Right now, I'm paying Medifast a whole lot of money to get me back to a state of merely a little fat. I haven't been there since I was about 40.
The secret of the Medifast diet is simple. You get two meals that consist of 5-7 oz. of lean meat and a green vegetable. Every 2-3 hours, you need to eat a high protein, low carb snack. Medifast sells some
very expensive bars that are made mostly out of soybeans, but I think there are commercial ones out there that are similar enough. They do have good protein shakes. We usually have a shake in the morning,
then a bar about three hours later. Mid-afternoon, a typical meal is a chicken breast on a salad. Then bars every couple hours until dinner time, which is again protein and greens of some kind. There has been some increase in physical activity as a result of being able to do more things now, but not a lot yet.
The program works. I'm down 51 lbs. since February, and wife is down almost 20 - but she was a lot skinnier than me to start. I no longer need to call Omar the Tentmaker when I need a new shirt.
My body tuned to crap at 40. That was also when I was diagnosed with diabetes, which is a major factor. But I've become much more aware of the foods we eat now, too.
If you get Netfllix, there is a great documentary out there, titled 'Fed Up'. It talks about the role of sugar in the obesity epidemic, and they make a very compelling case. All you have to do is look at
the packaging and see how many grams of sugar there are. Four grams of sugar equals 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar. A 12 oz. Coke has 39 grams - that's just shy of 10 teaspoons of refined sugar,
or 10 sugar cubes. You don't even put that much sugar in your iced tea.
Refined sugar triggers the production of insulin, which converts carbohydrates directly into fat. Excess insulin and excess carbs = fat. Simple sugars are converted into triglycerides.
But what about sugar free drinks? Unfortunately, the artificial sweeteners also trigger the body's release of insulin, and the same formula applies, you just don't have the extra carbs from
the sugar itself. But, I and many other people believe that diet drinks actually make you hungrier. If you are having trouble with that diet, lay off the pop.
But soft drinks are a drop in the bucket compared to prepared foods. Three reduced fat Oreos have 14g of sugar - that's 3.5 teaspoons of refined sugar. A 20 oz. Orange Julius has about the
same as a 12 oz/ Coke - 38 g. That Starbucks Mocha frappuccino has 47 g. A 28 oz, Slurpee has 63. A Cinnabon has 55. Eggo waffles with no syrup are OK. Here's a handy reference, but
you can get these numbers from the packages of everything you buy -
http://www.sugarstacks.com/
Here's another list of things that are surprisingly high in sugar -
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/su...n-sugar?page=4
As the documentary explains, we are hooked on sugar from infancy - our baby formula is loaded with it. Politics, not science, has created the impression that sugar is good for you, when it's actually very toxic.
We can't just eliminate all sugars, many are naturally occurring. My wife and I are bummed because watermelon is not allowed due to it's high sugar content. But giving up sweet stuff is a quick way to lose weight. And so is reading labels and understanding what a gram of sugar means.
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Originally Posted by WX7P
