The Secret Is Out: Medifast, What Physicians Have Always Known About Weight Loss [Paperback]

Ph.D, PA-C Lisa Davis (Author), USMCR (ret.) Col. Bradley T. MacDonald (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Medifast, Inc.; 1ST edition (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615132197
• ISBN-13: 978-0615132198
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #691,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars love medifast and this book, February 21, 2011

By 

Carolann Kapuscinski (Norwood, PA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Is Out: Medifast, What Physicians Have Always Known About Weight Loss (Paperback)

I have just completed 6 months on Medifast and have lost over 70 pounds. Yes, the food is not great-tasting. But it does keep me satisfied, full of energy and very happy with my weight-loss. I think part of how it works is that it helps our bodies and brains realize that food is fuel. Our pleasure-seeking national mentality has put so many pounds on us. Medifast stops that. I found it hard to believe that I would easily be able to reject my old eating habits but I could. I read this book, especially in the early days, to help me rethink about food, and my relationship with it. It was part of my success-strategy. Would I buy the book by itself? No, but it came free with my Medifast meals.

26 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Full of hype--just like rest of the Medifast program, January 12, 2008

By 

CostumeDesigner (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret Is Out: Medifast, What Physicians Have Always Known About Weight Loss (Paperback)

This book is just like all the Medifast products: Full of hype.

If you are thinking about going on a Medifast diet, you will find that various Internet sites have been heavily loaded with "consumer reviews" stressing the effectiveness of the diet and the "tastiness" of their packaged foods. I cannot answer for the effectiveness of the diet, having entirely failed to get past the foods, which are unbelievably nasty. I expected them to be merely bland and boring. However, both the taste and the smell--and the smell is very strong if you heat anything on a stove top--are entirely and rawly chemical. There is absolutely no relationship whatever to any natural taste of food or flavoring. I tried adding flavorings (produced by other companies) to their shakes, as many people advised. I tried getting the foods very cold to reduce the flavor. I tried pouring them down the back of my mouth to avoid tasting them. But absolutely nothing is enough to overcome that chemical taste.

As for the book, it is very long on success stories and very short on recipes. For example, if you are a vegetarian, they give you no idea what to do with the 14 egg whites or the 15 ounces of tofu that are among the very few vegetarian options for the one "real food/Lean & Green" meal of the day. But since this diet, unlike many others, forbids more than three "condiments" a day--and no-calorie sweeteners, sugar-free flavor drops for the shakes, and a sprinkling of herbs or spices are all condiments--I think even the meat-eaters will have problems cooking tasty Lean & Green meals. A decent selection of good recipes would be extremely helpful, but this book is far more interested in advertising the product.

Besides, the entire contents of this book are posted free on the Medifast website. And if you can't find them, their customer support staff is only too happy to cut and past sections of them in answer to any and all questions (don't look for any real personal advice or customized programs there).

I am absolutely kicking myself for not having gotten samples of the foods before buying them. My only excuse is that I was misled by the mountain of Medifast hype.

11 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I disagree, November 8, 2007

By 

K. Rugg - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Is Out: Medifast, What Physicians Have Always Known About Weight Loss (Paperback)

I have been on the Medifast diet for 3 months now and I love it! I've never had any issues with the company and they have answered my questions and fixed any problems within a few days. I've not had a chance to read this book, but I'm sure it's just as fabulous as the program itself!