I didn’t measure out my meat, or worry too much about being so precise. My typical lean-and-green was a chicken breast + green beans or broccoli, and I’d just eat whatever size breast I had. If I had beef or some other “lean” I just tried to eat about the same amount as a chicken breast.

I did play road hockey once/week during the summer when on Medifast. This was my #1 difference from the plan. I would supplement my calories on that day with a 50/50 mix of Gatorade (or similar) and water. An hour of a fast sport like that is about 500 calories of exercise, so there was little risk of me drinking too much sugary water. A 750 mL bottle of Gatorade is only about 210 calories.

If I got lightheaded (which sometimes happened at the beginning, and no, that’s not a good thing) I’d drink more and take it easy.

Light exercise (ie: not road hockey) is totally fine, and the amount you’re describing would probably offset the extra 200 calories of occasional snacks.

I’m not doing Medifast any more because I couldn’t keep it up. It’s great for fast weight loss but doesn’t teach you how to keep it off.

Now I’m just counting calories with myfitnesspal.com and once I’m at my target weight I’m just going to increase my allowed calories to “maintain” instead of “lose” and just keep going counting calories forever. Having a smartphone makes this really easy nowadays.

I’d suggest switching to counting maintenance calories once you’re done the rapid weight loss from Medifast. That’s the best way to keep off the weight you lose. I’ve got a writeup on calories-in/calories-out here

I really just want to lose the weight so I can get to a comfortable number and then be conscious of what I eat and re-rachet up the exercise. Thanks for your help.

I spoke to a nutritionist and my trainer at the gym who put me on a good diet and exercise program. I did exactly what you are talking about “calories in vs. calories out”… needless to say, the weightloss is not as quick as I desired.

I have vowed to do Medifast for 3 months and then do the transition period of another month or so. I am hoping to lose 35-40 lbs. It has been two weeks and I am down 12 lbs. already (i know the beginning is a lot of water weight) I see by your blogs that it is possible, and reading how you did it has inspired me to not quit. I think I am prepared for what I need to do when I do lose the weight.
I’d rather be 210 watching what I eat than 250, right?

Thanks for the help. Wish me luck.

Medifast doesn’t teach you good eating habits very well. It certainly helped me drop most of my bad ones — I had completely stopped snacking — but it didn’t give me anything to replace it with once I was done.

I think Medifast is great for losing weight fast, especially if lots of other things have failed but the best option is to simply calorie count like I’ve done here now. Every day I’m learning how much food and exercise my body should get, how those two relate, and how many calories every type of food has.

And as I’ve noted, when I’m done losing weight with calorie counting all I’m going to do is keep counting calories but raise my daily allowance to an amount that’s “maintain weight” instead of “lose weight”. It’s not that hard (thanks to owning a smartphone) and the payoffs are totally worth it.

“Eating less than you expend” has to include your BMR, or “Base Metabolic Rate”. That’s the amount of calories your body needs every day just to do the basics of pumping blood and breathing and moving around a moderate amount and all that. Your BMR can be calculated here and it’s based on your height, weight, age, and sex.

You can even use this to estimate your weight loss. 1 lb. of fat is 3500 calories, both as intake and burn. If you eat 3500 calories less than your BMR in a week, you’ll lose a pound of fat. That’s how weight loss happens. Medifast puts you as low as you can go in this calories in vs. calories out fight.

At the 900-1000 calories that Medifast gives you you are probably at least a thousand calories under your BMR. That’s 7000 less calories per week and is two pounds of fat.

Adding exercise on top of that adds calories burned to your BMR. So if you have a BMR of 2200 calories and go for an hour long jog and burn 500 then your body needs 2700 calories that day. If you’re still eating just Medifast then your body will run at a 1500 calorie deficit which would be enough to kick it into starvation mode. And as noted, in starvation mode your body eats muscle for energy instead of fat. That’s not just bad because you’re not losing fat, but because it releases toxins into your body and you’ll feel terrible.

If you want to exercise on Medifast you’re going to have to figure out the calories you burn and eat that much more in calories that day. If you don’t, you risk starvation mode and disaster for your fat loss.

Jessica