The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[karmagirl]

Why can't I eat eggwhites, veggies, or other non-caloric snacks while on Medifast?

[DogMa]

Let's see ...

First, they're low in calories but they're not non-caloric.

Second, it throws off the balance of proteins and carbs and other nutrients in the program.

Those two would be good enough reasons for me. Of course, the third answer is you CAN eat anything you want while consuming Medifast products. You just won't be on the Medifast program and shouldn't expect to see the results you would expect from following the program.

[Jan]

Now It's my turn
Dogma is exactly right and I must add she is getting very very smart too!
jan

[ktrout]

I'm a big breakfast fan, who isn't ? and miss eggs a lot. Oh well, it'll come in time. It's a good thing that the oatmeal tastes yummy.

[karmagirl]

DogMa - I'm sure you did not intent the sarcasm that I read in your response but lack of food can make one extra sensative! Maybe I'm reading a tone that you did not intend. If that is the case I better go eat a celery stick.

First - in the world of high protein/low carb eating which is what Medifast is; egg whites, greens, and celery are considered "free foods" and you can consume any quantity. I was looking for a more factual response to the question I posted last night rather than an opinion. I realize that this is not like every other diet but I'm curious as to what makes the difference.

Second - what makes eating on the Medifast plan "reason enough for me" it's not because (egg whites and greens are not non-caloric and eating them throws off the protein balance) which are the reasons you said should be enough to stick to the plan. If those where the reasons that motivated me I would not have even started. I am ready to make a change; regain the control of my destiny, and relax in the fact that I am not a walking health timebomb! Those are "good enough reasons for me".

Thirdly; Thanks for your attempts to answer my questions which still remain unanswered. I would like to find out why the food is so limited. I'm like that. I like to know the reasons rather than just following because everyone else is doing well.

Have a great day

[Guest]

Karmagirl, I believe Dogma did try to answer your question. Medifast is not a High protein diet like the others are. It is a precisely balanced protein/carb diet and a very low calorie diet. Adding things not listed alters this balance and will alter your weight loss. You may find you would be happier with a high protein, low carb diet. Medifast works so well when it is done exactly as listed. Your quick start booklet explains a lot of this and if you don't have a health adviser you should sign up for one as they can also add a lot of info. Plug here. Bonnies a great one! Hope this helps.

[Guest]

Well, Above quest is me, Horsey Girl. My computer is playing games this morning and won't sign me in. Still won't.

[mama2benandrachel]

Dogma gave THE answer. It made perfect sense. Horsey Girl added the finishing touches.

Medifast is a COMPLETE program, balancing not only protein and carbs, but it is low fat and also has all of the proper nutrients for losing weight and maintaining optimal health.

I sound like a commercial!!

[karmagirl]

DogMa did not give the perfect answer. There is a medical reason and that is what I'm trying to find out. I read it somewhere but it was before I was committed to Medifast and I can't find where I read it. I didn't pay close attention to the reasons that were listed. The answer had something to do with ketosis and what happens if you consume too many calories. Obviously I have asked the wrong question or to the wrong forum.

Guest - your response that I may be happier if I choose a high protein low carb diet didn't make any sense to me. Where did I ever insinuate that this was not the program for me? Are questions not allowed amongst the "shakers"? Wow - that was not very supportive. Am I the only Medifast program follower that ever asked the question; Why can't I eat egg whites and greens????

[Guest]

Me, Horsey Girl again. Karma, We are all here to give and gain support and this is truely the nicest bunch I know. I have been here a year and have never seen a mean or sarcastic response. If you are in the first days of medifast you may be extra sensitive and I'm sure you are missing things. My comment was only to say that if you are more comfortable with a diet that you can alter to suit you, You may be happier with another. Unfortunatly Medifast doesn't work well if you do that, at least not for me. You are correct about the ketosis and you will find that in your quick start, or do a search here on this forum and you will get extensive info. Mama, Way to go. We are advertisements. I even have had someone call my health adviser and tell her I was a walking advertisement for medifast. 90#. I give out medifast info all the time. Now if they would just all call my adviser and give me the credit..... Oh, well at least several have got on medifast and I know they are healthy for it. NANCY! Are you up yet on the west coast? We may need some help here.

