Medifast Shakes And Special K Protein Shakes: I’m going to specifically address the example that she gave me, but there are tons of shakes available in the grocery store. I would argue that very few of these would favorably stack up to the nutrition and protein to carb ratio of the Medifast shakes, but I can show you that better than I can tell you. For this example, I’ll be using the 55 shakes because they are the most popular.

In terms of calories, Medifast is much lower with only 100 as compared to 180. 80 additional calories is almost twice as much and can really make a difference. Now, the K version does have a respectable 10 grams of protein while Medifast barely edges it out with 11. But, to me, the true difference lies in the amount of carbohydrates, which is 29 (for the K) as opposed to 13. This is over double the amount which in my mind is very significant and enough to keep you from being able to get into ketosis. Likewise, the special K shake contains much more sugar, a whopping 18 grams as opposed to 8 grams. Again, this is more than double and can be a big deal in terms of ketosis.

I hope this article has shown you that while it may be nice to impulsively pick up your shakes at the grocery store, in terms of nutrition and effectiveness, you may well be better off waiting the few days that it would take for the company to ship your order. And, they do sell all of the products individually as well, so you don’t need to place a huge order just to buy any of the products.

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Okay….but how difficult is it to lose weight on Medifast How does it compare to other diets on the market

Honestly Any GOOD diet is pretty much only as good as the discipline and drive of the people who are on it! You can get the very best blueprint to a beautiful body and do nothing with it, and unfortunately, this if far more common than most of us would like to believe. The good news Medifast is a super easy program to follow, and in our view, if you stick with it, you WILL lose weight really quickly for certain.

How does Medifast “guarantee” that it’s clients and customers lose weight And how can you be that certain

The truth Medifast is a low calorie, low carbohydrate and high protein diet. If you stick with it as designed, you will have 1000 calories per day, or less. The way our bodies and metabolisms are constituted, it would be almost impossible NOT to lose weight following this sort of calorie restriction on a daily basis, and this is why Medifast has such a unusually high success rate.

Okay…..but when you say calorie restriction, does this mean I’m going to be hungry everyday I can’t deal with that!

No, absolutely not. You are actually going to be eating MORE often on Medifast than you would do on just about any other diet ( 6 meals per day) and the truth is, the meal replacements are SO filling it’s actually tough to be hungry at all! If you are like most of our readers, you will feel full, satisfied and enthusiastic on a daily basis about the kind of progress you are making for sure!