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Old 01-25-2012, 12:18 AM   #1  
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Default Did you gain weight back after stopping?

My aunt was on medifast three years ago and lost a ton of weight very quickly. I don't know the specifics (ie how much she weighed or how much she lost), I just know that in the months between the times we saw one another, she went from a very large lady (about 5'10'') to a very skinny lady. She looked amazing and maintained this weight loss for at least six months, after which I moved to Florida.

I called her very recently to ask her what maintenance was like and just about Medifast in general as I'd seen and read wonderful things and wanted to try it.

To make a long story short, she basically said that she'd maintained for six months but when she transitioned back to regular food, she put back on at least 100 pounds.

I'm writing not to discourage anyone, but to ask how typical this is. Have YOU personally gained back any weight after transitioning back to "regular" food? About how much? If not, what foods have you used to maintain that Medifast weight loss?

Thanks in advance!
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Old 01-25-2012, 07:29 AM   #2  
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Oh, plenty of people regain weight--on Medifast, and on any other weight loss program--if they do not follow the transition and maintenance plan.

The person who first got me interested in Medifast lost 60 pounds. I saw him once a week at a meeting, and every week he was noticeably lighter. To celebrate the end of his weight loss, he and his partner went on a cruise. He tossed the Medifast maintenance principles right off on the shore when he left. Unfortunately, he has been unable to find them again since. I am now watching him get noticeably heavier every week. As someone who has lost and regained in the past (using a different program), I know how he must feel.

Most people who lose weight, regardless of program, regain at least part of it. This is the maddening thing about weight loss. You can't go back to how you used to eat, because that's how you got fat in the first place. One's attitude, approach, habits, and use of food has to change to maintain a weight loss. That is often harder than the losing part.

Jay

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Old 01-25-2012, 09:42 AM   #3  
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I agree with Jay. Re-gaining weight happens with every "diet" to some people.

My DH did Medifast in 2010 - losing a lot (70 lbs, I think). Then with the stress of selling and buying a house, he gained some of it back but not all. Now, he's back on the losing track again.

I lost over 50lbs over the course of a year on WW about 10 years ago and then slowly gained it back and more. So, while sometimes I think that perhaps on diets where you lose weight slowly, you're more likely to keep it off - that wasn't true in my case.

From what I've seen with people who were sucessful longterm on Medifast - is that seems they follow through fully with the transition phase. I think it makes total since that Medifast sets the length of transition phase based on how much weight you lost. With a program like MF which severly cuts calories and carbs, I think you're going to gain weight fast (faster than say with something like WW) when you go off program.

I expect that when I meet my goal and get through maintence there will be some MF foods (like the brownies) that will I will eat for life. It seems like many who sucessfully lost weight on MF and kept it off, do still eat the MF foods sometimes or at least bring them back in when they see their weight creep up a few pounds.
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Old 01-26-2012, 02:10 PM   #4  
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I find this very interesting also. I lost around 45 pounds a couple years ago and regained mine this last holiday and went through spine surgery.

Your so right about not going back to eating the way you did before. you just cant do that. Has to be a lifestyle change.

this time i hope to maintain and really grasp what it takes to be a slim healthy person.

Medifast has been the go to diet for me. Its easy and it works.
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Old 02-02-2012, 10:20 AM   #5  
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Whether a person loses weigh on a quick loss diet such as MF or a slow loss diet like WW, about 95% of them will gain weight back. Why? Because people don't change their way of eating. They figure they're done with the diet and then they go back to eating the way they ate before.

There's no such thing as gaining weight faster if you lose it faster. It takes 3,500 calories to equal 1 pound of weight gain.

People who maintain their weight loss over the years are people who usually continue to weigh themselves, make healthy choices and don't go back to overeating, like the other 95% do.