[Unca_Tim]

Hi karmagirl,
I'm sure nobody is trying to be sarcastic and definitely doesn't mean to hurt your feelings or insult you.

It's easy to mis-interpret things in this form of communication. I've made posts I've regretted by not elaborating enough and having them taken the wrong way.

As for your question, we're not really Medifast techies and don't claim to have all the answers here, as far as the make-up and composition of the plan. We just know it works, when closely followed.

As for the "veggies" part of your question. I'm sure you know that veggies are part of the lean/grean. Did you have a specific veggie question, or where you wondering if they could be used as snacks and not as included in the lean/green?

I think what others were trying to say is that just following the plan is what works. Many times answers feel directly pointed at you, when most times people are posting their answers for the general public so when people come here in the future they have the proper guidance.

There may still be someone come along here that can more specifically answer your questions. That's the good part about a forum like this, but sometime it can take a while for a thread to get completed.

If we don't get around to getting you the answer, there's always the option to ask one of the TSFL nurses at:
nurse@medifastdiet dot com.

If that address isn't valid, let me know, and I'll find the proper one for you.

[Jan]

Hi Karma,
I'm sorry I didn't give you a detailed answer the first time. We oldies have been doing this for quite some time and sometimes forget to really answer the information seekers. Plus, sometimes we make the assumption that you have an HA who can help you. Sorry -- In any event,
I live with engineers who are very very detail minded and really what to know the "whys" so I understand. I'll give it a try and see how I do. If my answer is not detailed enough I'd suggest you call the MF dietician who perhaps can tell you more.
As far as snacking, I think there are several reasons why we limit the snacks. Some of physiological and some Psychological. MF. is just that a Medical Program. It has been scientifcially and medically planned out and of course has been in existence for 20+ years. It works. Our program is not about counting anything: carbs, proteins, fats. It has been all pre-counted. The most important thing on MF is balance. If you look at the products you will see that the carb content and protein content have been balanced. For example I'm looking at the nutritional balance of Dutch Chocolate 55 -- one of the most popular. It has 13 gs of carbs and ll grams of protein as does French Vanilla. So now, to the snacking, everything except water has a nutritional balance. When you add egg white you are adding protein of course which throws out the carb to protein ratio. All veggies have a certain number of carbs -- some more than others sooo when you snack on veggies once again you are throwing off the balance. The snacking guidelines have a close tolerance so to speak. Why is this balance so important??? Again this is medical program not just a "diet" to lose weight. So our greatest concern is that you part with the pounds in a safe and quick manner. That's just what happens when you follow the program. When you add extra protein we can't determine the effect upon your kidneys etc. Also we don't want to have any gallbladder or liver issues. Plus, since we are keeping the balance of carbs and proteins it will be much easier to maintain your weight loss once you're at goal. High protein program users tend to have difficulty maintaining once extra carbs are included.
Our program is also 'muscle sparing" that means it is designed so that you will burn fat not muscle.
Again, when you change the balance we can't guarantee that you're not burning muscle. I think the main thing when we use this program is to change our thinking. With other methods of parting with the pounds generally a few extra proteins or once in a while even carbs don't matter that much. So here we have to change our thinking. Everything does matter. I guess we need to look at this a Rx medication. Take exactly what you are suppose to for maximum benefit and the healthiest outcome.
We want you to part with the pounds quickly but in the safest way. I'm not going to mention the psychological issues including emotional eating etc since I think I've already written a book.
jan

[falisamarie]

Karmagirl

I just wanted to let you know you are not alone and I had some of the same questions so I am glad you asked.

I don't know how long you have been on the program but for me it is day one and I know that I am extremely sensitive to what my family and others say and do today.

Stick with the program and just know that it will work.

