Medifast Diet Products: August 2008: Healthy, delicious, nutritionally complete Medifast meal replacement foods such as high protein, low carb, vitamin enriched shakes, bars, entres, drinks, and snacks. can help you loose up to 5 pounds a week!

Starting Tuesday, August 26, the Plus for Diabetics Bars will be discounted to $11.95 per box, from $16.50 per box!

Our Plus for Diabetics Bars are specially formulated for people with type 2 diabetes, but they're perfectly okay for anyone to eat. In fact, our diabetic bars are actually a little lower in calories than our regular bars.

Remember, these prices will go into effect starting tomorrow, and will last as long as supplies do!

Be sure to spread the word to your teams about these limited-time savings!

Remember, Medifast Works!

is with mixed emotions that we announce the farewell of a tremendous employee and friend, Erin Bents.

Erin has been an incredible asset to the Take Shape For Life Home Office Team for over 2 years as our Events Planner. Her vibrant spirit and exceptional work ethic has positively impacted Take Shape For Life.

Though Erin is moving on, be assured that the Home Office is prepared to continue providing the world-class service you both expect and deserve.

Please join us in congratulating Erin as she moves from Take Shape For Life to the next chapter in her life. We wish her the absolute best in everything she does!

The Medifast diet can help you lose weight safely and quickly.

Medifast has changed the way you will receive leads for your business. The new Medifast leads program will help get you the leads quicker.

We are excited to announce a revision to our current Take Shape For Life Leads Program. Due to our tremendous growth, we are able to modifying our Leads Program to better fit the needs of our Health Coaches and Clients.

We will continue to honor our commitment to fulfill all leads already earned but not yet received; a process that may require months.

For those who would like a speedier payout for their earned Leads, we will begin offering the following Leads Exchange Program:

1 Client Lead = 10 It's Not Your Fault CDs
1 Business Lead = 10 It's Not Your Fault CDs, 20 Business Opportunity Brochures, 10 Creating Optimal Health DVDs, 1 box of Strawberry Lemonade Momentum Flavor Infusers (recommended for use as samples)
All Health Coaches who are owed Leads have 74 days left - Until October 31, 2008 - to notify Leads@tsfl.com of whether they would like to receive their earned Leads or exchange them for the TSFL tools above.

After October 31, and after all Leads are distributed to those who have earned them, Leads will be handled using a new process.

Coaches who become Certified will qualify for the new Leads pool, where Leads will be assigned in a "round-robin" order. Going forward there will no longer be a "guaranteed" number of promised Leads for performing certain behaviors.

We are always looking at new and innovative ways to generate leads through all Medifast channels and this, we believe, best fits the needs of a continually growing Take Shape For Life. Exciting days are ahead as we work together to assist you in building your TSFL business. Stay tuned!

Medifast contains all the protein and carbohydrates you need on a daily basis for good health. Also pay attention to fatty acids in your diet.

Essential Fatty Acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that cannot be constructed within an organism from other components (generally all references are to humans) by any known chemical pathways; and therefore must be obtained from the diet. The term refers to those involved in biological processes, and not fatty acids which may just play a role as fuel. As many of the compounds created from essential fatty acids can be taken directly in the diet, it is possible that the amounts required in the diet (if any) are overestimated. It is also possible they can be underestimated as organisms can still survive in less than ideal, malnourished conditions.
There are two families of EFAs: ω-3 (or omega-3 or n-3) and ω-6 (omega-6, n-6.) Fats from each of these families are essential, as the body can convert one omega-3 to another omega-3, for example, but cannot create an omega-3 from scratch. They were originally designated as Vitamin F when they were discovered as essential nutrients in 1923. In 1930, work by Burr, Burr and Miller showed that they are better classified with the fats than with the vitamins.
Functions
In the body, essential fatty acids serve multiple functions. In each of these, the balance between dietary ω-3 and ω-6 strongly affects function.
• They are modified to make
o the classic eicosanoids (affecting inflammation and many other cellular functions)
o the endocannabinoids (affecting mood, behavior and inflammation)
o the lipoxins from ω-6 EFAs and resolvins from ω-3 (in the presence of aspirin, down regulating inflammation.)
o the isofurans, neurofurans, isoprostanes, hepoxilins, epoxyeicosatrienoin acids (EETs) and Neuroprotectin D
• They form lipid rafts (affecting cellular signaling)
• They act on DNA (activating or inhibiting transcription factors such as NFκB, which is linked to pro-inflammatory cytokine production)
Nomenclature and terminology
Fatty acids are straight chain hydrocarbons possessing a carboxyl (COOH) group at one end. The carbon next to the carboxylate is known as α, the next carbon β, and so forth. Since biological fatty acids can be of different lengths, the last position is labeled ω, the last letter in the Greek alphabet. Since the physiological properties of unsaturated fatty acids largely depend on the position of the first unsaturation relative to the end position and not the carboxylate, the position is signified by (ω minus n). For example, the term ω-3 signifies that the first double bond exists as the third carbon-carbon bond from the terminal CH3 end (ω) of the carbon chain. The number of carbons and the number of double bonds is also listed. ω-3 18:4 (stearidonic acid) or 18:4 ω-3 or 18:4 n-3 indicates an 18-carbon chain with 4 double bonds, and with the first double bond in the third position from the CH3 end. Double bonds are cis and separated by a single methylene (CH2) group unless otherwise noted. So in free fatty acid form, the chemical structure of stearidonic acid is:

