The problem with creating a plan based on substitutions is that MF is crafted so as to include the necessary vitamins and minerals. On a very low-cal diet such as MF, we have to be careful to get all the nutrients we need from a smaller volume of food. By replacing MF foods with every day items, yes, you will have low-cal and approximately similar carb/protein/fat ratios, but the rest of the nutrient profile will not be there. Though... I guess you can always take a multivitamin... Not sure if it's the same.
I thought about this issue when I started down this path. The MF foods are indeed crafted, but the vitamins and minerals they have are also artificially added. They're following the same USDA recommendations as the multivitamin manufacturers, so it should be the same.
In addition, that's why I like the Vitatop. Each one has 50% of the vitamin requirements. They're pretty nutritious on paper -- I have to taste one and see if I like them. They're also expensive at 83 cents to $1.50 each, depending upon where you buy them.
If you don't like using 5 egg whites as a meal, you could use 3 oz of roasted chicken breast instead. That has 110 calories, 2g fat, 0g carb, and 22g protein (roughly, depending on brand.) The combination will provide a little more fat than 5 egg whites, but more protein.
Personally, I'm more likely to think of 5 egg whites as a meal (3oz of white meat chicken breast is more likely to feel like a snack.) However, some people just don't like boiled egg whites.
For reference, the amount of white meat chicken breast that goes into a L&G meal is 6oz, so this is half that amount.
Wow, I am so thrilled that you all have put so much info onto this!!! I am on day 3 of MF...... I did it a year ago and had to stop without transitioning because I seriously ran out of money! I like knowing I can fudge with it a bit and save some money, and stay on longer this time! Thank you all a million times!
I'm getting close to the point of doing a partial medifast and medifake diet, because my original food is running out. I learned some shopping tips that I thought I'd pass on.
The Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle and Chicken Rice soups are interchangeable. BJ's sells them bulk (variety pack) for $10 for 10 cans (each can is two servings.) BJ's also has them in single servings for $10 for 6 cans. You might get them on sale at a grocery store, but soup is usually put on sale in winter/fall.
VitaTops are available in almost every grocery store, in the frozen foods section. It will either be with frozen breakfast foods or with frozen natural foods. Best price seems to be at discount places like Target, although Wegman's has it at the same price. Costco would be cheaper if you can find it there -- it's seasonal and I couldn't find it when I looked.
Best place to get the Carnation Instant Breakfast Sugar Free appears to be Amazon. Grocery stores carry it, but usually have one variety (and it always seems to be chocolate).
If you don't like using 5 egg whites as a meal, you could use 3 oz of roasted chicken breast instead. That has 110 calories, 2g fat, 0g carb, and 22g protein (roughly, depending on brand.) The combination will provide a little more fat than 5 egg whites, but more protein.
Personally, I'm more likely to think of 5 egg whites as a meal (3oz of white meat chicken breast is more likely to feel like a snack.) However, some people just don't like boiled egg whites.
For reference, the amount of white meat chicken breast that goes into a L&G meal is 6oz, so this is half that amount.
I've been rethinking this as I've tried implementing it. Maybe using roasted chicken breast isn't so bad. 5 egg whites definitely feels like a lot, so it works as a meal. However, it isn't convenient to have to cook it up and bring it into work. I can keep a bag of frozen roasted sliced chicken breasts in the freezer at work and microwave what I need.
Convenience trumps mathematical precision. (The egg option is cheaper, too, but the convenience is worth something.)
For the bars, I've found I don't like the South Beach bars as much as those from Kashi or Medifast. They're not terrible, it's more like they're okay instead of great.
You have to watch the Kashi bars, though. Not all of them have the same calorie counts. Some have too many calories. All taste great.
I started mixing my Medifast and Medifake foods this week. My wife got my extra MF foods to replace foods she didn't like.
For several days, I've been using grocery foods to supplement my Medifast meal supply. For breakfast, I eat 5 egg whites. Mid-morning and lunch is a Kashi/South Beach bar and/or a Carnation Instant Breakfast. Mid-afternoon is a MF puff, with the Lean and Green for dinner. After dinner I'm at home and can do any option (MF soup, MF soft serve, grocery soup). I now supplement with a daily multi-vitamin as well.
Weight loss has continued at the same rate, but there's a catch. Getting so much of the protein through egg whites all at once triggers a much harder ketosis reaction. It feels more like when I was on an Atkins diet. Doing pure Medifast is really easy for me - not hungry, no adverse effects, don't feel weird (although I do have less energy), just lose about a pound a day.
Still sticking with it for now, but I'm also considering for how long, and if I'll switch back.
When using the Vitatops it's important to use the ones that are "Sugar Free" otherwise the carb count it too high. The package will say Sugar Free in the upper right hand corner.
