Update: Lots of people are finding this through Google while searching for Medifast. This is my first Medifast run, my latest you can find here (I lost another 30 lbs!)
I’ve finished my three month Medifast diet and the results have been phenomenal. I started exactly twelve weeks ago at 248.5 lbs and this morning I weighed in at 201.2 lbs. I graduated high school at 210 lbs! I haven’t been this thin for over twenty years!
That’s not to say I’m done this transformation. At around 200 lbs I still have about 20 lbs left to lose to be the right weight. I’m now weaning myself off of Medifast and on to real food, but I’m going to eat right and now ramp up the exercise. Tonight or tomorrow I’m going to the Chilliwack Aquatic Centre and renewing my membership. I’ll be hitting the cross-trainer there at least every two days, and probably more. In a few weeks I’ll start adding some weights to my program, and will be pretty much doing Body For Life again, though with my schedule I’m not sure now if I can actually do it as strictly as I should.
Ok, want to see the fatty I was next to the not-quite-so-fatty that I am? Here you go:
Crazy!
Here’s a quick animation I did between the beginning and ending poses:
And for those who give a crap, here’s the graph of my weight loss and body fat loss:
As the weight and body fat readings fluctuate (the big spikes in weight/bf on the graph are almost always right after my road hockey nights, showing the intense exercise does in fact not work well with the Medifast diet) so I’ve had Excel add in a standard line showing the average rate of decline. The dots are the actual readings.
Holy Crap! You look like a different person. Good for you to have the willpower to do all of the work needed to complete the transformation.
Joe, you are amazing! You know I was worried when you first told me about this diet, but how impressed am I? I’m very proud of you (and Mel!), and both David and I look forward to you joining us in the pool on Monday nights!
And … thank you for the sweet words about the engagement. I suppose it’s my fault that David makes very little use of his blog, but I will make sure he gets posting soon.
cheers!
Hi, I stumbled on your blog while researching Medifast. I’m on my third day (!) and was looking for positive reinforcement. Congrats on the mega weight loss. I really want to trim down (I guess my shape is close to your “before” picture, only a female version), and my doctor recommended Medifast. I’ve told myself that after every 20 pounds I lose, I’ll treat myself to a nice meal (I’m planning on a multi-course Chinese dinner for #1).
Anyway, congrats, you look great. Good job.
Wow!!! What Plan were you on. I am starting tomorrow if I could get those results .
YOu should be very proud of yourself.
I did the 5-and-1 plan, 5 shakes/soups and one “lean and green” meal per day.
Wow - those are some amazing results. I was actually just researching the Medifast diet and came across your site. This is encouraging to see. I was thinking about starting with this introductory package http://www.medifast980.com What do you think?
The Medifast 980 seems to only come with enough food for 11 days (56 meal replacements, 5 per day). I’d suggest getting the four-week starter pack.
When you purchase a month online you can use the discount code 2LOSE to get it cheaper. However, if you’re in the US, I’ve heard the cheapest way to get Medifast is through your doctor, so you might want to try that.
Puck! Congrats!
I’ve been on Medifast for 2 weeks. I’m losing SOOO fast, but I’m so exhausted, can’t catch my breath, gums are bleeding…did you get any fatigue?
thx!
Michele
I did get a few dizzy spells, but sitting down and eating sooner tended to help out. The Medifast quickstart book mentions that if you get dizzy you should have a few cups of boullion to help reset your electrolyte balance.
If your gums are bleeding because of this, you should definitely see your doctor!
Hi you look great..i am thinking about medifast and wanted to talk to a real person. Did it really work for you or is it just another way for them to make money?thanks for helping me.
I’m not sure how you can look at my before and after pictures, along with the graph of my steadily declining weight and then ask me if Medifast worked.
Of course it worked! I lost 47 lbs in about 88 days. Sheesh.
Hi,
Do you think I could substite Lean Cuisine or WW entree for mt lean and green meal? I am on day 2 and need to lose about 30 pounds.
You look great and should be very proud of your accomplishment.
Colleen
No. Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers still have far too many calories for a lean and green meal. They all contain carbs of some form in addition to whatever lean & green they’ll have.
Get a grill (like the George Foreman Grill — mine’s a GE and was cheaper) and buy big bags of chicken breasts (Costco here sells them) and your lean is taken care of. I’m picky for greens, and the best for me is canned green beans, so I just buy flats of those. With spices, chicken + green beans is good and different every meal.
