Is it even possible to lose 20 Pounds in a Month? I know it’s technically possible, but is there a way to do it’s that safe?
I’ve decided to experiment with myself to see if I can lose 20 pounds in the month of July. I will be the human guinea pig. If you’ve ever read this site before, you’ve probably already guessed that I’ll be using Medifast as part of my experiment. It may seem crazy to even try for a 20 pound weight loss in a month, but there are documented cases out there of people having done this on Medifast. Unfortunately, I have not been one of them.
You can check out the blog archive to read about my previous experiences with weight loss in general and Medifast in particular. But I started getting serious about weight loss about 2 years ago and weighed almost 280 pounds. I didn’t discover Medifast until last year and when I did it was like something clicked. My best weight loss period so far was last July when I lost 13 pounds. That’s definitely not bad, especially considering I wasn’t really following the program 100%.
Although I’ve made a couple of attempts over the past year, I haven’t been able to stick with Medifast for an extended period of time since then. I could make excuses because I moved, started a new job and have been traveling a lot, but that’s not an area I really want to get into. Looking back, I see a whole year where I have only made a half-hearted attempt or two but haven’t made any progress.
One area that I feel really good about, however, is that I’ve truly learned to think differently about eating. My weight has fluctuated a bit over the past year – mainly during the holidays – but even after months of not dieting or thinking seriously about weight loss, the scale still lands at 213. So if I were analyzing my weight on an annual basis that would be a 3 pound weight gain. Given my history, that’s not bad, but it’s not super encouraging either.
So I’m going for it. I restocked my Medifast cabinet and I started on July 4. So I’m on Day 3. I had a slight headache yesterday, but other than that, I haven’t even experienced any signs of Medifast detox.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall. – Confucius
Doing a Few Things Differently
Before starting up my attempt to lose 20 pounds in a month, I took some time to reflect on issues dealing with weight loss and being overweight in general. In previous attempts, I just tore open the box and got down to it without really thinking. But, I’m making a conscious attempt to be more mindful about all aspects of my life. This includes not only what I eat and drink, but the minor details of how I live my life.
With this in mind I developed a plan that included a schedule for eating and exercising. I also wrote out a general strategy for how I was going to approach this. As I wrote this out, I realized that there are 2 primary things that have derailed my weight loss in the past.
My 2 Medifast Stumbling Blocks
Ordering Product. This may sound ridiculous, but keeping my Medifast stocked up is probably the #1 problem I have with the program. My schedule is really busy and I travel a lot. Somehow, the logistics of ordering new product always becomes an issue. This time, I actually went to a Medifast Center and asked to place an emergency order. It was a little more expensive but I walked out of the center with 3 backs full of shakes and crunch bars. I’m still a little confused about how the Medifast Centers work, but I was happy to pay the premium just to avoid ordering and waiting for delivery.
Alcohol. While I’m far from a raging alcoholic, I do enjoy alcohol on a fairly regular basis. Recently, I realized that my alcohol consumption was on the verge of becoming a problem in areas of my life other than affecting my weight loss. So I’ve made the decision to quit drinking altogether for the rest of the summer. This is a personal decision, pretty much unconnected from my goal to lose 20 pounds in a month. But, it definitely won’t hurt. So far I have gone almost 2 weeks without a drop. It’s been quite a bit easier and more pleasant than I had feared.
Easing into It
Another thing I did differently was to give myself 2 days of eating Lean and Green meals before jumping right into the Medifast 5-1 program. I actually like eating Lean and Green, so this wasn’t too hard. I also think this may have helped my avoid the symptoms of Medifast detox. I didn’t follow the Lean and Green recipes to the letter, but I concentrated on eating nothing but lean meats and lots of vegetables (particularly leafy greens). This is the way that I prefer to eat now, so I think I will actually be able to rock the transition process pretty hard. (I have a feeling that easing into the program this way will have a slight effect on my overall pounds. Normally, you lose a big chunk of weight in the first week – but it’s mainly your body getting shocked into ridding itself of water and other junk. I never trust the numbers from the first 3 days.)
So I am on my third day and I’m feeling great. I already have excess energy. I have been drinking lots of water, eating celery for snacks and keeping my eyes on the goal. Will I really be able to lose 20 pounds in a month? I don’t know, but I will report my results truthfully here on the site. I will try to post weight updates once a week (but regular readers know how sporadic I am with blogging).
I would love to hear from you if you’re starting up or in the middle of losing weight with Medifast. Use the comments section below to tell us about your experiences and let us know how you’re doing.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
I am also on Day 3 and still have a bit of a headache and feel strange. So far so good though. I’m trying to wait to get on the scale until a full week has gone by.
Day 3 is always the tough one. My detox symptoms have been pretty mild this time around, but I think that’s because I started cutting out carbs and sugars a couple of days earlier. It will get better. Let us know how it goes.
And that’s a good idea to only weigh in once a week. I don’t have the willpower to wait because I really look forward to weighing myself every morning. Strange, I know!
you are inspiring me… I just “quit”… or started transitioning off. I had about 20 lbs to lose, lost about 8-10 (depending on the day) but couldn’t seem to turn the corner and finish those last 10.
