Optavia/medifast/take shape for life
evilpoptart63
Posts: 397 Member
Has anyone done any of these programs? Would you mind sharing your experience?
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Replies
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Did a doctor suggest it and are they going to be following your health/progress closely as you lose the weight? If not then the dangers of them are not worth it.8
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I like food too much. I want to eat whatever I want. And I want to lose for good, and not regain. I have experience with MFP, losing 50 pounds, and keeping them off for 34 months.6
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I have not personally done it, as I can't really fit it into my family budget. But there are a few people in my church (our lead pastor and one of our other pastor's wives) who have done it and are now coaches for the program. I see a lot of the testimonies through their facebook pages on my facebook feed.1
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Learning how to cook and eat right is a priceless skill for life.
Programs/diets do NOT work. Ask anyone. People get off them and regain the weight because they learn nothing.12 -
I followed a medically prescribed, doctor monitored vlcd several years ago.
Lost 8 stone in 5 months along with my health
I became deficient in several things, my immunity tanked and i took a severe chest infection. I had been hitting the gym too...... they banned me for my own saftey
I was prescribed suppliments, nutrition drinks and 5 courses of antibiotics ( one course via iv ) inhalers and nebulisers
By the time they got me stabilised and i could stop the build up shakes i had regained most of my loss
Wouldnt recommend it unless in dire situations and very close monitoring by the doctor including blood work ( mine were not tested hence getting so deficient )11 -
I followed a medically supervised VLCD for four weeks I think to prepare for bariatric surgery. The weight loss stuck, but of course the surgery helped a lot with that. It was months before I ate anything approaching a regular day's calories. I did hit my protein goals daily however so I missed out on the worst of the VLCD side effects.
I was no good to drive for months, however. Too wobbly.4 -
I have not personally done it, as I can't really fit it into my family budget. But there are a few people in my church (our lead pastor and one of our other pastor's wives) who have done it and are now coaches for the program. I see a lot of the testimonies through their facebook pages on my facebook feed.
For whatever reason, churches seem to be hotbeds for MLMs and fad diets. It's very curious.
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MegaMooseEsq wrote: »I have not personally done it, as I can't really fit it into my family budget. But there are a few people in my church (our lead pastor and one of our other pastor's wives) who have done it and are now coaches for the program. I see a lot of the testimonies through their facebook pages on my facebook feed.
For whatever reason, churches seem to be hotbeds for MLMs and fad diets. It's very curious.
A lot of mlm's are super religious organizations. Like Mary Kay and advocare have fairly explicit religious overtures in their manifestos or whatever their mission statements are. Plus there's a fairly strong anti science undercurrent that unfortunately runs in a lot of the more evangelical churches so being presented with the scientific facts of weight loss doesn't mean they'll be believed.8 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »I have not personally done it, as I can't really fit it into my family budget. But there are a few people in my church (our lead pastor and one of our other pastor's wives) who have done it and are now coaches for the program. I see a lot of the testimonies through their facebook pages on my facebook feed.
For whatever reason, churches seem to be hotbeds for MLMs and fad diets. It's very curious.
Part of it in my personal observations is that people trust people at church and will buy the product and say it was great even if it wasn't just to be polite.8 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »I have not personally done it, as I can't really fit it into my family budget. But there are a few people in my church (our lead pastor and one of our other pastor's wives) who have done it and are now coaches for the program. I see a lot of the testimonies through their facebook pages on my facebook feed.
For whatever reason, churches seem to be hotbeds for MLMs and fad diets. It's very curious.
A lot of mlm's are super religious organizations. Like Mary Kay and advocare have fairly explicit religious overtures in their manifestos or whatever their mission statements are. Plus there's a fairly strong anti science undercurrent that unfortunately runs in a lot of the more evangelical churches so being presented with the scientific facts of weight loss doesn't mean they'll be believed.Rebecca0224 wrote: »MegaMooseEsq wrote: »I have not personally done it, as I can't really fit it into my family budget. But there are a few people in my church (our lead pastor and one of our other pastor's wives) who have done it and are now coaches for the program. I see a lot of the testimonies through their facebook pages on my facebook feed.
For whatever reason, churches seem to be hotbeds for MLMs and fad diets. It's very curious.
Part of it in my personal observations is that people trust people at church and will buy the product and say it was great even if it wasn't just to be polite.
