bar products factory

I’m often asked about a variety of foods that the person asking is hoping is going to be as good as Medifast in terms of effectiveness.  I often get asked about grocery store shakes, protein bars, chili, pudding, chips, etc.  Sometimes people will bring up a particular product like special K protein bars, but sometimes people are just looking for alternatives that they can buy in a grocery or health food store.  In understand this hunt, as once I ran out of my diet food and had to go searching for alternatives while I was waiting for my order (which I never let happen again.)  In the following article, I will share with you what I found.

Most Products That You Hope Are “Comparable To Medifast” Won’t Put You In Ketosis:  Here is what is the bottom line for me.  If I’m going to do through all the trouble and expense of consuming diet or health food, then I want that food to be low enough in protein and fiber and low enough in carbs and calories to be able to put me in ketosis.  This is really a delicate balance here.  Even having slightly too many carbohydrates and calories could delay or even halt this progress.  If you are not able to get into fat burning mode, what’s the point, then?

So when I evaluate possible alternatives for Medifast, then they need to fall into the same category in terms of calories, protein, and carbs at the very least, but I also really want for them to also be low in sugar and high and fiber.  And guess what? So many of the “alternatives” fall so very short of this mark.  Most comparable protein bars have twice as many calories and tons of carbs.  Some of them even have high fructose corn syrup listed as one of the main ingredients like a candy bar. That’s really not going to cut it.

The same is often true for the shakes.  Many grocery store protein or diet shakes are absolutely full of sugar and very inadequate in protein.  Many also have many more calories.  The Medifast foods are somewhere in the 90 -120 calorie range.  Very few of the alternatives are anywhere near this.  Most are double or even more.

People often tell me that they are looking for grocery store substitutions because they think that these are going to be cheaper.  But, often, any lower cost is very nominal and certainly not worth the lack of effectiveness. If you use a decent Medifast coupon, I truly believe that this plan is cheaper than trying to prepare your own foods.

Do You Have To Get The Medifast Blender?: Another substitution that I’m often asked about is the health mate blender. The company has it’s own blender and I love it.  But, I’m often asked if any blender will work.  It will. You just want to get a very high powered one because you want a nice light and whipped texture, at least that is my preference.  I really do like the company’s model though.  It’s not much more than you would spend on at decent blender at a super center and it’s made specifically for the shakes.