Medifast is a lifestyle diet program that can help you lose two-five pounds a week without counting calories, carbs, or points. It was developed by a physician over twenty-five years ago and has been helping people love their bodies again ever since. It’s an easy way to integrate healthy eating into your life without totally interrupting your busy schedule. The Transition, Maintenance, and Exercise plans pick-up where the original diet ends for long-term results.

The basis of the Medifast program is the 5&1 Plan. You eat six meals a day, so you are eating every three hours. Eating that often keeps you from getting hungry and provides you with consistent energy levels. It’s much easier to be motivated to exercise and stick to the plan when you are full and energized! You eat five regular meals each day plus one Lean & Green meal. The Lean & Green meal balances lean protein, such as chicken, beef, or fish, with salad and vegetables. The other five meals are portion-controlled versions of favorite foods like soups, scrambled eggs, puddings, and even shakes. The program offers over sixty different meal options, so there is plenty of variety.

The meals are nutritionally complete, low calorie, and low fat. They contain a medically designed balance of protein and carbohydrates plus essential vitamins and minerals. Most of the meals contain soy protein, which may help reduce the risk of heart disease and osteoporosis, but whey protein meals are available if you are allergic to soy. The meals meet all of your daily nutritional requirements while still helping you lose weight and feel great!

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The South Beach Diet is a revolutionary way of looking at weight loss. It isn’t low carb or low fat—it’s all about balance and learning to choose good fats and good carbs instead of foods that don’t help your body. This diet was developed by Miami cardiologist Arthur Agaston as a way for heart patients to lose weight in a healthy way and keep it off, but it was so successful that soon everyone wanted to try it.

During the first two weeks on the South Beach Diet you’ll begin the process of learning to eat in a new way. You’ll eat three balanced meals a day with normal size portions of meat, seafood, vegetables, eggs, cheese, and nuts. You won’t be hungry and you’ll learn how to ignore cravings and avoid wanting to overeat. You get to have snacks twice a day, drink diet soda, and eat out, but there are a few things you can’t eat in the first two weeks. You can’t have bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, baked goods, candy, ice cream, sugar, or fruit. You also can’t have beer or alcohol. But it’s only for two weeks. After that, you get to add these foods back into your diet in a healthy way.

After the first two weeks, the next phase of the South Beach Diet begins. You’ll still eat plenty of lean protein, vegetables, eggs, cheeses, and nuts, but you also get to add in some of your favorite carbohydrates and sugars. You’ll learn the difference between good carbs and bad carbs and learn to balance foods so that you stay full and have plenty of energy! You stick to this phase of the diet until you reach your target weight. Then you can add in even more carbs and sugars while still maintaining your new weight. Once you know how to balance healthy options with not-as-healthy favorites, it’s easy to eat what you love and still keep the weight off.

The South Beach Diet is less of a diet and more of a way of life. It teaches you how to eat so that it isn’t such a struggle to be healthy. The foods emphasized are universally considered to be healthy choices rich in vitamins, minerals, omega-3 oils, and good fats. There are even prepackaged South Beach meal options that can be purchased online or in grocery stores, which makes it even easier to stay on track.

More information on the South Beach Diet.

Eat a diet full of color

Fruits and vegetables are packed with fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and are very low in calories. They help keep you satisfied longer, and are a great snack and can be eaten with every meal.

Eat regular meals

Eating meals throughout the day will help keep your metabolism stable as well as burn-ing calories all day long. When we don’t eat for an extended amount of time it actually inhibits calorie burning. Take mom’s advice to heart and be sure to have breakfast in the morning! Make sure and eat your 3 meals a day, but also sneak in some healthy snacks to keep your body going!

Give your stomach time to catch up

Many of us grew up being told not to snack before dinner as we would ruin our appe-tite. In actuality, having snacks can help prevent you from overeating. It takes our bod-ies 10-15 minutes to realize we’ve had enough to eat. Because of this delay, it is very easy to eat more than what our bodies actually need, leaving us feeling overstuffed. When eating at home watch your portions. When eating out at restaurants share your entrees as they typically serve larger portions. Go ahead, spoil your dinner with some snacks.

Eat whole fresh foods

In order for foods to last on our shelves in the grocery store they are filled with preservatives, which in turn deplete the nutrients and vitamins originally found in those foods. When possible, purchase fresh foods and avoid pre-packaged and convenient fast food, as these types of food are typically higher in calories, fat, and sodium.

Get moving

Our bodies were not meant to sit behind a desk all day long. We need daily exercise to benefit our overall health and especially to strengthen all our muscles including our heart. Exercise can also help you sleep better and improve your mood, so whether a high impact workout at the gym or a stroll through the neighborhood, hit the pavement and give yourself the optimal reward.