Both make sense. I was raised agnostic and married a former conservative evangelical, so church culture is weirdly alien and interesting. A bunch of his religious college friends do MLMs (pretty much all women) but I mostly just nod and keep my opinions to myself.2 -
Rebecca0224 wrote: »MegaMooseEsq wrote: »I have not personally done it, as I can't really fit it into my family budget. But there are a few people in my church (our lead pastor and one of our other pastor's wives) who have done it and are now coaches for the program. I see a lot of the testimonies through their facebook pages on my facebook feed.
For whatever reason, churches seem to be hotbeds for MLMs and fad diets. It's very curious.
Part of it in my personal observations is that people trust people at church and will buy the product and say it was great even if it wasn't just to be polite.
Also, churches are probably one of the few places that large groups of adults commonly meet on a regular basis in a social setting. (I'm not saying there aren't others, but not many others exist all over the country)4 -
I am using Medifast. I say using because I eat their food which I buy online and I count my calories, filling in with other food to get to my calorie goal. I love it because each of their items have a about 11 grams carbs, 4 g fat and about 14 g of protein.
I don't follow their lean and green meal rules exactly, I just eat an additional 500 calories of any food I choose. I do try to keep with high protein low fat meals because it keeps me feeling the fullest. I had been losing about 1.75 lbs per week which was about 1% of my weight. I can see my loss is starting to slow down to 1.5 lbs per weight which makes sense and is again 1% of my body weight.
I know people will say that I need eat regular food or I won't learn to count my calories. But I am counting my calories, I log everything, I eat a variety of food 1 to 2 meals a day, I eat 6 small meals which works for me and I log my exercis calories.
I find it works better for me to keep my settings at maintenance and sedentary, then eat under that and add my steps and exercise.
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Vlcd?0
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Wow thats very interesting, I had no idea there waa a link between MLM and churches. It does make sense because people regularly gather and trust would probably be built easier in a church setting.4
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J9LynnHelton wrote: »... I eat a variety of food 1 to 2 meals a day, I eat 6 small meals which works for me and I log my exercis calories...
Just out of curiosity, can you explain this? It's the 2nd time I've seen you post this. Do you eat 2 meals a day, or 6 small meals? Is it 2 "regular" sized meals, and 6 (or 4, for a total of 6) other small meals? Or am I missing something?2 -
evilpoptart63 wrote: »Wow thats very interesting, I had no idea there waa a link between MLM and churches. It does make sense because people regularly gather and trust would probably be built easier in a church setting.
MLM's (be it weight loss, skin care, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, etc) rely on a network of people who know each other. It's called a "natural market". Churches are great sources because everyone networks there. As a financial adviser, the best way to get a lot of referrals is to get one or two clients prominent in a church or religious study group and do well for them. Word gets around. One of my co-advisors built his entire practice on managing the retirement money for church members who have retired and spend years out of the country on missions.
The down side, of course, is that if you do something to make somebody unhappy, word also gets spread quickly so being upfront and honest is paramount.5 -
evilpoptart63 wrote: »Wow thats very interesting, I had no idea there waa a link between MLM and churches. It does make sense because people regularly gather and trust would probably be built easier in a church setting.
MLM's (be it weight loss, skin care, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, etc) rely on a network of people who know each other. It's called a "natural market". Churches are great sources because everyone networks there. As a financial adviser, the best way to get a lot of referrals is to get one or two clients prominent in a church or religious study group and do well for them. Word gets around. One of my co-advisors built his entire practice on managing the retirement money for church members who have retired and spend years out of the country on missions.
The down side, of course, is that if you do something to make somebody unhappy, word also gets spread quickly so being upfront and honest is paramount.
I never would have thought about that but it does make perfect sense. I actually just signed up as a coach for Optavia, too bad Im not a religious person haha. I probably would try to network at church if I attended regularly but it would feel wrong since its not somewhere I would normally be. I made this post so I could get a general opinion from unbiased people so I could get a full range of experiences as Im going into this instead of just the success stories from the website. All I have ever heard were positive reviews so Im a bit suprised there have been none on this post. Im glad so many people shared now so I can keep the negative effects in mind and take people off the program if it seems to be hurting them2 -
J9LynnHelton wrote: »... I eat a variety of food 1 to 2 meals a day, I eat 6 small meals which works for me and I log my exercis calories...