It's up to us to choose which group we want to belong to after our goal is met. What we eat and how much is our choice.
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Old 02-02-2012, 05:53 PM   #6  
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I've been maintaining my 120lb loss for 3+ months now (still a beginner for sure). I can say that it's hard work. I count every calorie in and out and am trying to work out most days for 45 to 60 mins.
I do think transitioning to real food is harder from a meal replacement program like medifast, but you have to balance it out with the reinforcement of being able to lose weight more quickly. I was so stoked about losing that the weight loss stage was really fun and exciting. I've never been able to sustain a program before, so MF really changed my life. So, I'm okay with the transition to real food being a little more difficult. But no matter how you lose the weight it is hard work to keep it off.
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Old 02-03-2012, 01:53 AM   #7  
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I lost 45 pounds on Medifast last spring, then I moved and since the summer have gained it all back. It's definitely my own fault, which I'm aware of, but I think having been so seriously restricted made it a lot easier to spin out of control, and also amplified the effects because my body was used to eating 800 calories.
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Old 02-09-2012, 05:43 PM   #8  
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Medifast, to me, was too restrictive. It set me up for a binge on pasta. Not that I actually binge, but I was craving pasta so badly that it seems I made a pasta dish every night for a couple of weeks.

Then I went on two vacations.

Then the holidays hit.

So yeah, I gained it all back.

Doing it again, although this time I'm doing Nutrisystem which gives a lot more variety (pasta included) and so far (5 weeks) I'm not craving anything!
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Old 02-10-2012, 11:05 PM   #9  
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My coach lost about 35 pounds, and has put about 5 pounds back on. However, she did NOT do transition & maintenance. She's doing a half-a$$ed Medifast to maintain - 3-4 MF meals a day, 2 real meals, and then she goes back to 5 & 1 if she creeps up too much.

My Medifast "hero" has kept off 100 of the 120 pounds he lost 2 years ago. Last we talked, he was going to get serious after the holidays. He's newly in love and his lady love has some serious health issues, so I think his focus is elsewhere.

Although I don't want to be eating 5&1 forever, I'm terrified of transition and maintenance. I plan on studying that chapter when I get closer. Eating real food all day long scares me - I still don't have good portion control. I'm one of those people who got obese eating fairly healthy food, but way too much of it. Medifast is "safe" - I have limited opportunity to mess it up accidentally.

I intend to do transition as close to perfectly as I can manage. From what I've gathered in skimming the chapter, you need to slowly increase your calorie intake so your metabolism keeps up with the change.

Sorry this is so long! Keeping the weight off once I lose it is one of those things that keeps me up at night. I don't want to do all this work and then F it all up, you know? Maybe a little fear is good for me.
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Old 03-09-2012, 07:32 AM   #10  
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I know if I expect to keep off weight, I need to continue to eat Medifast food forever. I've realized I am a food addict, and accept this, and don't mind. I find that it's no more expensive than what I spent at the grocery store because of all of the extra crap I was buying, and all of the veggies and things I planned on eating, but wouldn't actually eat, that just got thrown in the garbage.
My former coach is always "jumping back on" to lose any weight she may gain before it gets out of control. So, I believe in order to keep off weight, many will ultimately need to always continue to eat the food, at least in some capacity.
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Old 03-09-2012, 11:18 AM   #11  
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I don't think people who regain "need" to keep eating Medifast foods. But, they do need to understand the principles of weight-friendly nutrition and stick with them.

I can only eat the Medifast foods in a limited way because I'm sensitive to soy protein isolate. I lost weight by using substitute foods that matched the Medifast meal profile.

I started to regain when I stopped following the transition/maintenance program. It's just that simple for me.

Jay
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Old 03-19-2012, 12:03 AM   #12  
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Yes - I gained it all back (55 pounds) within 6 months, but kept off the weight I lost as a vegetarian (35 pounds).

And the shakes/doctor's visits (not medifast, but similar) cost me $4k - and that's with insurance. I did learn at the doctor's office that to maintain, I have to only intake 1300 cals/day...a freaking lowcal diet for the rest of my life, basically. My head was not in the right place, horrible job at the time, uncertainty, and I soothed myself with food. Stupidity.

