Losing Weight With Medifast

I am a 30-something creative professional who lives and works in Austin, TX. I am the publisher of Get Skinny Be Happy - a blog about losing weight, getting healthy and improving your life. I have always struggled with weight issues. I probably haven't been at my ideal medical weight since I was in 2nd grade. In early 2009, after going through a lot of chaotic life issues - including divorce and unemployment - I decided I had to actively take steps towards getting control of my life.

At the time, I was a fast food addict ... I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day ... and I drank a LOT of alcohol. At the top of my list was to lose weight and get healthy. At my heaviest, I was 90 pounds overweight. I realized that drastic measures needed to be taken. After a lot of research, I chose the Medifast weight loss program and so far I have been very happy.

Although Medifast is an amazing product, it's not easy to lose 90 pounds and I have had missteps and misadventures along the way. Even though my story is still in progress, I'm using this page to chronicle my weight loss journey.

(Note: I am not selling anything with this page. I know there are a lot weight loss spammers out there. I'm not one of them. I'm just a real guy trying to lose weight and looking to the internet for feedback and motivation. Thanks!)

I had to face facts. I wasn't just overweight. I was obese.

I knew I would have to take drastic measurew to get this under control. Counting calories or cutting out carbohydrates wasn't going to get me where I needed to go.

Around this same time, I was reading a book by director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy). In the book Smith writes about how he lost a lot of weight using Optifast. Optifast is a liquid diet system. I think it's one of the diets Oprah was on at one time. To even qualify to purchase Optifast, you have to go to one of their clinics for a weigh in. There wasn't a clinic close to me, but I was totally ready to go for it. I was planning a multi-hour road trip to get to an Optifast clinic.

After reading up on Kevin Smith and his weight loss, I discovered that he had gained back almost all the weight. He also described being pretty miserable during his time on Optifast. He mentioned that one of his friends had successfully lost a bunch of weight on another system and kept it off. He mentioned that the other system incorporated an actual mean each day in addition to the shakes and other weird foods.

It turns out this "other system" was Medifast. Medifast uses a "5-and-1" system, where you eat 5 Medifast meals a day and 1 "Lean and Green" meal. This sounded a lot more pleasant and also potentially easier to transition out of when I had lost the weight.

I did a lot more research. I learned that Medifast had been around a long time and was recommended by physicians including the Mayo Clinic. Some of the food looked pretty tasty as well. And as long as I had one meal with "real" food a day, I figured I could probably make it.

So I ordered it. Even though I was really broke at the time, I put it on a credit card. Bad financial decision, I know. But I was desperate. I got my first shipment in about a week... and I was off and running.

I kept a record of how much I lost per week while on Medifast. This first section is the first 6 weeks, after that I fell off program. Scroll down and watch the numbers get smaller.

February 13, 2009 - 259 pounds
This is the day I started on Medifast!

February 20, 2009 - 249 pounds

February 27, 2009 - 245 pounds

March 27, 2009 - 242 pounds

March 13, 2009 - 237 pounds

March 20, 2009 - 234 pounds

March 27, 2009 - 232 pounds

April 3, 2009 - Unable to Weigh-In

April 10, 2009 - 230 pounds

April 17, 2009 - 226 pounds

April 24, 2009 - 220 pounds

May 1, 2009 - 218 pounds

Because of an injury, travel and some other stressful life issues, I quit Medifast at this time. But, I still lost almost 4 pounds per week during this time. That is pretty damn good. Also, I felt great while on Medifast and actually enjoyed the food and the structure of the 5-and-1 plan.

Now I am coming back for Round 2 - I am going to get down to 189 pounds. This will be the lowest I have weighed since... well, since I can remember. I can't even remember the last time I cracked 220. Wish me luck.