hi all,
i was wondering has anyone tried this? i saw an ad for it and you take like 5 shakes a day and then you eat a meal. they also have pills too that are stimulant free. please if anyone knows anything about it let me know b4 i plunk down a huge chunk of cash.
thanx
dandylion

Hi Dandylion,

Meal replacement is not a good idea. What I have heard about this product and others like it is that as soon as you start eating food again, you gain all the weight back.

Do not fall prey to these 'simple easy' diet plans. They thrive on overweight women and the money they'll spend to try and lose weight.

You need to eat real food, not some liquid shake.

Eight years ago I went on the Medifast diet. I lost alot of weight, fast, but also lost alot of hair, normal bowel activity, a whole lot of money and gained a messed up metabolism and a really low self esteem when the weight was regained. I had a period of 3 months where I was at goal, which felt great, but the weight came back in a matter of months. I am now on Weight Watchers are I am learning to change my life style and how I use food. I realize that you are going to do what you wantto do but you asked for an opinion, so here it is. The quick fix never stays fixed for long! Good luck in any of the programs you choose.

I lost 80 pounds on Optifast 10+ years ago and have managed to keep it off...but hold on just a moment! I was one of the very few members of the Stanford Research study in which I was a participant who managed to keep the weight off...and even lose more weight in the years after the study. At the final weigh in, 18 months after the fast, the average study particpant (all were women in their 20's-50's) had regained 3/4 of the weight they had lost!

So...is a VCLD a viable alternative? For most people - I would say not. It is very expensive, as there are a lot of medical checks required (1-2 times a week). And you really need to be committed to learning a whole new lifestyle of eating and exercise to maintain your loss!

MrsJim
265/159/145

Ditto to the advise above!

My sister did Medifast - it cost $$ lots of money, lots of doctor visits - but she lost lots of weight. After 3 or 4 months she went back to regular food & started gaining back almost immediately. She's about 50 lbs heavier now than she was when she first went on the diet.

The sad thing is that she knows the right way to diet & exercise, but didn't bother to use that to maintain the great weightloss she experienced with the quick-fix powder diet.

Follow your doctors advice, but be sure to learn about nutrition also, I'm sure your doc can recommend a nutritionist to help you through the post diet maintenance.

Best of luck,
Roo

Lost my weight-I think you need the high colonic because you are full of it. From earlier postings that I have read of yours, you are promoting a product that is questionable to say the least. You are a snake to be praying on people that are looking for help. You have been asked several times to go away with your FAD diet plan. Please do so!

Quilting Lady --

YOU GO GIRL!!!!

Mr. LostMyWeight has been bothering me with private postings for the past couple of days even after I told him to go away with his snake oil...funny how so many of these 'distributors' of spurious 'products' remind me of Moonies accosting people in airports.

LostMyWeight - go away! Can't you take a hint???

MrsJim
265/159/145

(through sensible diet and exercise!)

Guy's that won't support a woman's goal to look better are insecure and afraid they will lose them to someone else. Better to have a fat woman that nobody but them wants then a skinny good looking woman everyone wants. Your homepage needs work on getting it to download. Go to http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com for free help. They have tools that will keep your site from being on their list of bad ones. They wrote a book on web pages that suck. It's either web pages or websitesthatsuck

Nothing works --

Are you having problems downloading my homepage? I haven't been - tried it both at home and at my work PCs. Send me a private message and let me know what problems you are having (that is if your message was directed to me...I couldn't tell).

As far as your first point -- I agree at least in my case -- Hubby #1 was not at all supportive in my weight-loss efforts. I thank God everyday for bringing Jim to me - I've never heard him whine about 'why aren't there snacks in the house??' or 'you should be making my dinner, not going to Jazzercise until 7:00!" the way my first husband did! With Jim, as long as we have cold cereal and nonfat milk, then he's got a meal...especially now with my busy schedule, I rarely have time to cook even for myself!

Thanks!

MrsJim
265/160/145

[This message has been edited by MrsJim (edited 02-09-2001).]

ABOUT MEDIFAST.

I LOST 50 POUNDS ON IT IN ABOUT 3 MONTHS. IT IS EXPENSIVE AND YES YOU HAVE TO SEE A CLINIC EVERY WEEK BUT IT DID WORK. I dont suggest it for everyone but only you can decide for your self. I would have stayed on it longer except that the women I was seeing as the clinitian always was canceling for some reason and seldom had the supplies I needed. However, I have recently found you can purchase the supplies from the internet so that is now not a problem. It is important t o only be on it for a short period of time becasue any diet that restricts callories so much can hurt you. But for the short time it does work if you stick with it. It can be a good boost to a good diet but is only reccomneded for people who have a great deal to loose and a doctors check up is always good first.

Reinbow --

I would NEVER advocate doing a VCLD (Very Low Calorie Diet, i.e. any program at less than 1200 calories a day) without REGULAR medical support. While I was on Optifast, each participant had a weekly (WEEKLY) medical exam; bi-weekly blood tests; regular resting EKGs; as well as the once-weekly group meeting with our counselor (who was a REAL Stanford-educated nutrionist and PH.D).

One of the very real dangers of VCLD's and a VERY good reason why all participants should be vigorously medically monitored is due to the high incidence of gallstones in non-monitored patients. Most of us participants were on Actigall (a prescription medication) to prevent gall bladder problems. I've known a couple of people who have had gall bladder surgery, and it doesn't sound particularly pleasant to go through the surgery and aftereffects of having your gallbladder removed...

Like I said before though, having group support is IMPORTANT -- make sure that the Optifast/Medifast program you are thinking of enrolling in has a well-educated experienced counseling staff (we're not talking Jenny Craig type counselors here -- Ph.D's/RN's/MDs are the order of the day on these kind of programs!).

MrsJim
265/160/145