Medifast Diet Part 4 - It worked for us, it can work for you! (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1834231)

Thousands of people over at the SA forums are doing this medifast diet that consists of 5, 90 calorie shakes a day. Yeah, 450 cals a day total. Not only that but they are purposely sending themselves into ketosis.

These poor bastards think its the ony way they are going to lose fat. They say not to exercise while on it becuase that's not healthy. They talk about getting terrible muscle soreness while doing this "diet". Yeah buddy thats your boddy eating your muscles to feed itself. You're turning yourself into a cannibal with this nonsense.

It's so odd. In the 4 threads up to now people have posted links to this site and others with actual good information on cutting/ being healthy. No one wants to hear it. They somehow think that starving themselves is the only thing that will work or the only thing they can do.

Wow, didn't think I'd run into a goon here :tucool:

The funny thing is that seeing the Medifast threads and the other weight loss threads led me to begin to search for fat loss methods, which eventually led me here.

I guess some good has come after all, at least for me.

Quick fix. Take the pill. Buy the package. Three 15 minute workouts a week. Take with water.

Results in weeks. Days. Hours. Minutes. Now.

Many people in general make me sick. Few people have patience, and even fewer have the fortitude to harness their patience.

I have noticed that willpower and patience do not always go hand in hand. When that happens, things like these become popular.

I need to do some squats.

I think research suggests that when people lose weight very rapidly, muscle loss can't generally be reversed even with weight training. Maybe for someone who needs to reduce their obesity very rapidly for medical reasons, there is a place for a program of rapid weight loss by means of a servere calorie restriction. Think about it. If a person is in grave danger due to his obesity, this treatment is quick and simple to administer. There is a good likelihood of compliance and a predictable outcome. That's what you want in some situations.

I think most of us will agree that's not the best way to go about it but I did appreciate that, in his journal, he makes it very clear that this is "radical, dangerous, difficult, etc." as opposed to saying WOW! LOSE 30lbs FAST!!!!"

Quick fix. Take the pill. Buy the package. Three 15 minute workouts a week. Take with water.

Results in weeks. Days. Hours. Minutes. Now.

Many people in general make me sick. Few people have patience, and even fewer have the fortitude to harness their patience.

I have noticed that willpower and patience do not always go hand in hand. When that happens, things like these become popular.

I need to do some squats.

Never said better beta.

I think research suggests that when people lose weight very rapidly, muscle loss can't generally be reversed even with weight training. Maybe for someone who needs to reduce their obesity very rapidly for medical reasons, there is a place for a program of rapid weight loss by means of a servere calorie restriction. Think about it. If a person is in grave danger due to his obesity, this treatment is quick and simple to administer. There is a good likelihood of compliance and a predictable outcome. That's what you want in some situations.

There's no way that can be true. It will always be possible to gain muscle when training and eating properly, even and probably especially, comming from a malnourished state. However, they are severely compromising their muscle and more importantly their health with this approach.

There's no way that can be true. It will always be possible to gain muscle when training and eating properly, even and probably especially, comming from a malnourished state.

My first reaction was the same.

I think though, lots of these studies are done on really old people and in that case building the muscle back might take longer than the time they have left to do it in. Otherwise, there should be no reason you can't build the muscle back again due to just losing weight. There's lot's of cases where people have been starving and then built their muscles back up.

I think the real downside of rapid weight loss is that your body hasn't adapted to the new metabolic state, and so your unconscious tries really hard to get you back to where you started, and then some.

I think the psychology of learning a new lifestyle might favor a slow transformation for many people. I also think it's a lot easier to make bad metabolic mistakes with diets that have extremes than with a small shift in metabolism that is consistent over a longer time.

I need to do some squats.

Don't we all.

You do that and you will loose weight. But you aren't gonna look like John, you are gonna end up lookin' like a Jared from Subway or, in that thread that skinny guy.

I wouldn't go to a doctor that said this was safe.

I like how they throw around "Ketosis" as if it was an everyday word. Yet none of them really seem to understand what that means.

At least if you're fat with no muscle people still give you a bit of respect because you could have a lot of muscle under there. If you're just plain skinny with no muscle you get pushed around all the time, wether it be physically or mentally. That's why I don't get people who do those diets and take pills and such where you don't have anything physical involved...A bit of muscle is always a good thing isn't it? There might be a few rare exceptions but none come to mind.

