Medifast - Newbie here; starting 4/29

I love reading all of the posts, and feel very excited to start. Got my box of MF food today and would start tomorrow except that I travel for work and am afraid of being sick (headaches etc.) while out of town.

Does anyone have any tips for while traveling? Dinner is usually with co-workers....

Good luck! I just finished my first week, so I have no advice to offer about traveling on MF. I'm planning to be on MF during my Disney World vacation in October. No idea how I'm going to work that.

I didn't have any headaches this week. Just a couple of days where I was hungry and sluggish.

I am starting on the 30th. I want to use my days off to get used to it. Got my order today. :)

Thanks for responding. I'm starting tomorrow and feel nervous. Nervous about being able to only eat that food...what if I hate it? what if I feel dizzy? headaches?

Good luck to both of you!!

Dig around the forum. Looks like there are tons of ideas for making the food yummy. :)

Hey ladies. Hope we can support each other and lots of other newbies. My box should be coming today, I only ordered 2 weeks because as I learned from nutrisystem.... getting stuck with a bunch of food you hate that you paid up the butt for sucks :D.

I'm planning on starting tomorrow. If the food is good, I'll go ahead and order another month, though I was looking at wonderslim and was told it tastes better and is cheaper.

Can anyone explain the VIP thing to me? I don't understand how I get 2 free weeks, or if there's a minimum number of shipments I have to order.

Can anyone explain the VIP thing to me? I don't understand how I get 2 free weeks, or if there's a minimum number of shipments I have to order.

The VIP 2 free week thing is as follows. You order your 20 boxes of any combination. In your shipment they put a 5 pack of boxes the first two months. 60% of what they sent me in the pack is stuff I would not have ordered. Mine was pancakes, pudding, hot cocoa, and I cannot rememeber the rest.

If your not picky I guess it's ok, but personally I will be using the discount next month instead.


Anyways, newbie here as well. I just started at midnight the first of May. I say midnight because I am an off shift worker and work 3 13 hours shifts from 7pm to 8 am. So figuring out my menu was a little of a challange, but I think I got it.

I hope we all have great success and glad to meet you all here.

Thanks for explaining that!! Also good luck on the program!!! I'm only on day 2 but it seems okay. That is definitely a difficult schedule to sort of work out your medifast meals with.

So day 2... Pudding is pretty slimy.... pancake mix got too watery so I enjoyed scrambled pancake mess. I followed the directions!! I barely made it through the work out this morning, really low energy, had to DIG DEEP. Though I'm less hungry/lethargic today (I think that was mostly due to unrelated stress). The food is tolerable and a variety. I am pretty picky in that regard, so far, things aren't bad. Chocolate mint bars and soft serve are to die for. I could probably put up with this for a month or two - it's just that it's a bit expensive considering what you're getting, you know?

I think I could probably do the same thing with SlimFast dry mix and a container of body fortress whey protein (which, btw, a week of medifast = 1 month of slimfast). I am sure I'd lose faster with medifast since SF isn't too much concerned about your sugar intake... but unfortunately money is a big consideration when it's 1 week:1 month.

I really never buy the SF bars though - I mean they are good, but their protein content is low. For my glorified candy bar I turn to Zone Bars or Balance Bar :) (though they have less fiber). Also certain kashi bars are good too. You can find them at Wal Mart.

2nd day finished... was never really starving but always felt like "I could eat". Looked forward to every small little meal. This diet really would be hard for me 5 months ago, you need a really good will power or lots of motivation to do this I think. Not really surprised that people lose weight on this program though..............

Good luck to everyone on getting started! It's amazing how good I feel here in week 2. I really don't have any cravings and have only been hungry at the times I'm supposed to be eating something. My energy is through the roof.

I just finished running 30 minutes straight on my treadmill while watching the news and Obama speech. :D The news gave me extra motivation I think!

I am doing MF through a center, so I have a tentative goal date of December 1st. To help keep myself motivated, I went to Office Depot to buy a large laminated calendar showing the entire year. I marked each week as a countdown to goal and stuck it up on my bathroom door. I'm marking off each day and will be posting my weekly pounds lost there too. It's kind of a fun way to keep track!

Reading. Learning. Absorbing.

I'm a maintainer who relapsed and can't get started back on my old weight loss program, so I decided to give this a try. My 4-week package arrives Thursday, but due several things, I'm starting a week from today (we have a 5k run Saturday and my DD is coming home from college for the weekend). Anyway, I told my DH he was doing this with me, so he's getting a box, too. It'll be easier for me as we work together and eat lunch together every day. This way I'll pack our medifast stuff rather than packing him a separate lunch. Dinners will be interesting (we have a teenage son who prefers pasta for dinner!).