Hi, I am thinking about starting Medifast. From your pictures, it definitely worked! I am close to graduating (5 weeks) and would like to lose 20-25 pounds for the big day. I have a few questions and your experience will help!
1. I exercise frequently now, can I cut it down while on this program? Or stop all together?
2. Do you suggest I buy a 2 week trial kit to try it out because I know all diets do not work for everyone. How much did u lose in 2 weeks?
3. Can you occassionally go out to dinner (smart choices of course) without it affecting the diet and just jump back right into it the next day or cut out the snacks to save for the dinner?
I cant wait to hear from you and get my order over!
p.s. congrats on your weight loss, it takes dedication and determination you did it!
1. Medifast doesn’t provide you with enough energy to do what they call “intense exercise”. You can still get some exercise — walks and so on are encouraged — but weightlifting or intense aerobics are out simply because you won’t have the energy and using up what little you have may put your body into starvation mode.
2. I lost about 12lbs in the first two weeks (probably half of that was just “water weight” though). I’d suggest getting the 4 week intro package simply because it’ll take a while to order more if you do 2 and want to keep going, and you don’t want to take a break because (see the end of 3)
3. If going out you can have a “lean and green” meal then yes. Most restaurants are used to “no starch, extra veg” orders options on their meals. I occasionally ate out and would order a small lean steak and ask for no potato and extra green vegetables instead and it worked great.
HOWEVER, if you don’t do that and instead decide that you’ll have that one lasagna dinner to reward yourself you’re going to kick your body out of ketosis and you’ll waste about three days of dieting getting back on it. So no, you cannot just “jump off” the diet and back on. Set a target weight, get on the diet and stay on until you reach it. Every time you resist that “just this once” cheating is 3-4 days of being on the diet that you’ve saved because your body won’t have to restart ketosis.
It has now been a year from when you started, right? How’s it going for you now? Do you still use any Medifast products? Have you been able to wean off and maintain your loss? How much have you lost in total now?
Thanks so much for sharing your journey!
I lost 47 lbs in the three months I did my first Medifast runthrough. I didn’t do a very good transition period afterwards and gained back 8 lbs almost immediately. I kept that weight for several months and then over the Xmas holidays my mother kept stuffing me with food. That plus knowing I was going to do Medifast again meant I gained 10 lbs back and started my current run at 220lbs.
I’m about 3.5 months in this time and my weight this morning was 175.8 lbs. This time I’m going to do a full transiation period starting when I hit my target weight of 170lbs, so I should maintain much better. I’m feeling great, and looking awesome! I’ll post pictures in a new entry once I hit 170.
HI-you look fabulous, keep it up. I just started yesterday and so far so good. I know I’m going to be hungry, but it’t not that starving thing. Anyway, seeing your results inspires me as does the other success stories I’ve read. Thanks for sharing.NJE/Alabama/5′9.5/195/looking to be 155
Don’t wait until you hit 170!! I wanna see what you look like now. I have been thinking about starting the Medifast plan, but after seeing how great you look, I’m call my order in NOW.
Well, I posted a picture of me from the day we went to see X-Men 3 in this blog entry. That should tide you over.
Puck you do look great, congrats on your weight loss success. I too stumbled across your blog researching info on medifast vs optifast. I do have one concern regarding this diet and thats maintenance. Once you have lost your desired weight, how easy is it to keep it off? Does the program give instructions on how to transition into regular food or must you keep using the shakes forever just to keep the weight off. I have read from another message board that this diet works very good and quick but you must keep using the shakes to keep off the weight and being in the health care profession I know that it is incredibly unsafe and life threatening to keep your body in ketosis (that is how this diet works) long term.
No need to keep up Medifast after you’re done. Of course, they do suggest keeping some around and doing 2 week stints of it to maintain your weight if you regain some, but I didn’t need to last year after my first three month Medifast runthrough.
The long-term effect of Medifast is that it strips you of all your bad eating habits. Because you absolutely can’t cheat, and you rarely snack (only things like celery or Medifast Soy Chips and even then limited amounts) and your servings are so small and measured you don’t have the binge-eating habits, the snacking habits, and the lean-and-green meal teaches you what’s healthy.
