I ordered my first month today (!!! : !!!) and I'm incredibly excited (as illustrated by the celebratory banana.

Annnnyway, I'm wondering about a few things.

1. How much exercise is expected? I didn't see anything about exercise specifically when perusing the site, but it's probably addressed in the welcome packet that'll come with my meal. Do you ladies exercise more/less/the same as before Medifast (henceforth referred to as BM)? I do not exercise now except for playing with my dog, which is not really exercise.

2. How many calories do you consume in your Lean and Green? I'm vegetarian, so I'm thinking that, for example, two Morningstar Farms patties (280 total) and a small salad with low-fat Italian and some corn (140 total) would be an acceptable L&G?

3. And now what I'm dreading...alcohol. Can I have any? Being a college student who likes to go out, it would be reeeeeeeally depressing for me to give up alcohol completely, but would perhaps substituting my L&G for a couple of drinks once a week (Thursday is our night out) do any damage?

Your guide you will receive will tell you how much morning star and other substitutes you can have. Corn is not good while in the fat burning stage (or alcohol) as it has too much sugar. The lowest carb alcohol you can drink is vodka but it will kick you out of the fat burning stage.

I have been on this program since 8/27 and have lost 33 pounds.

By jumping in and out of the fat burning stage it is difficult to get the cravings under control. The last 2 weeks have been difficult for me because of this. I cheated during Christmas and while on break I have not been getting all my meals in which is very important to keeping those cravings under control.

Good luck

Thanks for the advice. And wow, congrats on your weight loss!! I'm soooo excited for my shipment to get here

Mustang Sally is so right....you get out of the fat burning stage by eating too many carbs, and the cravings come back, and they're VERY hard to control. I'm finally back on plan after the holidays, and although I didn't gain, I also didn't lose like I should have, and kept sabotaging myself. I've been sick with the flu, and so that made me have no appetite.

Make sure your veggies are all low carb. No corn! Think broccoli, asparagus, green beans, cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage, etc. No corn, or root veggies.

You can do this! You are a at just a little more than I was when I went veg 2 years ago; I just went to a medifast-like program in August, starting at 243; today I'm 202; next week, ONEDERLAND!!!! I should have been done by now but I messed around in Oct/Nov/Dec; now I figure I'll finish by the end of March. I'm on a VLCD (dr. based cuz it's only 600 cals/day) and we lose 3-5 lbs a week; medifast is a little higher in cals, I believe, so probably 2-3 lbs per week.

But....you have to work the plan to make the plan work. One thing that helps me intermittently, although I abhor Rx, is phentermine. BUT I only take that if I fall off the wagon and cravings are too much. Otherwise, just being in ketosis - fat burning mode - should make you lose your appetite.

Howdy from a fellow vegetarian!

Thanks for all the info. I'm on day 6, and I'm sold! Almost 11 pounds so far. I know a lot of that was water, but it's still 11 pounds off my fat butt that wouldn't have come off without MF.

I'm not going to mess around with alcohol as long as I can avoid it. To meet my goal of 220 by May 27, I can't afford to do anything but stay totally OP.