Medifast Diet Rules – My Top Five

I have lost a lot of weight on this diet. I am often asked for my top tips for success. After thinking about this for a while, I came up with my top five Medifast rules that have helped me lose weight and keep it off. I share them with you in the next article.

Medifast’s most important rule: If I had to name one thing that I believe is most important to your success, it would be this. Don’t overthink this or try to take shortcuts. Sometimes eating that often (six times a day) will feel bad. You’ll start to wonder how you can possibly lose weight when you’re always eating. Many people will cut out some of the meals or just use one of the pre-packaged Medifast meals instead of the “lean green meal” (the main meal you make yourself with protein and healthy vegetables). This can make you feel like you’re being an achiever, but what you’re really doing is slowing down your progress.

Eating so often is the reason this diet works. The foods are low in carbohydrates and calories and very high in protein. These high levels of protein encourage your body to burn a lot of fat very quickly. But, if you don’t do your part and eat often (and make sure you get fresh with your lean, green food), then you’re missing a very important step and your metabolism isn’t going to be as high as you can get it. This diet was developed by doctors and has been repeatedly tested at places like the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. So you don’t have to worry about it not working and don’t think about it too much. You just have to worry about eating as often as directed and preparing your lean, green meal.

Rule number two: I realize I just told you to follow the instructions to the letter. What I am about to say may be contradictory, but I don’t think it is. The second tip is to take liberties with food that will allow you to enjoy eating it. The Medifast meal is actually pretty good, but it can be made even better by adding fat- and sugar-free syrups, fat-free whipping or sour cream, and fat-free cheese or gravy. There are also recipes that allow you to make ice cream, muffins, and cookies (using only the diet foods, of course). I suppose you could argue that this is cheating, but I don’t see it that way. Changing my foods gives me more variety and better flavor and ensures that I really enjoy eating the foods so I stick with them. Now of course you can’t use full fat additions. You have to stick to no fat or sugar, but doing so helps me stick with my food and since I’ve dropped several sizes, I don’t think this has slowed my progress. I think it has helped him.

Tip number three: My third piece of advice has to do with support. There really is no need to go it alone with this diet. The company’s website is packed with forums and users you can interact with. Several people share their experiences and offer support. There are recipes, motivation and tips. All these things are free, so there is no point in not taking full advantage of them. In fact, I have a coworker who follows this diet with me and having someone to help me with support and accountability makes a world of difference. But, if you’re someone who prefers to do this alone, at least get online and take advantage of the free resources.

Trick number four: I think most people who have long-term or dramatic success with Medifast make peace with moving more. I’m not going to call it working out or working out because it doesn’t have to be. I have had a lot of success just power walking and wearing a weight vest or ankle weights while I go about my business at home. I have never been an athlete and going into this exercise was the last thing I wanted to do. I still hate sweating, but I like how I feel when I move a little more. I sleep better, my stress levels are better, and the sagging flesh that weight loss just can’t counteract has tightened up since I’ve started moving more. Being toned is just as important as losing weight in terms of appearance.

My last (and possibly best) Medifast rule: The last thing I would say is break this diet down into small steps. It is very easy to feel overwhelmed at first thinking that you are going to have to change your whole life. Don’t look at it this way. Instead, take it day by day and week by week. I like to prepare my meals the night before to make things easy for myself. I assess my progress each week and use my successes as motivation to keep doing what works. It’s best to look at it week by week and keep doing what works for you. Because a loss of any number of pounds can actually be broken down into several weeks. A few pounds a week may not seem like much at first, but by repeating it week after week, you’ll have a whole new body.