Just out of curiosity, can you explain this? It's the 2nd time I've seen you post this. Do you eat 2 meals a day, or 6 small meals? Is it 2 "regular" sized meals, and 6 (or 4, for a total of 6) other small meals? Or am I missing something?
I eat 5 small meals of 100 to 250 calories and one larger meal of 300 to 400 calories. Maybe some should just be called snacks.
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My sister lost a lot of weight with Medifast. I tried it for about 2 days. My mom tried it for a few weeks.
My sister was really disciplined and lost about 60 lbs. I don't think she particularly enjoyed the process, but she stuck to it and lost on average about 2 1/2 lbs per week by not ever deviating from the diet and exercising (cardio and weights) daily. Her body looked fantastic at her goal weight. She almost immediately regained the weight and more besides. She regained it fast...like all of it in about 2 months. And her hormones have been really messed up since. My sister knows how to eat right, how to count calories, how to plan nutritious meals, etc. I think she just went a little crazy when she let go of that super strict discipline and got completely out of control.
My mom tried it for a few weeks and I tried it for a couple days. Neither of us could handle the enormous soy content. It's been years and I don't think my mom has ever really recovered. Soy almost immediately completely screws up my hormones so I stopped after the second day, feeling horrible...cramps, bloating, night sweats, hot flashes, mood swings, etc. It took me a couple months to get back to normal.6 -
evilpoptart63 wrote: »evilpoptart63 wrote: »Wow thats very interesting, I had no idea there waa a link between MLM and churches. It does make sense because people regularly gather and trust would probably be built easier in a church setting.
MLM's (be it weight loss, skin care, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, etc) rely on a network of people who know each other. It's called a "natural market". Churches are great sources because everyone networks there. As a financial adviser, the best way to get a lot of referrals is to get one or two clients prominent in a church or religious study group and do well for them. Word gets around. One of my co-advisors built his entire practice on managing the retirement money for church members who have retired and spend years out of the country on missions.
The down side, of course, is that if you do something to make somebody unhappy, word also gets spread quickly so being upfront and honest is paramount.
I never would have thought about that but it does make perfect sense. I actually just signed up as a coach for Optavia, too bad Im not a religious person haha. I probably would try to network at church if I attended regularly but it would feel wrong since its not somewhere I would normally be. I made this post so I could get a general opinion from unbiased people so I could get a full range of experiences as Im going into this instead of just the success stories from the website. All I have ever heard were positive reviews so Im a bit suprised there have been none on this post. Im glad so many people shared now so I can keep the negative effects in mind and take people off the program if it seems to be hurting them
I would have hoped that reading this thread would have made you change your mind about being a 'coach' at all. If you read websites associated with the product they are trying to get you to sell, of course all you are going to read are the glowing reviews.
Does it not strike you as odd that you can become a 'coach' so easily and with so little knowledge about the product and what it does (and more importantly, doesn't) do? Can you not see how this company is being deliberately deceptive by giving their salespeople instant and false credibility by making them 'coaches'?
Please reconsider. 22 -
Tried30UserNames wrote: »My sister lost a lot of weight with Medifast. I tried it for about 2 days. My mom tried it for a few weeks.
My sister was really disciplined and lost about 60 lbs. I don't think she particularly enjoyed the process, but she stuck to it and lost on average about 2 1/2 lbs per week by not ever deviating from the diet and exercising (cardio and weights) daily. Her body looked fantastic at her goal weight. She almost immediately regained the weight and more besides. She regained it fast...like all of it in about 2 months
This is one of the key reasons to avoid these kind of schemes. They are gimmicks to lose weight but they don't do anythings to teach one of the most important thing: How to eat in a way to maintain a healthy weight!7 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »evilpoptart63 wrote: »evilpoptart63 wrote: »Wow thats very interesting, I had no idea there waa a link between MLM and churches. It does make sense because people regularly gather and trust would probably be built easier in a church setting.
MLM's (be it weight loss, skin care, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, etc) rely on a network of people who know each other. It's called a "natural market". Churches are great sources because everyone networks there. As a financial adviser, the best way to get a lot of referrals is to get one or two clients prominent in a church or religious study group and do well for them. Word gets around. One of my co-advisors built his entire practice on managing the retirement money for church members who have retired and spend years out of the country on missions.
