I sometimes hear from people who want to try their own modified version of Medifast. Perhaps they'd like to eat their own foods for at least part of the time. Perhaps they'd like to eat the prepackaged meals less than what is typically called for. Whatever hybrid type of plan they're considering, they want to make sure that they might still lose weight.
So I might hear a comment like: "I still want the ability to enjoy meals with my family. So I'd like to be able to have two lean and green meals (during breakfast and dinner) and then have a Medifast shake for lunch. I think that I could handle this pretty comfortably. But would I lose weight this way? The way I figure it, I have about twenty five pounds to lose. So I'm hoping that this would work for me and I'd still lose a reasonable amount of weight in the process. Do you think that this might work?"
Well, in order to answer that question, let's try to figure out an approximate calorie content for this plan. Folks who are on the traditional Medifast five plus one plan (meaning five prepackaged Medifast meals and one lean and green meal) takes in about 1,000 or so calories per day. Since most of the prepackaged meals contain around 90 - 110 calories, this leaves you with about five hundred calories to play with for your lean and green meal. Let's assume that you were very careful with the guidelines and was able to stay within them. This means that you'd be taking in around 1,000 calories per day with those two lean and green meals and about 110 additional calories with the shake. This is only a very slight difference than the amount of calories that you'd be taking in on the traditional five plus one plan. So, if you were only looking at calories, it may be reasonable to think that you would have somewhat similar weight loss, which is really promising.
But there are a couple of other things to consider. You'd also want to make very sure that when you are planning these lean and green meals, you are careful with carbohydrates. This means that you need to choose low glycemic vegetables. Because in my opinion, one reason that Medifast is so effective is because it forces your body to burn fat since this is a low carbohydrate diet. If you're taking in too many carbs in those lean and green meals, then you jeopardize this process and I suspect that this might mean slower or less aggressive weight loss.
Finally, the five plus one plan is very deliberate about your eating small meals very regularly. You're actually eating five small meals and one larger meal. And the reason for this is that this keeps your metabolism running very strong. You aren't going to have this advantage if you're only eating three times per day, which may be a concern.
But to answer the question posed, there's really no way to know how much weight you would lose until you actually tried it. But, with this method you would be taking in a similar amount of calories. And, if you were careful with your carbohydrate intake, then the only major difference would be that you would be eating the same amount of calories but during less meal times. And it's hard to guess if this would make a difference. (Although I do have to admit that this is similar to how people transition off of the diet when they are only trying to maintain their weight loss.)
Still, I don't think it would hurt to give it a try if you are really set on this method. Here's one more thing to consider. Medifast does have some very good breakfast options like the pancakes, the southwest eggs, and the blueberry oatmeal. So frankly, if you liked those options, you could still eat breakfast with your family and get to eat four more times plus the lunch that you had originally planned on. You'd be on the five plus one plan, but your experience wouldn't be much difference if you like pancakes and some of the other breakfast items. This would be more in line with how the diet was designed to work.
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So I might hear a comment like: "I still want the ability to enjoy meals with my family. So I'd like to be able to have two lean and green meals (during breakfast and dinner) and then have a Medifast shake for lunch. I think that I could handle this pretty comfortably. But would I lose weight this way? The way I figure it, I have about twenty five pounds to lose. So I'm hoping that this would work for me and I'd still lose a reasonable amount of weight in the process. Do you think that this might work?"
Well, in order to answer that question, let's try to figure out an approximate calorie content for this plan. Folks who are on the traditional Medifast five plus one plan (meaning five prepackaged Medifast meals and one lean and green meal) takes in about 1,000 or so calories per day. Since most of the prepackaged meals contain around 90 - 110 calories, this leaves you with about five hundred calories to play with for your lean and green meal. Let's assume that you were very careful with the guidelines and was able to stay within them. This means that you'd be taking in around 1,000 calories per day with those two lean and green meals and about 110 additional calories with the shake. This is only a very slight difference than the amount of calories that you'd be taking in on the traditional five plus one plan. So, if you were only looking at calories, it may be reasonable to think that you would have somewhat similar weight loss, which is really promising.
But there are a couple of other things to consider. You'd also want to make very sure that when you are planning these lean and green meals, you are careful with carbohydrates. This means that you need to choose low glycemic vegetables. Because in my opinion, one reason that Medifast is so effective is because it forces your body to burn fat since this is a low carbohydrate diet. If you're taking in too many carbs in those lean and green meals, then you jeopardize this process and I suspect that this might mean slower or less aggressive weight loss.
Finally, the five plus one plan is very deliberate about your eating small meals very regularly. You're actually eating five small meals and one larger meal. And the reason for this is that this keeps your metabolism running very strong. You aren't going to have this advantage if you're only eating three times per day, which may be a concern.
But to answer the question posed, there's really no way to know how much weight you would lose until you actually tried it. But, with this method you would be taking in a similar amount of calories. And, if you were careful with your carbohydrate intake, then the only major difference would be that you would be eating the same amount of calories but during less meal times. And it's hard to guess if this would make a difference. (Although I do have to admit that this is similar to how people transition off of the diet when they are only trying to maintain their weight loss.)
Still, I don't think it would hurt to give it a try if you are really set on this method. Here's one more thing to consider. Medifast does have some very good breakfast options like the pancakes, the southwest eggs, and the blueberry oatmeal. So frankly, if you liked those options, you could still eat breakfast with your family and get to eat four more times plus the lunch that you had originally planned on. You'd be on the five plus one plan, but your experience wouldn't be much difference if you like pancakes and some of the other breakfast items. This would be more in line with how the diet was designed to work.
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