When I finish this Medifast run (very soon!) I’ll do a transition period and step up the exercise. I’m lighter than I’ve ever been in my adult lift (169.6 this morning but I’ll probably be back up above my target of 170 tomorrow and I want to *really* hit that weight before transitioning) but I still want to look better. I don’t have to look much thinner but now I’m going to work on muscle definition and general cardio health.
I did medifast and was very successful. I lost 54 lbs in a little over 2 months. I haven’t updated my blog in a long long time but I’m currently maintaining around 140 lbs (70 lbs gone from highest weight). Still have 20 more to go, like you!
Oh my gosh! You look awesome! You’re an inspiration and I appreciate you taking your time to share your knowledge of Medifast. You’ve inspired me to give it a shot. Thanks much!
Cheers!
samdoe: This is my *old* Medifast run. Check out the latest post — I’m 30 lbs lighter still.
Hey, I just checked that xmen 3 blog picture. I just wanted to say congrats and that all your posts have been really informative. I gained a lot of weight post college, from 160 to 225 in 3 years. I just can’t seem to keep the weight down. Part of me blames the atkins diet which works great if you live ur life that way forever, but then I gained weight back with a vengeance. I had a couple questions for you, to get a guy’s point of view. I like to work out or at least lift weights. Will this interfere with such activities, and I was also wondering what activites like swimming would do combined with this diet? I also enjoyed your tips for eating out, anymore tips like how you got thru holidays, and which adjustments you made? By the way, thanks for all your postings…they have been a real inspiration.
You can’t really do strenuous exercise on Medifast because you aren’t being provided with the energy for it. I’d suggest using Medifast to drop the weight quickly and keep the exercise down to “a good walk” level. Once you hit your target weight and transition back to regular food, reintroduce the more strenuous exercise.
I haven’t been on Medifast over the Xmas holidays, but for others I just stuck with it because I knew I had to. This last Xmas season was a bad one for me eating right because we visited my mother (a feeder) and I knew I was doing Medifast again in January so I just let go and ate a lot. Part of Medifast is learning to not use food as recreation/reward. I’ll admit that I’ve only partially learned that lesson, so I do have to use some willpower. I watched the Stanley Cup Finals game 7 with friends last night and they ordered chinese food in. I’m still transitioning, but I had some sweet and sour pork and beef and broccoli and avoided the noodles and rice.
As others have told you congrats and thanks for keeping up this blog. I just ordered my medifast 2 week supply due in on Monday. Your blog has been very informative on how the process works. I am a little alarmed now by the lack of energy and dizziness. Is it that bad? And how long did it take you to start seeing any results. Also is there any restrictions on how much liquid you can drink?
I found the dizziness only occured in the first few days or the occasional morning before I had eaten.
“Lack of energy” is a complicated one. Again, the first few days you definitely don’t have much energy. But after that your body goes into ketosis and cuts back on burning up your muscle mass for energy and you actually feel more energetic. It isn’t long-term energy though, so any kind of long-term exercise can really drain your batteries. But as long as I followed the program I felt great.
You look great - I am starting Medifast after I return from vacation - I leave this Sunday so there was no reason for me to start because I knew that would be a disaster - so I’m waiting until my return but then going for it all the way … I hope my results are like yours - successful
Mich
Great blog and pictures! exactly what i was looking for, i’m planning to start a 3-4month medifast run myself also and i just needed that last push to convince myself it actually works! And thats when i found this blog.
Still having a hard time convincing my parents it’s all real, but hey it’s my money and i sure hope ill be able to tell them “I told you so” months from now.
Thnx for the blog and all the pics!
ps: It’s pretty hard to find a store which ships to the eu tho. Guess ill just have to call their customer service.
Stumble across your blog while googling Medifast. Great Job!
I’m 5-11 255 and hoping to be down below 200 before May. You give me a lot of hope … Thanks
Wow! Congrats on weight loss! You look like a totally different person.
I was googling Medifast to find info before I started and your page is the best I’ve found. You give honest feedback about the good, the bad and the ugly. Your pics are amazing and you are truly an inspiration for others. THANK YOU!
As I start the program, I would like to shoot you a quick email on my progres every now and again, if that’s okay with you.
Again, kudos to you!
You said you eat a lot of green beans. Did you just open a can a day?
Yeah, one can of green beans was often the “green” of my “lean and green” meal.
