Are There Any Diet Shakes Comparable to Medifast?

Of all of the over seventy foods (70) food options available on Medifast, the shakes are by far the most popular.  They are pretty tasty, quick, convenient, and easy.  Plus, they are nutritionally sound, full of protein and fiber, and low in sugar and carbohydrates.  This combination helps your body get into a metabolic state called ketosis which helps you to lose a lot of weight potentially quickly. So, there’s a lot of interest in these and I sometimes get emails which ask if there are any that are as good or as effective.  I’ll answer this question in the following article.

Shakes That You Can Get In The Grocery Store: A Slim Fast Comparison: I find that when many people ask this question, most are really asking about slim fast because you can buy these in any grocery or drug store.  They are readily available, but how good are they? Well, they aren’t any cheaper than the Medifast shakes.  They’re well over $2.00 each, which isn’t any significant savings at all.  And, they are higher in calories, sugar, and carbohydrates.  Specifically, I’ll look at the slim fast chocolate shake.  It has 200 calories, 18 grams of carbs (which is a lot), only 2 grams of protein, and only 4 grams of fiber.  In my opinion, this is too high of a calorie  / carb content to get you in ketosis. Most people don’t understand this so they’ll pick up a case thinking that they are really getting the same thing when in fact they are not.  

In contrast, now I’ll look at the Medifast 55 dutch chocolate version.  It has only 90 calories, 13 total carbs, 12 grams of protein, and five grams of fiber.  As you can see, the real difference is in the calories and the protein content and this can be very important.  The Medifast option has 1/2 the calories and six times as much protein.  This makes a big difference as far as ketosis goes. 

Atkins Advantage option has some of the same problems and issues.  It has a whopping 160 calories and tastes a lot more chalky and artificial in my opinion.  The whole idea behind is these diet products is to consume less of what is bad for you and more of what is good for you.  These fall short of this in my opinion.

Shakes Aren’t The Only Option: Another important thing to consider with medifast is that you aren’t only limited to liquid options. There are over 70 foods so although these drinkable meals are tasty and filling, you can also get great results by consuming the eggs, oatmeal, chili, pudding, stew, bars, etc.

Of course, some people will want a diet where they can just pop the lid on their drink and off they go.  But, it’s just as easy to peel the wrapper off a bar or to add milk to some pudding.  All of the foods have roughly the same nutritional make up, so you will get the same results no matter which “meal” that you chose.  Granted, the company does sell items individually, so you can limit yourself if you wish, but I think this eventually makes you burn out or cheat more quickly. I believe that variety is very important but this is just my experience and opinion.