I'm sometimes asked if you can have vegetables on Medifast, and, if so, which ones and how often.
I heard from someone who said: "are you allowed to eat whatever vegetables you want on medifast? What types of portion sizes can you have? And are some types of vegetables favored over another type?" I'll address these concerns in the following article.
Most (But Not All) Of Your Vegetables Will Be In Your Lean And Green Meal: As you probably already know, many of your meals are provided by the company in the form of prepackaged choices.
If you're going to be on the popular 5 plus 1 plan, you will eat five prepackaged meals and have one lean and green meal that you prepare or provide.
Now in terms of vegetables, some of the soups and stews contain vegetables and you don't need to count or worry about those.
So you will sometimes eat vegetables in your provided meal.
Also, you can have celery for an approved snack outside of your five meals.
So, it's possible that you will have some vegetables before you even think about preparing a meal for yourself.
So to answer the question posed, you can eat most all vegetables on Medifast, depending on which program you are on at the time.
But know that you might eat a little less of vegetables that are high in starch or sugars.
Know That In Terms Of Dieting, All Vegetables Are Not Created Equal: Now, we'll move onto snacks that are part of your lean and green meal.
For this main and larger meal, they want for you to have one serving of lean protein and three servings of vegetables.
However, you should know that different vegetables have different classifications.
They are ranked in terms of the least starchy to the most.
And, until you have reached your weight loss goals and are on the maintenance phase of the plan, they discourage the vegetables with the highest amounts of carbohydrates and starches.
Examples are corn, peas, and onions.
They do this to jump start your progress so you can quickly get into fat burning mode.
For the rest of the vegetables (which is a pretty substantial list) you're encouraged to eat larger portions of low glycemic vegetables while eating a little less of vegetables that contain a higher amount of carbohydrates.
For example, you can have an entire cup of low glycemic vegetables like collard greens, lettuce, spinach, and other greens.
But they encourage a half cup of the rest of the veggies on the approved list.
And they break them down into three different categories: lower, moderate and higher carbohydrates.
However, keep in mind that you are having three servings of the different vegetables, so that works out to be quite a plateful of vegetables.
While they define serving sizes that range from 1 half cup to 1 cup of each, they suggest focusing on the vegetables in the lowest ranges if you hit a plateau.
To be honest, I've never thought about my vegetables in this way.
I just don't think all that much about them.
I just try to give myself plenty of variety and I don't worry too much about the rest.
But I know that some people like to keep in form compliance.