© Medifast

The Medifast Diet Plan

Both the Johns Hopkins University and the US National Institute of Health have described the plan as "very effective" and medically safe.

The Medifast diet is available without prescription, and is designed to help you lose from 2 to 5 pounds per week.

What's the Idea?

The Medifast diet offers the "5 and 1" plan, on which you eat six times per day, approximately every three hours. Research suggests that eating every three hours is highly conducive to weight loss.

Five of the meals will be proprietary products, with the remaining meal a "Lean and Green" meal. This consists of a portion of lean meat, eggs, cheese, or tofu plus vegetables or a green salad, which can be eaten at any time during the day.

What Other Foods?

Unlike some meal plans there are a variety of proprietary foods available including:

• Shakes
• Bars
• Soups
• Chilli
• Oatmeal
• Hot drinks
• Puddings

Our Opinion

We believe this is an effective plan with a good long term track record which emphasises good nutrition habits like drinking lots of water.

Easy to follow, you eat five meals per day from the supplied food. There's no need for calorie counting and no points to keep up with. Finally, there's also no dubious medications that you need to take.