Hi!

I'm trying to decide between Medifast and Ideal Protein. I plan on posting this on both forums, I hope that's okay! Can anyone give me any input? What makes them different? Which one works best?

As a side note, y'all are so inspiring!

Hi there! I don't know much about Ideal Protein, I did google it after I'd already started medifast because I was curious, but from my understanding they are very similar, and I don't think theres one that work "best." They both put you in a state of ketosis, which burns fat pretty quickly and they both have dramatic results. They both have meals of theirs and meals of your own, with strict guidelines. Like I said I don't know anything about what Ideal protein offers, but I can tell you what I love about Medifast!

THe food is great (there is only ONE item I really don't like, I've really enjoyed most of it), it's easy to figure out, you get a free health coach to help you out whenever you need. I utilized mine daily at first but haven't called in a few weeks now because I jus haven't needed to. The support community is amazing. I've lost 18 pounds in a month, and enjoyed it. I haven't had bad cravings, and if I do there has always been a mf food to satisfy it, I'm never hungry, yeah I had a few slip ups (well...one slip up, one stomach flu), but bounced back quickly and lost 18 pounds in spite of it. I'm sure you'll have success with either, but I love MF and have no regrets. It's the only diet that's worked for me so far (and I've tried a lot). I'd definitely say so far, it's one of the best investments I'ce ever made. I don't know the price differences between the two.

Lolo70, it looks like not many. There is not a lot of data but here is one medical study for reference, from the Journal of the American College of Nutrition:

Subjects regained an average of 73.4% of their weight loss during the first three years. The average weight loss maintained for 112 subjects was 22.8% of initial weight loss after an average of 5.3 years of follow-up.

But their program was lower calorie than most MF followers:

During the weight-loss phase (the VLCD program), all subjects were instructed to abstain from food and consume at least 520 kcal/day in the form of five chocolate or vanilla liquid supplements plus two vitamin-mineral tablets daily.

I think meal replacement programs like MF or IP work very effectively, but it's up to the dieter to adhere to a regimented, watchful maintenance. In 2001, I had lost 52 pounds with Weight Watchers and weighed 156 pounds. It was fantastic, BUT I did not make any real effort to maintain my loss. I just thought, well, that's done! Coming from a heavy mom and a history of huge portions of food, I know this time I will need to be much more diligent with both food and exercise after I hit goal. It's not magic and I think formerly obese or overweight bodies fight leanness - hormonally, they want to be fat again

Thanks for the info BerkshireGrl. The study certainly raises caution. I think maintenance is way more important than the speed of weight loss. Which is easy for me to say, since I am a slow looser. I have plenty of time to practice maintenance. But I noticed with a bit of frustration that I have to live on a rather low calorie diet (~1600) even with exercise. Not that much different from Medifast. I think the key is also how active your lifestyle is. If you walk whenever and wherever you can, it helps a lot.

Good luck with your diet. I found Medifast very easy and am just starting a hybrid of Medifast/IP again to loose the next 15 lbs. I do this in stages.