I was wondering if you have been successful at keeping all or some of the weight off? I’m on my second start with Medifast. Just started. I love the diet. Need to know how to transition back to regular food once I lose 30 lbs.
thanks…
I’ve been fairly successful with keeping the weight off.
After each Medifast run I typically gained about 10-20 lbs and then fluctuate around that.
You really have to let Medifast train you away from snacking and eating too much and bad food. It’s pretty easy to fall back into the old rut so it’s a life of vigilance. Winters are harder because my preferred exercise is outdoor (road hockey) so I do gain “winter weight” which I then lose once I run around outside in the better weather.
Way to go! You look fantastic! I was just wondering what the youngest age appropriate would be to start medifast. Would it work for people in their first year of high school or what? Keep up the great work!
you look great. this is so encouraging. I have thought about this for over a month now. its time to get serious. thanks for all of your input. congrats and best wishes.
Hello and Congrats!!!
I too had great results. I lost 42 pounds in 4 months and loved every minute of it! Well, almost every minute of it. The first days were, to put it mildly, a bitch! But, halfway through the afternoon of the third day, the urge to want to eat my license plate went away. From then on, the progress was so fast that you couldn’t wait for the time to pass as you knew you were losing. I joke that I could HEAR myself getting thinner.
I have relapsed in the past few months and gained ten pounds back but this time it is different; I KNOW that I can use the program and lose more. My goal is to get back to my College running weight, about 172 pounds. I was 272 when I started. I couldn’t tie my shoes without calling timeout. I was embarrassed and sweating all the time. My wife is beautiful and I want to keep her and also not explode with a massive heart attack.
I just want to advise anyone thinking about this plan…GO FOR IT!!!
Sincerely,
Paul 605-728-5024 mobile, if you want to talk.
Congratualtions on your weightloss. I have just finished my first week and lost 7 pounds doing pretty heavy excercise. After reading your blog I will just walk next week and see how it goes. My biggest concern is gaining the weight back once I am off the medifast foods. I don’t know if I will be able to do the transition using medifast foods since I am going overseas for a while back to my country to visit family, and because of weight restrictions with luggage I simply can’t take all the food I need and so I am worried about the rebound weight gain….
In your experience, how do you suggest I go about eating after I am done medifast if I cannot continue using the medifast meals?
Thanks,
Natalia
If you don’t do some kind of transition period from Very Low Calorie to your regular diet your weight will rebound a LOT.
But I wouldn’t say it has to be Medifast. Just try to introduce mroe calories gradually and make sure you’re getting the vitamins and minerals you need while doing that.
You are so inspirational! I have not been on Medifast quite two months, and I am thrilled with it. I hope I have end results like you do!
i am fraid to do this becausd I am afraid of being painfully hungry, especially at night.
2) Is the is Medifast so profiecient at weight loss becasue it of low calories or something in their food?
I found I only had real hunger problems the first few days. After you power through that, your body adjusts and I often found I had to remind myself it was time to have a shake.
Hey,
1) Do you think that there is somthing special in the Medfast food that makles one lose or just the low calorie. If it is the food itself, I think I should do it, rather than the low cal on my onw. What do you think Puck? Thank you
2) Do people lose more on medifast amount of calories than on their own with same amount of calories?
Corrie -
The “special” in Medifast is simply that it’s premeasured for you and that it has all the necessary vitamins and minerals.
Could you do it yourself by just counting calories and taking super multivitamins? It’s not magic, so of course. But could you pull it off? Do you know how little you have to eat to enter ketosis without going into starvation mode? Can you pull off that kind of calorie counting every single day for two months or more?
I couldn’t. So I sprang for Medifast.
As for calories vs. calories, again, it’s not magic. I’m sure that if you were able to count calories and get your vitamins and minerals there’s no special ingredient in Medifast that makes it work better than doing that. It’s just far, far, simpler and that simplicity is one of the big reasons that it works.
Wow, congratulations on your weight loss! I am seriously considering this program. I was a very healthy weight when I graduated high school, and now that I’m graduating from college, I have gained about 65 pounds. My weight has fluctuated, and I’ve tried several fad diets. My only fear with this diet is once I get off of it. I’m afraid I will spring back up, and gain all the weight back plus more like I did before on my other diet.
What do you recommend for the transition off? I realize I need to change what & how I eat, but did you find it extremely difficult to maintain? I don’t mind exercising, but my schedule doesn’t necessarily allow me to do a lot of exercise every day. Any suggestions/tips for the transition period and maintaining? I would like to hear from a real person, not someone paid to advertise for the program.
