Does The Medifast diet work?

Thank you for your reply. I know it is expensive but so is his eating habits of grabbing a snack during break and eating breakfast out every morning. So I'm hoping that with him not doing that anymore it will make up the difference. But I'm also hoping that his body will adjust to eating several small meals per day instead of 3 large ones and snack in between.

It does the same thing that can be done here. And its about $300 a month. I tried it, and the food is disgusting. Its all dehydrated stuff.

It sucks that Medifast gets such a bad reputation on message boards like this when people are only looking for information and personal experiences about the diet and most of the people who answer have never tried it personally and have only negative things to say about it.

1st of all, if your husband isn't in the right mindset to put in the work, not give up, and change his lifestyle permanently to lose the weight, then NO diet is going to work for him. Like you said, he'll probably easily get discouraged when things get tough and will probably be more susceptible to "cheating" when the temptation arises. None of us got to the weight we are in 1 day or even 1 month, its going to take time to take it off, period. That being said, Medifast does provide pretty big weight loss from the get go.

Very well said, and this comes from a real Medifast experience! Don't knock it if you don't really know first hand.
Now, I personally am on Medifast currently and have just finished my second week and am down 10 lbs so far! You may think I don't have much to say experience wise but they say the first two weeks for any "diet" is the toughest. Let me tell you, I love it! Unlike popular belief, not all the food is dehydrated and nothing that I've tried was gross to the point that I would not willingly eat it again. Your taste buds do have to adjust to it but after a few days on plan, everything to me started tasting pretty decent. Some of the foods are so tasty that after I eat them, I feel the guilt as if I have cheated!

People say this is a lazy diet or that it doesn't teach you good eating habits for the long run. To that I say, is there ever a lazy way to lose weight???? It is always a challenge to lose weight and any movement of the scale in the right direction should always be something to celebrate, not put down. Medifast DOES teach you good eating habits so that when you are done losing weight you can easily transition into the rest of your life without gaining back. That is, if you actually see the transition through to the end and do not immediately go back to eating sludge because your are skinny. Medifast teaches you, and your body, to eat smaller meals every 2-3 hours and that right there is a great start. I am at the point now where it is like clockwork with my hunger and it being time to eat, and I feel great now that I am not eating 2-3 over-sized meals per day. Furthermore, you have the ability to eat 1 "real food" meal a day that you have to prepare. The basic guidelines are 3 servings of veggies and 1 serving (5-6oz) of protein. The rest is up to you! That leaves so much room to experiment and even eat out at restaurants if you like, something that I imagine all of us still want to do. Once you get close to the amount of weight you want to lose you start the transition phase where you start eating 2 real meals a day and only 4 Medifast meals (as opposed to the standard 5 MF meals/ 1 real meal). From there, you slowly start adding in foods like fruits, dairy, grains etc back into your diet until you are off plan completely. I know a lot of people that continue to have whatever their favorite Medifast meals are even when they are done with the program because it is so easy to grab and go while getting something satiating and only 100 cals!

Ok, so there is my rant about PRO Medifast diet. I know I personally went for Medifast because there are such an overwhelming number of success stories and positive reviews from real people that you just do not find with any other diets aka. pills, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers etc. Furthermore, Medifast provides you with 100% all the nutrients and nutritional requirements your body SHOULD be getting every single day. This is something that I was terrible at on my own where I would assume that a Lean Cuisine or 100 cal snack packs of your favorite junk food was an acceptable diet.

Medifast is very strict and there is no wiggle room, you are either on plan or not but if you are determined that "this is the time I reach my goals, no excuses" then there is no way this won't work.

It sucks that Medifast gets such a bad reputation on message boards like this when people are only looking for information and personal experiences about the diet and most of the people who answer have never tried it personally and have only negative things to say about it.

1st of all, if your husband isn't in the right mindset to put in the work, not give up, and change his lifestyle permanently to lose the weight, then NO diet is going to work for him. Like you said, he'll probably easily get discouraged when things get tough and will probably be more susceptible to "cheating" when the temptation arises. None of us got to the weight we are in 1 day or even 1 month, its going to take time to take it off, period. That being said, Medifast does provide pretty big weight loss from the get go.

Now, I personally am on Medifast currently and have just finished my second week and am down 10 lbs so far! You may think I don't have much to say experience wise but they say the first two weeks for any "diet" is the toughest. Let me tell you, I love it! Unlike popular belief, not all the food is dehydrated and nothing that I've tried was gross to the point that I would not willingly eat it again. Your taste buds do have to adjust to it but after a few days on plan, everything to me started tasting pretty decent. Some of the foods are so tasty that after I eat them, I feel the guilt as if I have cheated!

People say this is a lazy diet or that it doesn't teach you good eating habits for the long run. To that I say, is there ever a lazy way to lose weight???? It is always a challenge to lose weight and any movement of the scale in the right direction should always be something to celebrate, not put down. Medifast DOES teach you good eating habits so that when you are done losing weight you can easily transition into the rest of your life without gaining back. That is, if you actually see the transition through to the end and do not immediately go back to eating sludge because your are skinny. Medifast teaches you, and your body, to eat smaller meals every 2-3 hours and that right there is a great start. I am at the point now where it is like clockwork with my hunger and it being time to eat, and I feel great now that I am not eating 2-3 over-sized meals per day. Furthermore, you have the ability to eat 1 "real food" meal a day that you have to prepare. The basic guidelines are 3 servings of veggies and 1 serving (5-6oz) of protein. The rest is up to you! That leaves so much room to experiment and even eat out at restaurants if you like, something that I imagine all of us still want to do. Once you get close to the amount of weight you want to lose you start the transition phase where you start eating 2 real meals a day and only 4 Medifast meals (as opposed to the standard 5 MF meals/ 1 real meal). From there, you slowly start adding in foods like fruits, dairy, grains etc back into your diet until you are off plan completely. I know a lot of people that continue to have whatever their favorite Medifast meals are even when they are done with the program because it is so easy to grab and go while getting something satiating and only 100 cals!

Ok, so there is my rant about PRO Medifast diet. I know I personally went for Medifast because there are such an overwhelming number of success stories and positive reviews from real people that you just do not find with any other diets aka. pills, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers etc. Furthermore, Medifast provides you with 100% all the nutrients and nutritional requirements your body SHOULD be getting every single day. This is something that I was terrible at on my own where I would assume that a Lean Cuisine or 100 cal snack packs of your favorite junk food was an acceptable diet.

Medifast is very strict and there is no wiggle room, you are either on plan or not but if you are determined that "this is the time I reach my goals, no excuses" then there is no way this won't work.

Here's my experience and what the statistics say: Approximately 90% of all dieters regain weight after reaching a goal.The "success" stories will only apply to the 10% who make it. I deal DAILY with people who have come to me for advice on how to lose weight with a diet.
My answer is ALWAYS the same: DIETS ARE TEMPORARY weight loss. People who lose weight and keep it off did it from a lifestyle change (which is what diet companies, programs, etc. try to preach later to you).
When people are ready to make the actual change, that's when the real test begins.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition