Driving down the road in a medium to larger sized city such as Charlotte, it is likely that a Medifast clinic will be noticed along the way. Knowing that it is a weight loss center, curiosity can arise.
Medifast is the Nutrisystem of 2013. What it offers are pre-packaged meals that are high in protein, lower in carbohydrates (following the glycemic index) and low in fat. Per Medifast’s website: “Lose weight quickly and safely with the Medifast 5 & 1 Plan®. Eat 5 of our 70+ nutritious, delicious Medifast Meals and 1 Lean & Green™ Meal everyday,” The premise of the centers is that they offer weigh-ins and accountability, coupled with online support, to achieve weight loss goals. Medifast also endorses moderate exercise while on the plan.
Put simply, Medifast is a low calorie, high protein meal plan. Its combination of prepackaged meals, weigh-ins, online tool and a regular meal daily makes it a hybrid combination of the old favorites: Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers and Slim Fast.
This plan is certain to work if followed the way it is presented. Medifast also provides a decent maintenance plan for helping decrease the number of pre-packaged meals down to zero to three daily. This plan helps re-learn portion sizes, low glycemic foods and healthy protein and dairy choices. The problem with this plan is that is very low calorie to begin which may cause some people beginning the program to give up due to hunger from the extreme calorie reduction. Also, it does not address how to have meals in restaurants and look for the healthiest options.
Overall: Medifast is a good plan for the short term to see quick results for weight loss. For the long term, this plan could be problematic in that it may not met recommended daily intakes of nutrients and does not have a “real life” component for busy people on the go that are not able to plan every meal in advance.
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