"These shakes are very safe, as I got them from my doctor here in Dallas."

Some guy on that MB actually said this...how can a person believe anything a doctor says is safe?? One thing, however, at least many of the dangers from this "diet" are listed and are not ingored. On the flip side, it's still very dangerous, regardless of how overweight or obese one is. :nope:

That's actually quite scary to think about.

~SC~

That's actually quite scary to think about.

~SC~


What's sad is that there have been a few goons that have gone in and said "this is drastically unhealthy, etc. etc." I haven't followed the threads that much since I'm permabanned from SA but it's pretty much stated up front that they don't want anyone disrupting their flow.

ie "Many people shat up the last thread and it's not longer going to be tolerated. This is ONLY for posts relevant to the diet!"

This is one of the worst things I've ever seen.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6094/front_011506_640x480.jpg
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2254/front_041306_640x480.jpg

Great you just lost every once of muscle you had. What do you think his body fat is in that before and after pic? I'm not good at estimating but I doubt he dropped more than 8-10 percentage points. If he'd been following Chris or John's plan he would look dramatically better in the after pics.

It's frustrating that the admins don't allow discourse over it because people come in and think it's a great idea because no one is saying "This is retarded!"

hope I didn't break any rules about being negative on that guy. I mean I'm sure he means well. He's welcome to come to my journal and bash all my nekkid pics.

We can't help them. Let us just all be happy knowing that we are not doing it so pathetically wrong. I would be an absolute social disaster on 450 cal/day. I'd probably be homicidal within 48 hours.

All i can is these guys and gals must be so desperate to shed those pounds that they are willing to let all common sense evade them, they seem so totally brainwashed into believing it is doing them some good.
I started reading that thread got to mid page 3 and was so enraged that these folks will not have a bad word mentioned about it, i had to stop reading.
Thank goodness for all the sane and sensible peeps here.

I actually feel really bad for folks who do this sort of thing. The mental commitment and discipline that it takes to restrict yourself to that horribly unhealthy a diet could do incredible things if it were applied to a sensible routine.

Ignorance, in situations like this, sucks.

M@

Ignorance, in situations like this, sucks.

As Redd Foxx put it, "Life is hard. But it's even harder when you're stupid."

Trouble is, everyone has ignorance. You can bang on your ignorance all day long and you will still have a lot. Getting rid of your ignorance is much harder than getting rid of your fat.

We can't help them. Let us just all be happy knowing that we are not doing it so pathetically wrong. I would be an absolute social disaster on 450 cal/day. I'd probably be homicidal within 48 hours.

Thank you.

I couldn't help laughing when I read, "I would be an absolute social disaster on 450 cal/day.". I've recently been on a diet which gives me around 900 kcalories/day, and boy I tell you it felt like I was gonna pass out twice an hour!

450kcalories/day is in my opinion, madness.

Kind regards
Xeron

Us goons in the weightloss megathread are trying to do things the not idiotic way :(

Also, that thread is incredibly depressing especially since there was one dude that was 220 at 6 ft (I was heavier/shorter than this guy when I started losing weight) submitting to that crap.

My poor sister (who took after my mom's shorter, heavier side of the family) did this diet - twice. I was actually recommended by her doctor! She lost about 60 pounds, but no sooner than she stopped, did she start gaining it all back - both times. She lost most of her muscle tone along the way.

Unfortunately, she has always been a little overweight, but a thyroid problem made gaining weight virtually uncontrollable (the bread, sweets and cheese she inhales don't help either). She was bordering on desperation and looking for a way out, eating more junk in frustration.

Thankfully she has switched doctors and is now attempting to make a lifestyle change and eat healthier, while allowing some of those "rewards" that make any diet somewhat bearable. I feel for her and others that are desperate for a quick fix...it is so frustrating trying to change old habits.

Diets like these have everything to do with our mind set. If it isn't now we don't want it later.

What is more satisfying? Cutting for 5 months or eating a bag of potato chips on the couch? Many choose the latter.

That is by far one of the biggest problems the 1st word has: Impatience.