[jean2299]

I am nowhere NEAR maintenance. But, I am trying to mentally prepare myself for when I am done with Medifast, I am going to have to make some big changes or I will gain the weight back with a quickness.

I know Medifast has maintenance foods, but I doubt I will be able to afford to continue the plan past 4 months (which will hopefully get me to my goal weight or close).

For those of you who did Medifast and kept the weight off (or most of it how did you do it? And for those of you who gained it back, would you mind sharing what you would do differently next time?

Go spend half a day in the diets section of the library. Read through the different diets out there. I like the Mediterranean style of eating. Another book I recommend is "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy" by Dr. Walter Willett of Harvard Medical. It's a really good overview of weight loss studies. It comes to a diet that's pretty close to Mediterranean.

Anyhow, you should be able to find something that will fit into your lifestyle and become a part of your life rather than a "Loss Diet". Good Luck.

[sunnywarmth]

Hi Jean, I was one of those who was on MF three years ago and gained it all back. I did not have a plan, after the program was finished, and I did not want to stay on MF supplements through an additional 4-6 months on transition.

This time, I will be ending the MF/Wonderslim program when I have the final 10# to lose, and switch over to Weight Watchers. I would rather transition with WW, using real food for all meals, than to have to depend on even more MF supplements for transition.

[suesully]

I did not use Medifast foods when I transitioned into maintenance nor do I use them now. In fact, I started the transition phase when I still had ~40#s more to lose and finished my weight loss eating healthy, whole foods. It took me a little longer (18 months) than if I had stayed with Medifast the entire time but that's what worked for me and my body.

I found 3FC to be a HUGE resource in checking out other healthy diet plans. I ended up using a combination of South Beach with some YOAD and ideas from the Vegetarian Lifestyle threads thrown in. South Beach gave me a good framework to know how much of each food group to have.

My personal choice is pretty much whole foods with no artificial sweeteners or ingredients or processed/packaged foods. Those diet plans helped me achieved that easily. If you find that you want to eat more commercial products, then South Beach would still be something worth looking into as well as Weight Watchers. Both will help guide you with healthy eating & maintenance.

It took me months to get maintenance right and it will always be something I must be vigilant about. I learned that I can NEVER go back to eating the portions and foods that I did when I was in my 20s. And yes, I do have goodies but they are occasional treats in proper amounts, not daily excursions into a calorie-laden abyss.

Right now I would suggest working the Medifast program as it is written. You will lose a lot of weight quickly. That gave me the motivation to continue on until I reached goal. Medifast will help you get used to smaller portion sizes and clean out your system of all the junky foods you ate before. Your palate will change & you will appreciate simple, whole foods. Then when you switch over to a more traditional diet or eating plan, you will already have some valuable tools & knowledge of proper eating behind you. Good luck!!

[Rickd]

Jean a lot of it depends on how much weight you are loosing before you transition into maintenance. Often people treat any diet like just that a way to get off the weight. They forget that if they go back to old habits it will go back to the old weight. It gets harder each time to loose it.

On Medifast you are eating 800-1000 calories. Your metabolism if you are on it for four months will slow down and your body will probably not react well to 2-3000 calories without putting on weight.

Take a look at the combination of the food. It is balanced with the right amount of protein, carbs and such. On the last 30 days where you know you are going off plan re-introduce some foods back into your diet slowly. First week introduce one more meal of vegetables (more carbs that way). Second week introduce 1/2 cup of fruit and cut back to 4 meals and lean and green. Third week add 1/2 cup of yogurt or dairy. Last week re-introduce whole wheat and cut back to 3 meals.

From there you can stay at 1500 calories to finish your weight loss with a regular balanced diet for a couple of months and your metabolism with adjust back to normal. It is a misconception that you have to stay on the foods for life. Many people use the food to balance out their habits of skipping meals and eating poor choices. But it is not part of the design of the program to stay on them.

Hope that helps

[jean2299]

Wow! Thanks so much for the great replies!! I really appreciate it