Lisa

[DogMa]

I'm sorry that you took offense; none was meant. I had plenty of questions when I joined, about the diet's effect on metabolism and long-term maintenance.

I'm not a doctor, a nutritionist or a scientist, but if you want hard facts, I can give you some. Let's look at those "non-caloric" snacks you're asking about: An egg white has 15.43 calories, 3.46 grams of protein and 0.339 gram of carb. A cup of broccoli, since you weren't specific about veggies, has 24.64 calories, 4.61 grams of carb and 2.62 grams of protein.

So what would like to snack on? How about 2 egg whites and a cup of broccoli. Rounding off, you just ate 57 calories, 5 grams of carb and 9 grams of protein. But wait, that won't work because your ratio of carbs to protein is way off.

That's easily fixed, right? How about doubling the broccoli, which will get you close. Now you're at about 10 grams of carb and 11 of protein. Not bad. But wait. Now you've had about 82 calories. Doesn't sound like a lot, does it? But consider that Medifast is a very low calorie diet, containing around 800 calories a day. You just increased that by more than 10 percent. (And by the way, we haven't even talked about fat. To really keep the ratios the same, you'd need to add a little fat, too, which would boost the calories very quickly.)

So will you lose weight? Maybe. Probably, even. But will you be on the Medifast plan, which has been widely tested to be safe and effective? Nope.

As far as WHY the ratios are the way they are, I think you're better off contacting Medifast directly.

[Nancy]

Yep, I am still up here on the west coast. Sorry. Went to church and then babysat...

A lot of people have already written and I so appreciate your comments. Tim, you are right-on, it is very easy to miscommunicate even when we are sitting beside a person, have direct eye-contact and can interject at any time when we reach the point of our question. This format is not always easy.

Let me see how I can best help here. I am going to draw upon my days as a classroom teacher. When I was introducing a new learning to my students, I was careful to break down the learning into bite-size steps, to organize the steps in a progression of easier to complex and to use the same vocabulary for several days in a row, until the majority of the students had it down and then we went on, building upon what we knew and could then make applications to other areas.

I do not know all the answers nor do I purport to do so – after three and a half years of Medifasting, I am still a student myself. During the time we are in the weight loss phase of the program we are learning to train our mind and to develop our body to form lifelong healthy eating habits.

Medifast is a portion-controlled nutritionally balanced meal replacement program. Yep, Jan, the counting is all done for us. Yippy! I am not a math wizard like Dogma and others so I just love the fact that I don't have to do that. I can see me now: one, one carb; two, two proteins, three carbs and a fat... Medifast is not what we would necessarily classify as a high protein meal plan or a no/low carb meal plan but as DogMa stated, a proportional balance of protein to carbs to fats.

All the work has been done for us in terms of the nutritional make up of our meals – the packets contain all we need for five of our meals and they are in the perfect ratio of macronutrients. The bars are carb-heavy, thus we get but one a day. When we have our Lean and Green we are to eat the Lean with the Green and not to separate them by having just the lean at one meal and combining our green with one of the other five Medimeals or having the green by itself. Together, the L & G makes up a balance of protein to carbs to fat so the body has its energy source at its ready disposal.

We are learning to eat small nutritionally-balanced meals every two to three hours to keep our blood sugar level stabilized. We do not eat carb-free because our body requires a certain amount of carbohydrates for nerve functioning and for our brain to perform well. When we are just beginning our program and our body has not fully adjusted to the fat-burning state, we can still feel hungry at times. It is only natural to want to return to eating snacks or extra foods between meals. Many of us who are overweight have struggled with snacking – my own experience is that my snacking turned into a continuous eating episode that never quite ended.

We are learning to eat healthful foods, in small amounts at two to three hour intervals and to view food as the energy source it provides and to separate ourselves emotionally from our food - as best we can! For me, this separation process is a TOTAL learning process and a major new journey of life for me. In my humble opinion, it is best to not be snacking it up.

