Yesterday, I had someone stop me and ask me: "What is medifast? I know that this may be a silly question, but I'm not sure if this term describes shakes, products, a diet or a movement, or if this is a term for a line of clinics. I will address these things and tell you all that medifast encompasses in the following article.

What Is Medifast, Exactly?: Honestly, the answer to the above question would be that it's a little bit of all of the things listed.  It is a company who has designed and currently manufacturers a diet and weight loss program that is sold on the company's website.  This diet consists of foods that are provided by the company and are called "medifast meals."  There are also books, and products like blenders and shakers.  There are a few clinics, but not nearly enough for every one to have access to one.

This diet has been around for over twenty years. It was originally developed by doctors that were preparing overweight patients for a safe surgery.  It worked so well for this that it was expanded and tweaked until it eventually became the program that is well known today.  It has been repeatedly tested and studied at places like John Hopkins University.

It's probably so well known, if not fully understood, because of the celebrities that endorse it.  Genie Francis of General Hospital fame and Kristie Swanson (who starred in Buffy The Vampire Slayer) have both been endorsing this program for years.  However, there are a lot of misconceptions about it.  Many people think that this is a diet that consists of just shakes and maybe some bars.  There are many more than these two foods on the menu. There are well over 70, and since you need to eat six times per day, you will likely eventually come to appreciate this. 

If you were to just limit yourself to liquids and an occasional bar, you would likely become bored and this would not be so healthy any way.  Although five of your six meals are provided for you by the company, they do want for you to prepare one fresh meal each day to ensure that you are getting the nutrients that come from fresh foods. Of the six meals, only one each day should consists of the bars since they contain higher amounts of calories and carbohydrates.  They really try to limit each meal to around 100 calories each and under 12 grams of carbs.

In theory, this is really a diet based on high amounts of protein to lure you body into burring fat.  Before you make a judgment about these sort of protein diets, you should know that you won't be forced to eat pork rinds or to give up sweets.  As I alluded to, the bars are quite sweet and decadent tasting and there is also pudding, fruity drinks, oatmeal, and the shakes, which all have dessert like flavors.

In my opinion and experience, the real strengths of this program are its convenience, ease of use, decent foods, and effectiveness.  Most people are said to lose anywhere from 8 - 20 pounds each month.  They do sell all of the foods and products individually or by themselves, but most people will buy them as part of a package because this just makes things easier and cheaper.  It's my experience that you shouldn't skip meals. This will impede ketosis.  I know that eating six times will seem like a lot at first, but you quickly get used to this and it's so worth it.