The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[loriannk]

For me, when I decided to go off plan I didn't consider it cheating because it was my choice. Now if I went in a corner and ate a whole cake I would say yeah I cheated.

I stayed 100% on plan until June 17th weekend. So we are talking 16 weeks I stayed 100% compliant. On that weekend I decide before hand I would have 3 healthy square meals. No chips, fruits or deserts. I stuck to it. I did have bread on a grilled chicken sandwich at a restaurant but I skipped the fries. I went off plan but it does not mean I can go all out and eat anything I can get my hands on. I am trying to re-teach myself self control when it comes to food. When I go on maintence which is not too far away I want to be confident that I can say no to the junk food that still is in my house for the rest of my family.

So try not to think of going off plan as cheating. That makes it sound like you blew the whole diet and you might as well eat anything in site and out of site because you will "start over" tomorrow.

I think because on my off plan days I don't pig out I have been able to get right back on the MF plan with no problems. No hunger, no headaches and still feel great.

Good Luck.

[KimKim]

I am trying to re-teach myself self control when it comes to food.

So try not to think of going off plan as cheating. That makes it sound like you blew the whole diet and you might as well eat anything in site and out of site because you will "start over" tomorrow.

I think because on my off plan days I don't pig out I have been able to get right back on the MF plan with no problems. No hunger, no headaches and still feel great.


Thanks, Lori.

I have called every single moment I ate "off-plan" as cheating. I guess it's because that's just how I defined it. But I know what you mean because the times that I have cheated, only three of them (two on the same day) have been for a sweet and even then, it was one piece of pie or cake. I had more once and felt horrible about that (not eating it, it was wonderful) but moreso because I simply did not remind myself that I could have it later. Feeling as though I can't have something "ever" when I like alot of basic things that are otherwise quite healthy but not allowed on the plan (like cinnamon shredded wheat, hummus, etc.).

I just want to be compliant to prove to myself that I can do it. But if and when I do go off-plan, I am also training myself and am grateful to Medifast for helping me retrain my brain and tummy to still stick to smaller portions and reign everything in.

I do think this is why I've been able to so quickly and easily go right back to 100% compliance and weight loss.

Medifast is forgiving and I should be too ;-)

Kim

[ascicles]

Asicles,

What did you eat when you were off plan?
Have you noticed that you still eat differently when you cheat?
I've noticed that I still eat much less than before and my "cheats" are off-plan but if I were on maintenance, most of what I've eaten would be okay.

But I am not on maintenance ;-( One day, I will be.

Kim

Well, I ate smaller portions, but I didn't exactly eat great choices. That has more to do with me being in my hometown, where I always go to my favorite restaurants for my favorite meals. I am only there a few times a year though, and I don't really think it will be a big problem when I am off plan.

When I got back to my current home (I waited until Monday to start back), I ate fairly healthy things that would have worked fine in maintenence.

I'm not a hardliner like a some of the folks on here though (not that there is a problem with that ). I don't always follow the plan 100%, because I make some small substitutions and things like that occasionally.

[Arklahoma]

It seems that many people do not quite understand how this diet works so I'd like to just elaborate for a few moments. Medifast is a very low calorie diet (VLCD) which forces the human body into ketosis (fat-burning state is the MF verbage). Ketosis occurs when your body begins utilizing it's fat stores for fuel instead of glucose. Most of your body can burn ketones for fuel, but your brain can only burn glucose, so the liver must convert ketones to glucose. When fat is being broken down faster than the liver can convert ketones to sugar, the ketones accumulate in the bloodstream. This is ketosis.

Ketosis can cause dehydration because water follows the ketones and spills into the urine. This is why diets that cause ketosis have large weight losses during the first week. Physiologically speaking, wherever water goes in the body, potassium and sodium follow. So as your body is dumping water into the body's urine supply, potassium and sodium are following. This is why many may experience shifts in electrolytes (which is why this diet should be monitered by a physician). Getting your body into the fat-burning stage (ketosis) takes a few days, so if you fall off the wagon, you're completely undoing all of the complex physiology that your body had to go through to get there. By eating off the plan (ie ~ carbs), your body stops burning ketones and reverts back to its traditional method of metabolism, which causes the water weight to return rapidly.

[jump4joy]

Excellent post, Arkie!!! It's so important for those on MF to understand this! There is also a very good explanation of the ketogenic process (with illustrations) in the book, Success in a Shaker Jar by Linda Spangle, which I feel is a MUST HAVE for anyone on this plan.

Joy

[KimKim]

Thanks for all who have responded!

Thanks, Arklahoma for your recent post. I don't have the book and I will be getting that soon. I do appreciate the analysis and I at least understood that my body went through a process and I was "undoing it", which is why it has taken me 5-7 days to lose the weight I gained during cheating. I just don't want to do that anymore. I have two spikes on my graph because of the ridiculousness and I am trying to remind myself that Medifast is so wonderful because it works and it's popular. So, I'm not cheating anymore (at least that's the plan, anyway).

On a slightly different note, I have heard someone on here say, "progress, not perfection". For me, I did not stick to anything because I rarely saw results and there was clearly something I wasn't doing right. So, for me to stick to this program for two months if phenomenal. I'm ecstatic, even with the cheats. This program helps one to identify issues surrounding food and we all have a different orientation to it and have different triggers. Even some of the most successful people on this program have tried, failed, come back and tried again and then succeeded! Those who are on the full fast will have their own struggles when they get to maintenance because of the safety and "no need to test the waters" aspect of the full fast, as opposed to the lean and green. But I believe that, no matter what, as long as none of us gives up, we are winning, making progress and will reach our goals. Those who do it with zero cheats will be rewarded with their weight loss faster and they should be. Those of us who have cheated and have eaten off plan must face the punishment of getting back into compliance and taking the weight off in a longer period of time.

Personally, I don't want to do that anymore but I do think everyone's journey is very interesting and I am encouraged by those of you who are very strict and also those more forgiving. Either way, the answer is to stick to the program, no matter what!

I've done that and now have a new low for myself and I'm ecstatic about it.

Thanks so much, everyone!

Kim
p.s. gotta change my ticker . . .