As we learn this process, in small increments during the weight loss phase, we are to continue to do this once our best weight is reached. For a healthy life, we need a balance of protein, carbs and some fat and we need to continue to eat small meals frequently throughout the day, not two huge meals and 1-2 small meals. Many of us who are foodies got into trouble when we skipped breakfast, carbed out mid morning, age a large calorie-dense and/or dinner and then were so full the next morning, we skipped breakfast and the cycle started again.

Medifast is a structured program and for me, this has been a wonderful thing – it is just what I needed because I was so unstructured in my random and continuous eating rampages. I feel safe when I know what I can and what I cannot eat.

Medifast has designed the program to include one snack and the snack can be 2 dill pickles, 3 celery stalks, 1 c Sugar-free Jell-O, 1 serving of Bouillon, 1 Packet of Medifast Crackers, or 1 Medifast Fast Soup.

We recommend that you only have one snack per day due to the additional carbohydrates and calories that it adds to our daily intake. When doing the program we are trying to maintain between 80-85 grams of carbohydrates and 800-1000 calories, in order to stay in the mild dietary state of ketosis.

Remember, this is a mild state of ketosis (or the fat-burning state) and this is what protects our muscle, keeps hunger away, provides a steady source of energy and allows us to stick to the program. In the beginning stages, we have head hunger for some time but true belly hunger goes away if we follow the program prescisely in a matter of several days.

I have written about the snacks in other posts and you may want to do a search using the search clicky button^ up there. The Quick Start booklet does state that bouillon is an acceptable snack and in addition, you may have one Medifast snack (Fast Soup or Medifast crackers) per day. That does sound like two snack times…see page 18 in the Quick Start booklet.

Medifast programs have evolved over the past 25 years to be what they are today. Research and clinical trials and practices have produced this gem that we have.

When I was growing up and my Mom would say to me, “Do this or do that because I said so,” it bugged the puckies outta me. When I grew up and became a mother, I sometimes said to our daughter, “because I said so.” It wasn’t that I was feeling pecky and wanted to antagonize her, it wasn’t because I was tired and I didn’t feel like explaining it all, sometimes I really didn’t know the exact reason why it was best to do/or not do something a particular way but experience had taught me that it was for the best to do something in a particular way.

There are times then as a Health Advisor that I must say, “trust the program,” let’s not try to see what we can get away with and mess around with it, do it the way it is designed and let’s see the results we get.

In the beginning of a weight loss program, it is important to do every thing we can to follow the program just as it is written. When we begin to have a smidge of this, an extra spoon of that, we can gradually increase our proportions and not realize the impact over time that this can have on us. Again, our purpose here is to train ourselves that for rapid, safe weight loss and healthful weight management, we should eat small balanced meals evenly spaced throughout the day.

When the day is over and we all lie down for the night, I know that the Gentle Readers will do as they very well please.

For rapid, safe weight loss, to keep hunger and cravings away, please follow the plan as outlined and the results will prove themselves.

For years I used to get tired of diets and would have just a pinch of this here or there, stop at Mickey D's for just one order of fries or at the DQ for just one small frozen treat. My little stops here and there lead me to 267 pounds.

I dunno if that helps at all, I doubt that I have explained it any better than anyone else but as for me, if it doesn't come in a packet with a Medifast logo on the front or if it isn't on the list of approved items for the Lean and Green meal (on page 5 of the Quick Start booklet), these lips are sealed because I want rapid, safe weight loss. I want it all! I want the best results I can get.

Ktrout ~ now little Darlin’, you need not have a hankering for eggs and live unsatisfied. These are approved protein substitutions for people who do not eat meat and are on the Medifast weight loss program. This is the Lean of the L & G. Be sure to eat the following Leans with an adequate serving of Green.

2 Eggs
½ - 1c Egg Substitute
1 oz. Of Nuts
1 tbsp Of Peanut Butter
¼ Block Firm Tofu
1 2”x1” piece of Soft Tofu
½ - 1c Low-fat Cottage Cheese
1 Boca Burger
1 Morning Star Burger

Okay, Kids, carry on.