Right now I am fully transitioned off Medifast foods. Each Day my eating plan looks something like this:
Meal 1: Quaker Low Sugar Oatmeal: Maple Brown Sugar flavor, 1 cup spiced chai with 1 packet of Splenda
Meal 2: Kashi Honey Almond Flax Bar or South Beach diet chocolate high protein cereal bar
Meal 3: 1/2 can Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle or Chicken with Rice soup, 2 baby dill pickles
Meal 4: GNC sugar free whey protein shake (chocolate, strawberry, or cookies and cream flavor)
Meal 5: Lean and Green: Grilled Chicken breast with spinach and 10 black olives
Meal 6: Sugar free chocolate vita top with 2 tbsp Cool whip free
I am still losing about 2lbs each week and right now I am about 12lbs away from my goal weight of 140lbs.
Eventually I am going to swap Meal 3 for a 2nd Lean and Green Meal
Each Day I also take the following supplements: GNC Women's Ultra Mega vitamin for energy and metabolism, Omega 3 triple strength fish oil, Calcium and Vitamin D, green tea extract
I drink about 90 oz. of water each day and have no more than 2 beverages that contain caffeine each day.
I also do at least 30 minutes of cardio each day. An after dinner walk can really make a difference.
They key is to use Medifast as a jumpstart to change the way you think about food and take the addiction to sugar and carbs out of your system. Once you do that and lose a significant amount of weight on it you can transition back to real food. As long as you keep tracking everything you eat, you won't fall off the wagon.
In my case I know I can't go over 1500 calories a day and I need to eat a low carb diet for life in order to stay slim.
I forgot to mention: The closest thing I could find for a crunchy snack that tasted as good as Medifast cheesepuffs is a brand called "Lesser Evil"
They are in the organic section of the grocery store. Their Lesser Evil Potato Krinkle Sticks "Lightly Sea Salted" have a very generous serving size of 40 sticks and 110 calories, 2.5g fat, 20 carbs, 2g fiber, 2g protein, 0g sugar.
They are not an exact match for the cheese puff because they do not have a lot of protein so you'd need to make sure to add egg whites or some protein in another meal, etc.
They taste awesome and remind me of a cross between a french fry and cheese puffs. Very satisfying.
Good information, verykeri! That gives me even more variety to check out.
I've discovered that using non-Medifast foods in this way works if I stick to the plan. By calculating nearly exact matches for calories, carbs, protein, fat, and sugar (and keeping an eye on the vitamin RDAs), I can achieve the same results as the Medifast foods. There's a catch, however.
When eating 100% Medifast, I've found that I'm less inclined to cheat. Medifast foods are clearly labelled, and are very different than when I'm eating the Lean and Green. It is therefore very easy to stick to the diet for me (psychologically.) I'm only "at risk" of cheating at the "Lean and Green" mealtime.
("Cheating" is defined here as eating more than I'm supposed to on the MF plan.) It's not like I'm eating candy or fried foods or something. More like a greater amount of an allowed food than I'm supposed to have. I'm not a snacker and not eating carbs or fatty foods.
When I'm using grocery substitutes, it's more tempting to eat more than I'm supposed to. This is especially true because I'm splitting up some of the carbs and proteins into different meals (so it's easier to justify a cheat.) I can counter this somewhat by pre-measuring meals, but some of these grocery meals are much less convenient if I'm making them all the time. (I don't want to boil eggs multiple times a day.)
Obviously, the weight loss if I cheat is less than my loss if I don't cheat. I'm not gaining weight -- I'm just not losing as fast.
I could also attribute it to the fact that I've lost so much weight so far that I'm approaching normal BMI (where I'd expect loss to slow). However, on weekends I have unlimited access to the kitchen and am therefore most likely to cheat. I therefore switch to 100% Medifast on the weekends. And you know what? My biggest loss is on those days I'm 100% Medifast.
Since I'm trying to lose as much weight as possible for a deadline, I decided to bite the bullet and buy more MF meals. I'll defer the experiment for another month. I'll still be doing some substitute meals here and there, but it won't be completely non-Medifast for the next month or so.
So in conclusion, substitution with grocery foods does work if you follow it strictly and don't cheat. But there's also advantages to staying with Medifast if you can pay the price.
I'll definitely be substituting when I start transition and maintenance. I just want another month of a good weight loss.
Use Jay Robb egg white protein, since I love whole foods, I plan to make my own shake
handful of greens, 1/4 cup of almond milk and a scoop of jay robb protein.
40 calories or so for the milk
1/2 scoop of protein powder is 60 calories
greens..hardly any..lol
OR I may cut out the milk, use a whole scoop of protein powder with greens and water. I am used to drinking green smoothie, its sooo good for you. I also was successful with just eating small tiny portions when I ran out of food and actually lost an inch before due to that. llike 1/2 packet of oatmeal with protein powder, a couple pieces of broccoli and some chicken, ..100 calorie cottage cheese snacks. I am really excited about trying the jay robb protein. I am very very sensitive to sugar and medifast had me eating alot of sugar despite the 5 inches I lost in the middle. Also, being pre diabetc and insulin resistance, eating almost 100 grams of carbs is very different for me and I would like to go back down to around 60.
