What is the Carb to Protein Ratio on the Medifast Diet?
Someone recently sent me an email asking “what is the carb to protein ratio in most of the medifast meals and also in the “lean and green meal” that you are supposed to eat each day?” I didn’t know the answer to this question off of the top of my head. So I set out to research it. What I found was that I was pretty much going to have to figure this out myself if I wanted a very precise answer. The company’s literature encourages a favorable ratio and the foods appear to be very specifically designed to be low in carbohydrates and high in protein. But, for those who want more specific measurements than this, I’m going to look at some of the more popular medifast meals to really determine the protein to carb ratio on these items.
The Shakes: Probably the most popular meal on this diet is the shakes. There are many different varieties of them. Some are meant to curb your appetite or to bump up your metabolism. Others are designed for diabetics or for women who are approaching menopause. Some are meant to boost heart or joint health. But, for the purposes of this article, I’m going to be focusing on the 55 shakes, since I believe these are the most popular. The Dutch chocolate flavor contains 13 grams of carbohydrates and 11 grams of protein. The ratio here is 1.18.
The Bars: There are two main types of medifast bars: the maintenance or the crunch. You are only supposed to have one of the maintenance bars each day because they are higher in carbohydrates and sugars. So, I’m going to use the crunch bars because they aren’t limited. The chocolate crunch flavor is actually the same as the 55 shakes with 13 carbs and 11 protein grams. Again, the ratio is 1.18.
The Brownies: The medifast brownies are a relatively new addition to the menu. They are extremely popular and can be served warm. These are a bit higher in carbs at 15 grams. But they also have 11 of protein. So the ratio here rises a little at 1.36. By the way, the oatmeal (apple cinnamon flavor) comes in with the exact same numbers.
The Pudding: This is a bit higher in terms of carbs, but this is also true of the proteins, so it evens out. For the banana flavor, the carbs weigh in at 15 while there are 14 grams of protein. This puts the ratio at 1.07 or about 1.1 like the bars and the shakes.
The Soups: There are many varieties of soups, but I like the chili a lot so that’s what I’m going to look at here. This has the exact same numbers as the pudding, which is 15:14, and ultimately equaling out at around 1.07.
Now, this isn’t an exhaustive list of all of the medifast foods, but it does include many of the more popular meals. And, your lean and green meal composition is probably going to slightly vary, but I suspect that there’s a reason that give you such specific lists about the recommended ounces of lean protein that you should include and how to chose low glycemic vegetables.
So, while some of the foods varied slightly, I hope this article may have shown you that most of the foods limit the carbs at around 15 while having at least 11 proteins. I’m certainly no math or diet expert, but it seems to me that the goal was to keep the ratio as close to even as is possible. And, if you’ve been checking out the nutritional labels of those grocery store diet foods, I think you’ll find that very few of them completely succeed at this in the way that these examples used here have.