Anyway, I'm excited to start! I need to get back down to my maintenance weight.

Reading. Learning. Absorbing.

I'm a maintainer who relapsed and can't get started back on my old weight loss program, so I decided to give this a try. My 4-week package arrives Thursday, but due several things, I'm starting a week from today (we have a 5k run Saturday and my DD is coming home from college for the weekend). Anyway, I told my DH he was doing this with me, so he's getting a box, too. It'll be easier for me as we work together and eat lunch together every day. This way I'll pack our medifast stuff rather than packing him a separate lunch. Dinners will be interesting (we have a teenage son who prefers pasta for dinner!).

Anyway, I'm excited to start! I need to get back down to my maintenance weight.

Good luck! I know it's hard being the only one in the house. I kind of wish I had a partner in this journey, but my husband has a BMI of 18. Ha! Last night my husband and stepson ate McDonald's chicken nuggets with fries while I had a grilled chicken salad. My 10 month old son had some of my chicken, so I guess I'm not totally alone. ;)

My DF could stand to lose maybe 20 or 30 lbs but he'd never be able to stick to this kind of diet. I don't mind doing it myself, but I know if I had a family I would really struggle with it. It's nice your DH is willing to stick it out with you.

The calendar is a great idea!!! Everytime I make a calendar though I always end up not sticking to it though :) According to my first calendar I should be 250 lbs now... lol :)

At home, where I live alone, I have pretty good willpower when I really want something. My problem is the peer pressure. I'm graduating from college this Saturday, and also having an end of the year celebration with co workers TONIGHT, and there will be nothing lean and green at either. Probably pizza and sweets. I will feel so rude not eating food at either, but I really want to give this a good clean 2 weeks to see what it can do. My mom was trying to ask me what kind of dessert I wanted and I just couldn't make her understand I didn't need food to celebrate something.

I am pretty energy deprived still, I am in decent enough shape which helps, but also moving out of an apartment which is exhausting! I so far really like the dutch chocolate shake, MUCH better than vanilla. The pudding remains to be my least favorite thing along with peanut butter soft serve. The hunger is controllable as long as you don't go more than 3 hours without eating and drink lots of water, and recognize the difference between just wanting to eat vs being hungry. That's about all the advice I can give to anyone looking to start.

Anyways if I can make it through finals week while moving on this program I think anyone can do it.... :)

I'm still not sure whether to order a month of MF or WS, or if I should just take what I've learned and do it on my own. I'm perfectly capable of finding bars that meet the criteria and making my own powdered shakes and low carb pancakes. My biggest con with both continues to be the cost.

My DH could stand to lose 20-30 and I'm bound and determined to re-lose the 20 I've gained over the past 5 years.

When I lost the weight (for the second time in my life) I did it all on my own and at the time I was cooking for two teenagers! They had to adapt, that's all there was to it. Granted I'm a pretty resourceful cook and can make even low fat taste terrific. It's just this time around I can't seem to get going. I'm hoping at least a month of this will be the impetus I need to complete it. And I told DH that if I liked it I would continue with it until all the weight is off. I don't know if he'll continue or not, but we'll see. He's pretty easy to please.

I am starting tomorrow--my package arrived yesterday. I'm gathering all the information I can so that I don't have a "negative" first experience. I was reading that some people decide to start with oatmeal for first meal, first day, and are disappointed.

So, I just printed out some tips from the Medifast forum. Seems that for many of the foods, like soups and oatmeal, it helps to soak them ahead of time. Add 1/2 hot water, let stand for 15 minutes, add the rest of the water and stir, then microwave if needed to make warm enough for you.

I think I'll start my first day with a shake, followed by a bar for meal 2. And go from there.

Like alinnell, I lost weight (as shown on ticker) but regained in the last year.

Jay

Yes that is what I heard about the soups! The shakes are good, I recommend blending them if you can - the volume increases by quite a lot to more of a whip cream consistency.

Make sure you have plenty of lean & green meal options for the week. Nothing worse than coming to that point, really hungry, and not having anything in the house to eat. I always have some tilapia fillets & shrimp plus frozen veggies in the freezer.