The essential fatty acids start with the short chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (SC-PUFA):
• ω-3 fatty acids:
o α-Linolenic acid or ALA (18:3)
• ω-6 fatty acids:
o Linoleic acid or LA (18:2)
These two fatty acids cannot be synthesized by humans, as humans lack the desaturase enzymes required for their production.
They form the starting point for the creation of longer and more desaturated fatty acids, which are also referred to as long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA):
• ω-3 fatty acids:
o eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA (20:5)
o docosahexaenoic acid or DHA (22:6)
• ω-6 fatty acids:
o gamma-linolenic acid or GLA (18:3)
o dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid or DGLA (20:3)
o arachidonic acid or AA (20:4)
ω-9 fatty acids are not essential in humans, because humans generally possess all the enzymes required for their synthesis. Exceptions do occur in older people or people with a liver problem that do not completely produce a sufficient amount, and hence many supplement companies market Omega 3-6-9 blends.
Essentiality
Between 1930 and 1950, arachidonic acid and linolenic acid were termed 'essential' because each was more or less able to meet the growth requirements of rats given fat-free diets. Further research has shown that human metabolism requires both ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids. To some extent, any ω-3 and any ω-6 can relieve the worst symptoms of fatty acid deficiency. Particular fatty acids are still needed at critical life stages (e.g. lactation) and in some disease states. In nonscientific writing, common usage is that the term essential fatty acid comprises all the ω-3 or -6 fatty acids. Authoritative sources include the whole families, without qualification. The human body can make some long-chain PUFA (arachidonic acid, EPA and DHA) from lineolate or lineolinate.
Traditionally speaking the LC-PUFA are not essential. See (Cunnane 2003) for a discussion of the current status of the term 'essential'. Because the LC-PUFA are sometimes required, they may be considered "conditionally essential", or not essential to healthy adults.
Mary G. Enig has pointed out numerous studies showing the need for omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids in mammalians A 2005 study has shown evidence that gamma-linolenic acid, GLA, a product of omega-6, has been shown to inhibit the breast cancer promoting gene of Her2/neu.
Biologist Ray Peat has pointed out flaws in the studies purportedly showing the need for n-3 and n-6 fats. He notes that so-called EFA deficiencies have sometimes been reversed by adding B vitamins or a fat-free liver extract to the diet. In his view, 'the optional dietary level of the "essential fatty acids" might be close to zero, if other dietary factors were also optimized.'
Essential fatty acids should not be confused with essential oils, which are "essential" in the sense of being a concentrated essence.
Food sources
Almost all the polyunsaturated fat in the human diet is from EFA. Some of the food sources of ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids are fish and shellfish, flaxseed (linseed), hemp oil, soy oil, canola (rapeseed) oil, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, leafy vegetables, and walnuts.
Essential fatty acids play a part in many metabolic processes, and there is evidence to suggest that low levels of essential fatty acids, or the wrong balance of types among the essential fatty acids, may be a factor in a number of illnesses, including osteoporosis.
Plant sources of ω-3 contain neither eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) nor docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The human body can (and in case of a purely vegetarian diet often must, unless certain algae or supplements derived from them are consumed) convert α-linolenic acid (ALA) to EPA and subsequently DHA. This however requires more metabolic work, which is thought to be the reason that the absorption of essential fatty acids is much greater from animal rather than plant sources (see Fish and plants as a source of Omega-3 for more).
The IUPAC Lipid Handbook provides a very large and detailed listing of fat contents of animal and vegetable fats, including ω-3 and -6 oils. The National Institutes of Health's EFA Education group publishes 'Essential Fats in Food Oils.' This lists 40 common oils, more tightly focused on EFAs and sorted by n-6:3 ratio. Stuchlik and Zak, 'Vegetable Lipids as Components of Functional Food list notable vegetable sources of EFAs as well as commentary and an overview of the biosynthetic pathways involved. Users can interactively search at Nutrition Data for the richest food sources of particular EFAs or other nutrients. Careful readers will note that these sources are not in excellent agreement. EFA content of vegetable sources varies with cultivation conditions. Animal sources vary widely, both with the animal's feed and that the EFA makeup varies markedly with fats from different body parts.
Human health
Almost all the polyunsaturated fats in the human diet are EFAs. Essential fatty acids play an important role in the life and death of cardiac cells.