I am a runner and being on so few carbs made it so hard for me to survive my long runs on the weekends. Last week I almost couldn’t finish my 10 mile run. Literally – I was fantasizing of hailing a cab and begging him to take me home, promising payment upon dropping me off…. (I don’t carry cash when I run for that purpose – ha!)
I was hungry – ALL THE TIME. And I missed chewing food.
Anyone out there who can help? Other heavy exercisers??
Hey Becky! Thanks for your comment and thanks for reading. I don’t think there’s anyway I could do a 10 mile run while I was on strict Medifast. While I have a lot of energy when on the program, for me personally, it’s definitely not enough to accommodate heavy exercise. I have scaled my running down to just walking for this month. i want to keep moving but I realize I have a small amount of calories to draw from.
Becky, the heavy exercise just won’t cut it with Medifast. The weight won’t come off because the body holds onto it. I started weight lifting and aerobics like I used to do, but the scale didn’t move no matter how strict I was with the program. When I cut back on the exercise (20 min a day instead of an hour or more), the scale moved pretty darned quick. I also wasn’t as tired as I had been. Honestly, you don’t take in enough calories or carbs to maintain any energy for heavy exercise. It’s hard to refrain from exercise when you love it, but for a little while it’s best to cut down and give yourself time to lose weight. Then you can go for a 10 mile run and not be pooped:)
The most I ever ran on Medifast was 9 miles and that was not easy. I was able to drop the weight quickly and stay on medifast with runs of 4-6 miles.
As an FYI, medifast recommends TWO L&G meals a day if you are burning many calories due to physical activity (e.g. physical job, etc). Since your net calorie burn is about 100 calories per mile, 3 of those miles burns off the extra L&G!
How about having an enegy bar with high protein at least an hour prior to your fun. I’ve done that and it has helped.
Hi Christopher, I love your site! I found it while surfing the net looking for Medifast recipes. I started the diet May 15th and have officially been on it 8 weeks tomorrow. I have lost 45 pounds in that short time. I too started the diet at 283 pounds and am working hard to keep strictly to the diet. I have found the most difficult thing to give up was my evening glass of wine (or 2)! I don’t travel like you do but I do have a stressful job which requires a lot of overtime, that combined with two bad knees and terrible eating habits has led to a lot of added pounds. I decided to try Medifast to avoid knee replacement surgery. This diet is fabulous, and I am here to tell you that you can lose those 20 pounds in one month. I too have the same goal for the month of July…of which I have lost 5 this week. I may have to work myself to death at the gym to accomplish it but I will lose that 20 this month. And I wanted to thank you for all the great information you post on your site, without it in the beginning I would have been lost. Good luck to you on your weight loss and thanks for creating this site!!!
I am frustrated because the more weight you have to lose, the more you lose. I lost 20 in 6 weeks time and now, without changing any meals and no cheating on the 5 and 1, I have lost 1 for the past 2 weeks…..
I only want to lose 30, but that last 10 just won’t come off.
I totally feel you on this. It definitely gets harder the closer you get to your goal. I am actually researching this right now to figure out ways to close in on the goal.
I should have done my Lose 20 Pounds in a Month experiment when I was first starting out, because I think I am going to fall short. I’ve still been losing, but I haven’t lost 10 pounds yet and I am almost to the halfway point.
Please be patient!!! Are you eating every three hours? Are you drinking the required amount of water you need every day? Is the scale needle going backward instead of forward? This is NOT a race. Please stay in gratitude that we have found a way to become healthy and get the weight off of our bodies. I don’t care how long it takes me, I have made the commitment for the long haul. I am in transition after reaching a healthy BMI and would LOVE to go back on the 5&1, because of the convenience and not having to plan and think about, now what am I going to eat. Hang in there, you will get there and guess what? There are going to be a whole lot of us others right there with you at the summit.
Just to clarify a few things that will make it easier for people.
There have been a number of in-depth studies done lately that have conclusively disproven two points that were addressed in the above comment.
1) The timing of your eating during the day has almost NO effect on your metabolism. None. Nil. Zip. Zilch. Nada. It’s going to speed up when it wants to speed up, and it’s going to slow down when it wants to slow down. The only way to actually increase your metabolism (temporarily) is by doing intensive exercise. Period. To put it another way – if you eat 600 calories more than you need, it isn’t going to matter if you eat it spread out over the course of the day, or if you eat it in the morning, or if you eat it right before you go to bed. If your body needs it, it will burn it, and if it doesn’t need it, it’s going to store it as fat. Period. Doesn’t matter when you eat it. The “eat several small meals over the course of the day to keep your metabolism elevated” has been debunked.
However, spreading out the same amount of calories over the course of six meals rather than three IS helpful in a different way: it makes it easier to avoid snacking between meals, since your meals – while smaller – are also closer together, and thus you feel less hungry less often.