I think that if your DH wants to lose those 20-30 lbs then he should do great!! The diet is very palatable I think as long as he's okay with not eating "real food" for awhile. I think that would be a hard sell for most people in my family. I'm hard pressed to find something that I don't like so much that it'd make me stop the diet so far. I know I don't like soups too much or oatmeal, so I just didn't get those, and I know a lot of people complain about them. I think that it's good that medifast sort of still has that "diety" taste to it though - I know on nutrisystem a few of those dessert bars were SOOOO good when I had a binge moment I'd go after those because it was just too much like regular candies. I don't really see myself binging on anything medifast related... haha :) It kind of dissociates food from being a pleasurable experience to relieve my anxiety or boredom into just this thing I have to take every few hours for survival. I don't want to feel that way forever, but for now - it's good for food addicts!

I imagine this would be very difficult to do while in college. I ate so horribly then, mostly because it was cheap, fast, and easy.

I'm mostly sticking with shakes and bars all day because they taste good. The shakes fill me up nicely. The only other food I bother with is the choco-chip pancakes. They are pretty good if you add a 1/2 tsp of baking powder and use just a smidge of sugar free syrup.

Last night my lean was eggs and Morning Star Farms sausage. It was really good!

Yay, Jay! We're in it together. Best of luck to you (and me!).

JollyGreenSteen, my DH is already slightly accustomed to bars as he eats an Atkins protein bar every day for breakfast. He'll just need to get used to eating a little less but more often.

Losing weight in college sucks. Last two years in the dining center I ate like a queen... and pig. Haha. It's so much easier to get through 12 hour study sessions with a bag of chips and soda. If there wasn't a wedding I honestly don't think I could have done it

So I weighed in after 4 days on medifast (little midweek weigh in) and I GAINED 1.5 lbs after 4 days on this program? Odd. I knew I wouldn't have the gigantic medifast water loss thing, because I had already lost like 5-6 lbs the week prior. I fell off the program on Monday night a bit for a job dinner, so I won't read too much into it, but what a dissapointment. Back on the wagon is all I can do I guess.

On the plus side I was looking through my cousin's photos from last february of me and I CAN tell the difference. I was like seriously freakishly obese looking. Now I still am super plus sized, but I feel like a "normal" plus size. Very motivating to see the difference. Just keep losing every week and before too long...

My boxes arrived a day early. We'll start tomorrow! The only hiccup in our plans will be Sunday dinner, but the only blip will involve a pita, so I don't think it will completely derail our plans.

When I get home, I'm going to list everything we got so we can keep track of what we like and what we don't so that if we do this a 2nd month, I can order just what we like. After everything is listed, I'll pack up what we need for each day so I can haul it to work (since most of the food will be consumed at work).

Getting kind of scared....and a little miffed that for a month's worth of food, there are only 14 soups...Everything else seems to be perfect although I wonder how hungry I'll be by the end of the work day. I'm wondering if I ought to order a couple extra boxes of soups and stews for our lunches (we're used to eating a hot lunch and I don't know if either a shake or the soft serve will suffice). Anyway, we're all set to start tomorrow!

alinnell, next time customize your order. It's easy to do! You can remove some things, add others. You still get the month pricing.

Also, you can always do a two-week order and customize it as well.

I'm reporting on my first day in another thread--hope you'll come on over. :)

Jay

Jay, I'm sure I will customize it next time. I wrote down all the foods we got so that we can rate if we like them or not, so choosing next time will be easier.

I showed DH what he gets to eat and said that if he doesn't like it he can go back to regular and I'll finish the food and he said, "No. I can do this for a month." He even suggested that if it works he'll do a second month with me!

You are also able to trade in a box of something you absolutely can't stand, even with one packet missing, for a box of something else. You just pay for shipping (which of course can be kind of pricey). It's a handy trick just in case.

I'm new to this also, and was wondering... How do I start a post of my own? I can't seem to find it...

Hey Michele1128! :wave:

Up at the top of the list of threads and stickies there is a button, "New Thread," on the left side. :)

Jay

After two crazy weeks I'm going to start back on medifast. I do not know if I'll reorder. I'm sure I'll lose weight on medifast, but I've also lost weight with other methods that have not left me so famished and are half the price. I know everyone tells me on like the 5th day it gets better (I've done the ketogenic diets so I'm familiar with the drastic suppression in appetite) BUT those diets let me eat high caloric intake and fats to help the road to get there (atkins, etc). I also just don't think it's right to completely eliminate food groups - namely, fruit. I don't think there's anything wrong with a simple apple.

I am doing endurance running, I don't think 800 calories a day for a person my size is really gonna do the job!

No, you can't do some sport like endurance running while beginning Medifast. It sounds like it's not the right program for you.

Jay