There's a possible substitute for the MF soft serve. I came across the Healthy Choice Premium fudge bars at Costco yesterday. Each bar is 100 calories, 1.5 g fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 80 mg sodium, 16 g carbs, 5g dietary fiber, 5 g sugar, 4 g protein. The protein is from milk protein and whey protein concentrates.
I'm not trying it for at least a month, but I wanted to point it out for others.
Costco also sells these frozen sorbets served inside half cuts of fruit used as containers. Two of the four types of desserts may be okay as well (but decidedly lacking in protein.). The one in the lemon and the orange are very low in calories, fat, sugar, and carbs. There's little fiber or protein, either. It probably wouldn't be filling long-term, and you'd have to find someone else to eat the other two desserts in the box. But it's another possibility as well (but I'd try the Healthy Choice first and use the IslandWay sorbet as a special event treat.)
EDIT: Nix the sorbet idea. The sugar at 8g or 9g is too high given what little nutrients it's providing. It's only got 50-60 calories, but it's more like just drinking a juice. On the other hand, the Healthy Choice fudge bars might be okay for an occasional treat (although it's slightly low on protein, which would need to be made up somewhere.)
Last edited by Sequi 2008; 05-25-2011 at 10:57 AM.
If you are ever out getting ice cream at an ice cream shop, the least evil option is this yogurt called "Only 8". More and more places are starting to carry it.
For a servig size of 1/2 cup 32 calories, 7g sugar, 0g fat, 1g protein. It tastes very good and comes in a variety of flavors.
Quote:
Healthy Choice Premium fudge bars at Costco yesterday. Each bar is 100 calories, 1.5 g fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 80 mg sodium, 16 g carbs, 5g dietary fiber, 5 g sugar, 4 g protein. The protein is from milk protein and whey protein concentrates.
I like to take those off the stick, cut them up into little pieces and melt 1tbsp of natural peanut buter over it and top with 2 tbsp of Cool Whip Free for a sundae.
for $8.99/box of 7, if you buy 12 boxes it goes down to $8.34/box of 7 (and goes down even more if you buy more), free shipping for orders of $79+. I'll look for a coupon code too, before I'm done. Free samples pack for over $49. So, I just checked it out over there....to buy 12 boxes, was $1.23/packet. However, buying 9 boxes, without the quantity discount, makes it $1.28/packet, but comes in at $80.91, so I still get free shipping.
I just got a shipment of Proventive Harmonized Vegan Protein and Genuine Health Vegan proteins+ from iherb.com (I like the vegan proteins because they use natural sweeteners like stevia - however - cut the plain vegan protein with apple juice! Tastes better - just a little watered down will do you). Over $40 you get free shipping, special with the protein+ was a free blender bottle, and a $5 coupon code for being a new customer. I got 3 little freebies in the box too:
And then, of course, there are the protein powders at Sams Club and Costco (like EAS or others and protein bars I use for meal replacement - I like Pure Protein) or soy protein powder at Trader Joes. Heck, even Slimfast was rated #2 diet by Consumers Reports recently - a meal replacement diet! Costco has their own version of SlimFast in the Kirkland brand, too
(1. Jenny Craig 2. SlimFast 3. Weight Watchers):
Note on the Kirkland brand: From this site below, it says that Kirkland has 44 gms of carb/serving! Wow! Way way too high for me. This site is obviously a proxy for their own brand, IdealShape (which by the way says it is less than $1.50/serving, anyone try it??):
With all these things, I'll follow the basic 5+1 program, with my lean and green being lots of salad, and vegetarian protein (tofu, cottage cheese, boca burgers, greek or soy yogurt). I get tofu for cheap at Asian markets, Grocery Outlet, 99 cent stores. Cottage cheese I buy in a big bulk container at Sams Club (I make a dessert out of it with cinnamon and stevia!); Boca burgers, at Costco (also Morningstar veggie sausage patties - they're DELICIOUS - my carnivore hubby and teenager prefer them to the real thing!!). I buy plain greek yogurt (make my own tzatziki) which is high protein at Costco; Costco also carries Chobani - Sams just started carrying Brown Cow greek yogurt. Soy yogurt I get at Trader Joe's. Yum...Chobani with Kashi GoLean cereal sprinkled over it (get a big box at Costco!!). I buy shirataki noodles (okay by MF program) at Asian markets or Grocery Outlet.
My veggies, I buy at the farmers market, with the exception of salad greens - I buy big bags of romaine (more nutrition ) and spinach at Sams Club.
I've found, to get my hubby and daughter to eat the veggies, I need to wash them and cut them up. It also makes it fast and easy for me to toss an evening salad up. I store them in glass containers (mason jars, or old glass dishes/lids, or a new glass set hubby got me at Costco) because I'm phasing out as much plastic as I can.
Last edited by justducky2; 05-29-2011 at 11:30 AM.
I look for sales...