Thanks!
When it comes to transitioning I’m probably not the guy to talk to. I did two stints of Medifast and both times didn’t do a good transition and gained 10 lbs back pretty much right away.
But after that I haven’t had too much of a problem with staying down. It’s really as simple as eat right (and the right amount) and exercise, even if it’s just a bit. Go for a walk (I take the dog), play golf, anything. That combined with good eating habits should be just fine for maintaining the new weight.
I want to go on Medifast but I have this questino I though you might know about.
I take 2-4 Pepsid a day. They have sugar in them (they are not made in sugar free). Will this amount of sugar throw me off Ketosis? Can I still do Medifast you think?
Many thanks Gracie Thomas
That’s certainly something you should talk to your doctor about, however…
A quick wiki shows that “Pepcid Complete” has 155 mg of sucrose each. That means that even 4 of them would be less than a gram of sucrose, so I can’t really see it making any kind of difference. A full gram of sucrose has less than six calories!
puck, I think you are very generous with your time and your help.
Hope you are blessed in your life since you
are giving back this way. Glad you care and glad you are a good guy.
AC Houston
Reader and on my way to losing this “deadly” weight!
Hi Puck,
Just wanted to let you know, I was searching around looking for diet comparisons and stumbled upon your blog. I am so glad I did. It has convinced me that Medifast is the plan for me. Your blog is a great motivator. Wish me luck
hi puck congrates on your weight loss! ive statred on it for the past 2 weeks im losing one pound and half a week. is this normal? i wish i could speed the weight loss up to at least to 2-3 pounds per week. any suggestions? please i need help!!!! tell me excactly what you ate. thank you - christina
From the forums I’ve been on, and my wife’s own experience, women tend to plateau more easily, and then have a big drop to make up for it. I’m no doctor but I’m pretty sure it has to do with the monthly cycle and water retention. Keep at it, keep track of your weight loss and I’m sure you’ll see a more significant loss over time eventually.
Hi Puck! Thanks for sharing all your experiences and advice! I have a questions for you. You mentioned that you ate greenbeans for your green meal. What exactly did you do with them? You opened a can and just ate them? Or did you cook them first?
Also do you have an suggestions for other green meals. I work in a hospital so it’s really hard to prepare things inbetween the shift working.
Thanks! And congratulations on your success!
All I did with my green beans was open the can, put it in a bowl and then heat it in the microwave for a few minutes. My wife claims that the “mushy” green beans you get out of a can aren’t as good as fresh crunchy ones, but I actually prefer them.
I just started Medifast but have done some research and there are many new studies out that say Soy is really bad for you. That Whey is much safer. I called my Doctor and he is also very against Soy. Not sure what to do.
You look awsome man, very inspiring. I just started a 4 week medifast plan Thanks to a $55 coupon my first order was only 239. Cabin is the coupon code for anyone interested. Could you explain to a relative excel moron how you set up you tracking graph that seems like a cool tool. I am 182# with an astounding 38% body fat. I don’t care so much were my lbs end up so much as my Body fat %.
J
I am a TBK fanatic (Turbo Kick Boxing) and take a one hour class 4 times a week. I love it, do I have to give it up while on Medifast? What if I have an additional shake or two?
Thanks.
Nancy
You should be totally fine. I played Road Hockey once a week while doing Medifast, which would sometimes go up to three hours of pretty intense exercise. I did keep some Gatorade around in case I felt like I lost some energy, which did happen, though not every time.
Thanks Puck! One more thing…. I love pickles and have been eating more then the two spears a day Medifast recommends. Is this a problem? I have been eating 5-6 spears a day, each spear has one carb and is 5 calories so that is about 6 carbs and 30 calories more per day….
Thanks again.
That should be fine. I don’t like pickles, and my snack was olives which have quite a bit more calories. As long as you’re even a little active — and you’ve noted that you are!) an extra 30 calories a day shouldn’t hurt at all.
What should I do if I can’t stand the oatmeal? Should I or could I substitute a shake for that? I hope I am doing this all right. I do feel sluggish along with hungry, any suggestions? I need to loose 40 pounds and I don’t know if I can keep up with eating powder all the time. HELP!