The down side, of course, is that if you do something to make somebody unhappy, word also gets spread quickly so being upfront and honest is paramount.
I never would have thought about that but it does make perfect sense. I actually just signed up as a coach for Optavia, too bad Im not a religious person haha. I probably would try to network at church if I attended regularly but it would feel wrong since its not somewhere I would normally be. I made this post so I could get a general opinion from unbiased people so I could get a full range of experiences as Im going into this instead of just the success stories from the website. All I have ever heard were positive reviews so Im a bit suprised there have been none on this post. Im glad so many people shared now so I can keep the negative effects in mind and take people off the program if it seems to be hurting them
I would have hoped that reading this thread would have made you change your mind about being a 'coach' at all. If you read websites associated with the product they are trying to get you to sell, of course all you are going to read are the glowing reviews.
Does it not strike you as odd that you can become a 'coach' so easily and with so little knowledge about the product and what it does (and more importantly, doesn't) do? Can you not see how this company is being deliberately deceptive by giving their salespeople instant and false credibility by making them 'coaches'?
Please reconsider.
Cosingned!6 -
This is one of the key reasons to avoid these kind of schemes. They are gimmicks to lose weight but they don't do anythings to teach one of the most important thing: How to eat in a way to maintain a healthy weight!
I'm often in favor of premade meals and diet plans. I mean, it's not like those of us who cook our own food don't eat out or microwave the occasional Amy's or grab some sushi or a jar of spaghetti sauce from Whole Foods. If it's easier to have help with the planning and cooking, I say, do it. And most of those programs also have a transitional program where you slowly add in your own food meal by meal, day by day until you are eating all home-cooked food.
But Medifast was a whole different story. My sister did go through the transition to real food, but her body (and mind) was just so messed up from all the fake food and soy and too low calories that she couldn't even keep the weight off for a few days. The ingredients in the Medifast food are extremely damaging to your health.4 -
I honestly just wanted unbiased opionions and Im really happy to have it. Im sorry so many of you and your loved ones had so many bad experiences. Knowing some of these issues now, I will be able to watch out for them to make sure I dont try to make anyone "tough it out" if they seem to react to the soy and Ill keep a close eye on people transitioning. Personally, I lost 25lbs in 2.5 months on program and I transitioned carefully so I have actually lost another 4lbs in the month I have been off program. I want to coach because there are people who feel lost and struggle to lose weight and I want to be able to help them. Now I know about some of the negative side effects to keep in mind so I can try not to give anyone a bad experience.5
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J9LynnHelton wrote: »J9LynnHelton wrote: »... I eat a variety of food 1 to 2 meals a day, I eat 6 small meals which works for me and I log my exercis calories...
Just out of curiosity, can you explain this? It's the 2nd time I've seen you post this. Do you eat 2 meals a day, or 6 small meals? Is it 2 "regular" sized meals, and 6 (or 4, for a total of 6) other small meals? Or am I missing something?
I eat 5 small meals of 100 to 250 calories and one larger meal of 300 to 400 calories. Maybe some should just be called snacks.
OK, thanks. I understand now.1 -
evilpoptart63 wrote: »I honestly just wanted unbiased opionions and Im really happy to have it. Im sorry so many of you and your loved ones had so many bad experiences. Knowing some of these issues now, I will be able to watch out for them to make sure I dont try to make anyone "tough it out" if they seem to react to the soy and Ill keep a close eye on people transitioning. Personally, I lost 25lbs in 2.5 months on program and I transitioned carefully so I have actually lost another 4lbs in the month I have been off program. I want to coach because there are people who feel lost and struggle to lose weight and I want to be able to help them. Now I know about some of the negative side effects to keep in mind so I can try not to give anyone a bad experience.
This just makes me
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Your mind seems to be made up on this issue, so I, for one, will stop trying to confuse you with facts.
Good luck to you and your clients.
PS: If you are gathering people on your friend list here in order to pitch them, it's against the ToS on MFP.12 -
I tried the program for two weeks. The coach insulted me in writing. They also do not allow you to write anything on their facebook community that is negative. I did not lose any weight on it in two weeks. I could not produce a bowel movement for a week. When I asked about either of these things on the community page, it was deleted They had me on 900-1100 a day as a fitness instructor. protein amounts 120-140 a day. I don't know why I did not lose? I just know I was treated poorly and payed a lot of money to get emotionally abused by a coach.6
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