[brookelizabeth]

Don't worry, I am not in a cheating mood!

It is hard for me to eat the bars, they are so sweet and I can't help but look at the calories and feel bad. So, I was in the grocery looking at the Special K bars and they are less calories and less carbs. I wandered over to the soup aisle and found the boxed lipton chicken noodle which comes in envelopes.

I was also thinking I could save a bit of $ by subbing.

What do you think??

Thanks

[Floprieto]

That sounds like a great idea... BUt i haven't been on plan long enough to know about any of that.. Sorry

[mandalinn82]

I'm not an expert, but...i'm pretty sure that the MediFast plan foods (bars, soups, etc) have extra calories and nutrients because you're not eating much else. For example, the nutrition facts on the Medifast bars are as follows, according to their site:

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 150 - 170 Total Fat: 3-5 grams Saturated Fat: 0.5-3 grams Cholesterol: 0 mg Sodium: 140-170 mg Potassium: 260-310 mg Total Carbs: 18-23 grams Dietary Fiber: 4-5 grams Sugars: 8-13 grams Protein: 11 grams Vitamins & Minerals: 15-70% daily value

A Special K Peach and Berry bar does have fewer calories (90) and 17 grams of carbohydrates. But it doesn't have nearly as much fiber (only half a gram), protein (only 2 grams), or vitamins and minerals. Your body needs protein! And incidentally, since fiber isn't digested by your body, the Medifast bar actually has fewer digestable carbohydrates than the Special K bar.

The Medifast Cream of Chicken Soup has these nutrition facts, again as per the Medifast website:
Nutritional Information: Calories: 110 Total Fat: 0.5-1.5 grams Saturated Fat: 0-0.5 grams Cholesterol: 15 mg Sodium: 240-360 mg Potassium: 330-340 mg Total Carbs: 9-13 grams Dietary Fiber: 1-3 grams Sugars: 4-5 grams Protein: 14 grams Vitamins & Minerals: 2-70% daily value

Lipton Cup-A-Noodle Cream of Chicken:
This also has fewer calories (70), but only 1 gram of protein and no fiber at all! It also has a ton more sodium and less potassium.

The foods aren't really comparable. if you could find an item that was cheaper, but had the same nutrition stats (Protein, Fat, Fiber, Calories, Carbs, and approximate vitamin content) as the Medifast bars, it might be worth subbing out some of the products to save money, but going with low-calorie alternatives to the Medifast products is only going to reduce your calories to unsafe low levels and drop your protein through the floor...the opposite of what the Medifast plan advocates.

The Medifast 5 and 1 plan is, per their website, 800-1000 calories per day...already very low! You don't want to drop that further by going with lower calorie, less nutritionally balanced products.

[Andiemom]

Great information! Thank you for posting this.

[brookelizabeth]

Thanks Manndalinn! Great research.

[brookelizabeth]

One more thing to check... I did buy but have not eaten any

South Beach Living bars. 10 grams protein, 140 calories, 15 carbs.

This looks closer but it does have sugar alcohol which I don't like.

I am going back into my auto ship and putting the oatmeal and bars back.

You'd save a few carbs and calories but not much so not worth the risk.

Thanks!

[suesully]

This was a huge discussion in the past. Most grocery store items do not have the protein needed for an adequate substitution. However, many people have used the South Beach bars in place of the MF bars (last I heard it was SB cereal bars). Those posts used to be pulled off the MyMF boards almost as fast as they went up.

What many people have done is to buy from other meal replacement plans like dietdirect, mydietshopz, Lindora, New Lifestyle Diet. They all sell the same meal replacements under different names. Dietdirect & mydietshopz also sell from other vendors.

They are a different option & have a diet program slightly different than MFs 5&1. All include the meal replacement packets & a healthy meal. The items aren't totally interchangeable w/MF as the carbs/fiber are lower. (You could add FiberSure to take care of that if you wanted.) Some items like some of the bars, soups, & hot drinks are high protein snacks & not meal replacements Many people prefer their shakes as they are based on milk protein & not soy protein. The taste is far superior. The cost is much less than MF.

It is a personal choice what diet plan one wants to follow. I'm not plugging products from any particular plan, just providing some information. How everyone choses to lose weight is their own personal business. And as long as it's done in a healthy way that is what should be important.

[brookelizabeth]

Very interesting. I would be afraid to try a different shake because I really like MF and I have tried others that I don't care for. So, I'll stick with MF for now.

I am going to investigate the South Beach bars. Mostly for my daughter who is a college student and needs to have bars each day. It would be great for her if we could find one that is the equivalent of a shake, so much more convenient between classes but that won't happen.

Thanks!

[Floprieto]

Hey... I found a LUNA bar. Here is the breakdown:

LUNA / MF bar
serving size: 1 bar (48g)/1 bar (43g)
Calories: 180 / 150
Fat:40 / 30
Sodium: 100mg / 170mg
Potassium: 170mg /290 mg
Total carb: 26 g / 22 g
Dietary Fiber: 3g / 4g
Insoluble fiber: 1g / 0g
Sugar: 13g / 12g
Other carb: 10g
Protein: 10 g / 11g
Vitamin A: 25 % / 25%
Vitamin C: 100% / 35 %
Calcium : 35% / 40%
Iron: 30 % / 35%
Vit E: 100% / 0%
Vit. K: 10% / 0%
Folate: 100% / 0%
B12: 100% / 0%
Biotin: 80% / 0%
and too many other Vitamins to list...
Luna bar are also 70% organic and pretty cheap: like $.97 cts if you buy them individually...

What do you all think?