I sometimes hear of people who are trying to save money by making Medifast-comparable meals on their own. I am often asked if it is possible to make your own diet meals and if so how you would do it and what recipes would you use.
To be honest, I know a few people who have tried to do this but have come up short. There are a couple of reasons why this task is difficult, if not impossible. First, Medifast meals are extremely high in protein and fiber and very low in carbohydrates and sugar. Because grocery store foods and ingredients get so much cheaper, they often just don’t compare.
As an example, let’s say you try to make a shake on your own comparable to a protein bar. The company achieves the high protein content in diet shakes in part through the use of soy and whey protein. These are specialty ingredients that don’t come cheap. If you try to make a lactose- or milk-based shake, chances are you’ll have a shake with a lot more sugar and carbs. But if you decided to forgo the milk base and, like Medifast, use a high protein base, you’d probably end up paying more than you would for diet shakes unless you were buying large quantities. And to have a product similar to what you would buy from the company, you would need 100 calories or less, 11 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber, and less than 9 grams of sugar.
Another example is pudding. It also has more protein (14 grams) and fiber (4 grams) than any pudding you’re likely to find in a grocery store, and it’s only 90 calories. Take a look in your grocery store and see if you can find a pudding that is comparable. You can find something similar at a health food store (although I’ve never seen one this high in protein terms), but I’d be willing to bet it’s more expensive.
I’ll use the Medifast bars as another example. Most of the bars you find in the supermarket are full of sugars and carbohydrates. Some have more sugars than a candy bar. You can find high-protein bars in health food stores, but they are often quite expensive and much higher in calories. The bars only have 2 grams of sugar but 11 grams of protein.
Let’s look at the soups and chilis. You’re looking at around 100 calories but still plenty of protein, at 14 grams. Many store-bought tomato-based soups are high in sugar, but the Medifast product only has 1 gram. You’re unlikely to find anything similar in the supermarket and if you were trying to make a homemade soup, you’d probably need to add protein powder, which would again increase your costs.
And I can’t even imagine finding ice cream, brownies, or pancakes that come close to the nutrition, fiber, and protein of the Medifast equivalents, let alone weigh less than 110 calories. However, chocolate chip pancakes only have 4 grams of sugar and contain 11 grams of protein. And brownies and sundaes have a similar protein-to-carb ratio. Besides, how would you start making your own ice cream anyway?
I know cost is always an issue, but if you use coupons, you’re usually looking at around (or sometimes less than) $2 a meal. I’m just not sure how much better you can do than cook for yourself or buy groceries at the grocery store. To answer the question posed, I think you would have to buy a lot of special items and ingredients to make your own comparable meals. And I’m not sure if it would be cheaper or as effective.