2) The ingestion of cold water has been found to have an almost imperceptible effect on the metabolism. Drinking that proverbial “eight glasses” of ice-cold water daily will help you burn perhaps 10 extra calories a day. That’s the amount of calories in ONE plain M&M.
However, drinking more water and less of OTHER beverages (soda, juice, etc.) will obviously help with weight loss, because you’re lowering your total caloric intake.
Hope that saves some people some stress.
I will be traveling to another country, how do you take the medfast meals? Will customs let you bring them or do I need to ship them?
Not sure about this, but I would probably ship it.
My friend, just came back from traveling to China and she took her bars with her. Said they saved her life. She couldn’t eat Chinese food every meal.
)
Hi Christopher. I too found your site while looking for lean and green recipes. Maybe I am not understanding some of what is going on because I do go to a MF center weekly. I think of it has my accountability/coaching session. I find that when the scale seems to stand still the next body scan shows an increase in lean muscle mass. Is this part of your situation? Also, due to the amount of weight I have to lose, I am scheduled for 12 weeks of “normalizing my diet” after the weight loss and 52 weeks of maintenance. Are you saying you gained back weight during your maintenance phase?
Hey Dale, Thanks for your comment and thanks for reading the site. I am definitely getting close to my goal weight and the pounds are not dropping off like they used to. But, I am feeling better than ever and can definitely see muscle growth. So, my overall weight is evening out. It’s exactly what you’re describing. I don’t go to a Medifast center so I don’t have the advanced scans for fat/muscle/etc. But I know that I’m putting on muscle and losing fat.
In August, I will be incorporating a lot more exercise – not high cardio stuff, but a lot of walking, hiking, tennis, push ups and pull ups. I’ll have some before and after pics soon.
I just started MF because I have been exercising pretty heavily for months now 6x/week and though have lost quite a bit of fat and gained muscle, I want to be smaller all around. And yes, my old diet was not pretty-mainly huge dinners (did not eat alot of calories, just bad calories from fat though). So I was bummed when they said I should cut my exercising back-honestly I haven’t had a problem with detox and feel great exercising as usual, but I am worried I will still not lose on the scale. I am nowhere close to my goal and am already worried about a plateau. Yikes. I am bored of the shakes, but realize they are the quickest way to lose weight. Anybody else feel weird eating one around 9pm at night? Seems a bit late…
Hi Vic,
congrats on starting the program. I haven’t had a shake since the first week. I tell my co-workers that I have turned into a hobbit. First breakfast is usually cocoa (mixed with decaf coffee and blended with ice). Second breakfast is pancakes or bar. Lunch is soup (I like chicken and rice or chili best – I mix and let them sit in fridge until lunch so that I only have to microwave for about 11/2 min.) second lunch is bar, brownie, puffs, or sticks . Lean and green dinner and usually a bar or brownie for before bed snack. As a diabetic this program is great because the meals are balanced and small. The reason for the late night snack is to keep the liver from producing sugar in the early morning hours. I’m averaging 2-3 lbs weight loss a week which is better then I expected. Mixing it up seems to fool my body into thinking it has eaten more than it has. Good luck on the program.
Well, I lost 18 in a month. Close but no cigar…
I am beginning the medifast diet on Wednesday when myfood arrives on Tuesday. I have 86 pounds to lose. I am now at 220. When I was younger the weight would just fall off but now it is stuck. I surely hope this will work for me. I was looking for recipes when I found this blog. I think I will try the 20 pounds in one month. Wish me luck and I will keep you updated.
A year and a half ago I lost 62 pounds trying to eat high protein and low carb and busting my butt at the gym with a trainer. I also took on the mind set that I was just going to “diet” thinking this was just lifestyle change. So, monitoring myself, whenever I got really fed up with all the “same foods” I would simply go off the diet for a meal or two; maybe even a day or two, then go back to work. I didn’t want to deny myself the foods I liked with variety. What I did do differently is only eat HALF the amount of the serving I normally would eat before the diet. For example, I ate one slice of pizza rather than two. I them moved to a new state and life got a bit out of step. I stopped exercising at the gym but kept the eating up. I began to gain!!! I have decided that I am just too old, nor do I have the time to exercise hard with a trainer. It was not realistic for me. When I found medifast and realized I could do this without hard exercise, I was excited. Be patient. I have once again, eating a meal or two “out of the plan” due to work functions. However, the weight is still coming off while slowly. That’s fine with me. I consider this a lifestyle change not a race to see how fast I can loose a certain amount of weight. When things become so unnatural (out of life routine), that is when we get in danger of gaining weight all back! I have finally found what works for a life style change that is “normal.” I watch what I eat, medifast, moderate walking; I am not on “a diet,” I am just living smart.
That’s the great thing about the Medifast program, all the claims are scientifically based and clinically proven. I lost 23 lbs the first month on the program. I was delighted with the results of sticking to it (no cheating the first 30 days) because just doing lean and green for 4 months and working out everyday, I only lost 10 lbs. So I decided to give the program a try and I was shocked to have lost 23 lbs in the first month (along with 20 inches all around).