Hey there Puck, i think its great that you are lending a listening ear to everone. I was wondering if you went with the all shakes plan or if you opted for some of the soups or bars? Do you think that i would lose more weight with just the shakes? Some of the soups are nasty but the bars arnt bad. Thanks in advance for your help.
I found the oatmeal really needed some Splenda and cinnamon added. Both are 0 calorie and make it a LOT better. But if that doesn’t help then yes, have a shake instead. I often had mostly shakes through the day.
Amanda, the soups are equivalent of the shakes. The bars have a bit more calories so they suggest you only have one per day. I *love* the bars, especially the chocolate mint ones, and would have more than one per day if I thought it would be ok. Sometimes I did — I’d keep a few bars in the car for emergency meals and often had to have an extra one. As long as it’s not a regular thing (to have an extra) it should be fine.
I don’t think the difference in calories between one bar shakes and just shakes is going to make much of a difference in weight loss.
I am on medifast.
I have been on it about 3 1/2 weeks.
Here is the problems. I stay on it (very well)for about three - four days but after that i get so tired of the food they have that i go off for a day or two.
i get back on thank you goodness but it happens like this ever few days where i just cannot stand one more of the package meals. Any suggestions? Hunger only made me go odd one time. It is just the monotony of the foods. Help….please I want to be a winner and have a better life. I cannot open one more of those dry packets. The amount is so small that it is not even worth preparing it as a meal. Thank you
Candy, it sounds like you’re more active that usual (your email address — private on comments but I can see it — hints at this as well). I’d strongly suggest you talk to a doctor who can suggest an increase in caloric intake for you. Medifast takes up to three days to really take effect and get you into ketosis. It sounds to me like you’re going past the “ketosis” stage and into starvation, and you’re going to need someone with training helping you out if you’re going to continue.
unfortunately I am 100% sedentary and home bound - my email does make me “look” active:) but not at all
i guess what i do is do the work to get to ketosis then get to some undisciplined place and go off
i need to try harder. how many days in a row were you on it without breaking it in any way. My tops is about 9 days…
I did two different Medifast “runs”. The first (the results on this page) was three months, the second run was four months.
If you can’t stay on Medifast for at least a month I’d strongly suggest you find something else. Constantly yo-yoing in and out of ketosis really can’t be good for you.
and you could stay on it for three months and without eating off?
Yes. Once you get over the initial phase of hunger pangs — for me they came at roughly days two through four — it’s incredibly simple because your body adapts. You just have to power through that first week and it’s smooth sailing. At least, it was for me. If you can’t, I’d strongly suggest — as I have a few times already — seeking medical advice.
Great work Puck. I just wanted to chim in. I’m a 33 yr old female and have just completed my medifast journey. I started April 09.2007 and as of Oct 08, 2007 I have lost over 75 lbs!! That’s 75lbs in less than 6 months!
I am doing the transition and still losing! Medifast is a SAFE diet! And it works! You can not cheat and you must learn to change your eating and excerise habits forever in order to keep it off, but that is true of ANY diet.
I went from 192 lbs to 116lbs
Those numbers dont lie!
Great work and congrats on your current and continued success!
(Candy) I myself was inspired by my good frined Puck and his Medifast sucess, but the shakes and planned ketosis were jus tnot for me. However, as he points out there are a lot of other ways to manage weight and metabolism. Definitley take his advice and visit a nutriotionist/Doctor, but also check out the “idiot-proof diet.” I myself took off 140 some lbs of adipose in about 9 months, and have kept it off for the last 9 with very easy maintenance.
As Puck points out in this thread, the biggest adjustment is your honesty with yourself. As long as you make a real committment to losing “bad” weight and being healthy, you will be. But if you sneak around it, you only “hurt” yourself. One fatty meal will undo up to three days of healthy ones, as your body goes into “feast” mode very readily. It’s that Hunter-gatherer genetic memory.
Hi Puck,
I know that I am like so many others, having tried every diet under the sun only be disappointed and give up after losing only a few pounds. Or sometimes even gaining a few pounds while on a “diet”.I am glad for you and you are an inspiration to me. I joined LA Weight Loss a few months ago and so far all I have lost is the $300 it cost to join. I plan to start Medifast in a few days and after seeing you, I am very excited and can’t “weight” to get going. Thanks for sharing your story.