I'm starting again, but doing as JayEll is doing, using real foods that match the medifast profile. And I'm not going down to 140 pounds....I was happy at 190, maybe I'll go down to 175-180. If I went down to 140 pounds, to stay that slim, I'd only get 1000 cals/day to maintain. No thanks.

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Old 03-30-2012, 10:06 AM   #13  
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Lost 120 lbs. Finished last May. Pushed it down slowly another 10+ lbs over 6 months. Over the last 5 months or so I have gained 20lbs. For me at least weight requires constant monitoring, constant watching. There is no easy way. I am on Medifast again to loose the 20lbs I gained, I do not want to "wake up" 50+ lbs heavier. It was too hard to loose the weight in the first place.

For me the first step is to acknowledge it is not just "other people" who gain weight after dieting... it is me! Not just a perfunctory mental acknowledgement, but a deep down in your heart realization that when it comes to weight gain after "successful" dieting I am no different than anyone else and I am the problem and I *will* gain weight unless I keep on top of it.

It has helped that the 20 lbs I gained I saw myself gain slowly as I got on the scale almost every day.

So, yes, I did gain weight after dieting. I will loose it again.

- Henrik

Last edited by henrikk; 03-30-2012 at 11:49 AM.
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Old 03-30-2012, 11:20 AM   #14  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by henrikk View Post
Lost 120 lbs. Finished last May. Pushed it down slowly another 10+ lbs over a 6 months. Over last 5 months or so I have gained 20lbs. For me at least weight requires constant monitoring, constant watching. There is no easy way. I am Medifast again to loose the 20lbs I gained, I do not want to "wake up" 50+ lbs heavier. It was too hard to loose the weight in the first place.

For me the first step is to acknowledge it is not just "other people" who gain weight after dieting... it is me! Not just a perfunctory mental acknowledgement, but a deep down in your heart realization that when it comes to weight gain after "successful" dieting I am no different then anyone else and I am the problem and I *will* gain weight unless I keep on top of it.

It has helped that the 20 lbs I gained I saw myself gain slowly as I got on the scale almost every day.

So, yes, I did gain weight after dieting. I will loose it again.

- Henrik
Thank you for sharing that, Henrik! I agree with you here, it's good to take ownership even of the weight that creeps back on after a wonderful success story.

When I was younger, still in high school, I struggled with my weight. People I had been friends with since middle school teased me rather mercilessly about it, and I was eventually ostracized for it because to be "cool", you had to of course look and dress and act a certain way and shun those who didn't. The summer before my Junior year, I dropped 40 pounds by limiting calorie intake and getting on a treadmill everyday. When I came back as a Junior in the fall, everyone who had really kind of tortured me opened their arms to embrace the new, thinner me. They also acted as if the previous two years never happened. And this disgusted me.

My mindset about the weight loss (at that time) was "OK, I've done the work, the weight is off, now I can stop." But you really can't, not if you want to keep it off. It's kind of a constant struggle and requires one's constant attention.
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Old 04-01-2012, 10:47 PM   #15  
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Smile I too am afraid of regaining and Medifast Knows this!

I too am afraid of regaining and Medifast Knows this! It's designed to fail and keep Medifast in business.

I used the Medifast plan and I lost 35 lbs. It worked, but then I watched the latest documentary Hungry for Change and I have decided not to return to Medifast. The main reason is because I don't need their foods anymore nor do I want to digest them. It's dead food and I want to rid myself of toxins. In my last Medifast visit I mentioned to the counselor that I was not going to use their food to maintain my lifestyle. Right away, I could see the counselor was controlling her emotions to not get upset. I told her that I can maintain my lifestyle by juicing and detox and choosing better foods and staying away form toxic foods. This didn't go over well and she said she would speak to her manager! What, you can speak to anyone you wish, your food product is toxic! In the end, it's all about Medifast pushing a consumable food product masked by their one on one consultations. Nice people, but I was saved by the Hungry for Change documentary!
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