LOL
Puck,
First of all, I want to say congratulations to you and your weight loss. My question to you is concerning muscle tone and skin elasticity. Currently, I am about 5′11″ and weigh about 325 pounds or so. I am planning on starting my Medifast diet after the holidays. My main concern is that I may have excess skin if I lose the weight in a rapid amount of time. I understand the ketosis process helps you lose the fat and maintain the muscle tone somewhat, but I don’t want to have a thin body, but have huge flaps of excess skin…Did you have any experience with that?
Leon
I’m your height and was once nearly 260 lbs — pre-Medifast I woke up and started eating right and exercise, but needed Medifast to lose the most of it — and I didn’t really have any problem with loose skin, even after my second Medifast run:
You can check out more of my final weight of 170 lbs (so almost 90 lbs of weight lost overall!) in my updated Medifast entry.
I’m not sure what it would take to cause the loose-skin thing. I’ve certainly seen people with that on TV, but even if I was that big to start I’d much rather be thin with some extra skin than that fat.
Did you do have a favorite shake or soup?
That’s a hard call. Even the ones I did enjoy I’d get sick of pretty quickly so the key for me was to change it up, or add some flavouring like cinnamon.
Chocolate is good. The Orange is also tasty though I know people who hated it. I’m not a banana fan, but that shake was also nice, at least wiht some cinnamon thrown in.
Did you figure a way to jazz up any of the soups? The only oneI have jazzed up is chicken noodle with a tiny bit of chinese mustard and a tsp of lite soy sauce.
Both the Chicken Noodle and Cream of Chicken were much better with a bit of chicken boullion, and often some garlic pepper.
Actually, garlic pepper works in the cream of broccoli too. I didn’t like any of the other soups, so I don’t know what would fix those up.
I add hot sauce like tabasco to the soup and garlic salt.Molly Mcbutter has a cheese flavor powder that helps.
Any spice will help the soups. If you cook them long enough, they are pretty good. I added salt to all of the soups. I still lost 25 pounds the first month.
I am going to be ordering Medifast and wanted to know if you feel like you are going to starve.
I just wanted to say, that Medifast does work. I was on it earlier this year for a month and lost 20 lbs within that month! I’ve been off it for 3 months, and have been able to keep those pounds off by just eating smarter and healtier.
I’m trying to rev myself up to go on my second medifast run. But to anyone on the fence about it, I can honestly say it worked for me.
Puck, I just wanted to say thank you, because your blog really gave me the last push to try medifast, and to lose that weight. Thanks a bunch! I feel great, and I can’t wait to lost more weight on my second run!
Hi there, I work for a doctor who is starting the medifast program and she wants me to try it. Althought I am very overweight, I do work out a lot and it just doesn’t make sense to me that I should stop working out on a diet. I also tried a few of the products today and they seemed really gross, do you get used to them? Did you find that it was hard getting back into eating regular food? Looks like it really worked for you, just questioning if it will be right for me, thanks!
You don’t have to stop working out. You just won’t have much energy for *extended* *intensive* exercise.
But talk to your doctor to see what you can do. I played road hockey up to twice a week for 2-3 hours each time, which was both extended and intensive. I just supplemented myself with a little Gatorade while playing so I didn’t get dizzy.
Hi Puck! I am writing because like everyone else, I have a question. I would like to start Medifast, but I am concerned about the dizziness and lack of energy. I have 2 kids that take up a lot of energy and I am worried that I won’t have a lot with starting this. About how many days/weeks did you feel that lack of energy? I did check with my doctor and he said I would be a good candidate for this so I really want to do this. One of my friends lost about 120 lbs on Medifast and I was amazed. I am also amazed with your truthfullness and persistence! Reading this is giving me the push I need to do this! Thanks so much for writing this! You are awesome! Congrats on the new you!
Puck.. Thanks a million for sharing your incredible journey as it has certainly provided me with so much motivation at a really crucial time. I finished one medi run about a month and a half ago, prior to then i’d lost 51 lbs in 7 1/2 weeks but was side lined by the holidays and “family feedings” !! I know i can get back on program and make goal although i’m intimidated by the prospect of re-gain & transitioning you have given me hope that its not only possible to transist but to do so without staying on Medifast for life and risking being in permanent ketosis! You are truly an inspiration to many… continued success. Were you concerned by the recent studies and or negative findings about soy causing so many health problems ?
Sally: The dizziness and lack of energy is really only during the first