Remember, Medifast works!

Medifast contains all the daily vitamins you need while losing weight, but more info on vitamins is always useful.

A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. A compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on the circumstances and the particular organism. For example, ascorbic acid functions as vitamin C for some animals but not others, and vitamins D and K are required in the human diet only in certain circumstances.

Vitamins are classified by their biological and chemical activity, not their structure. Thus, each "vitamin" actually refers to a number of vitamer compounds, which form a set of distinct chemical compounds that show the biological activity of a particular vitamin. Such a set of chemicals are grouped under an alphabetized vitamin "generic descriptor" title, such as "vitamin A," which (for example) includes retinal, retinol, and many carotenoids. Vitamers are often inter-convertible in the body. The term vitamin does not include other essential nutrients such as dietary minerals, essential fatty acids, or essential amino acids, nor does it encompass the large number of other nutrients that promote health but are otherwise required less often.

Vitamins have diverse biochemical functions, including function as hormones (e.g. vitamin D), antioxidants (e.g. vitamin E), and mediators of cell signaling and regulators of cell and tissue growth and differentiation (e.g. vitamin A). The largest number of vitamins (e.g. B complex vitamins) function as precursors for enzyme cofactor bio-molecules (coenzymes), that help act as catalysts and substrates in metabolism. When acting as part of a catalyst, vitamins are bound to enzymes and are called prosthetic groups. For example, biotin is part of enzymes involved in making fatty acids. Vitamins also act as coenzymes to carry chemical groups between enzymes. For example, folic acid carries various forms of carbon group – methyl, formyl and methylene - in the cell. Although these roles in assisting enzyme reactions are vitamins' best-known function, the other vitamin functions are equally important.

Until the 1900s, vitamins were obtained solely through food intake, and changes in diet (which, for example, could occur during a particular growing season) can alter the types and amounts of vitamins ingested. Vitamins have been produced as commodity chemicals and made widely available as inexpensive pills for several decades, allowing supplementation of the dietary intake.

History
The Ancient Egyptians knew that feeding a patient liver would help cure night blindness.
The Ancient Egyptians knew that feeding a patient liver would help cure night blindness.

The value of eating a certain food to maintain health was recognized long before vitamins were identified. The ancient Egyptians knew that feeding a patient liver would help cure night blindness, an illness now known to be caused by a vitamin A deficiency. The advancement of ocean voyage during the Renaissance resulted in prolonged periods without access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and made illnesses from vitamin deficiency common among ship's crew.

In 1749, the Scottish surgeon James Lind discovered that citrus foods helped prevent scurvy, a particularly deadly disease in which collagen is not properly formed, causing poor wound healing, bleeding of the gums, severe pain, and death. In 1753, Lind published his Treatise on the Scurvy, which recommended using lemons and limes to avoid scurvy, which was adopted by the British Royal Navy. This led to the nickname Limey for sailors of that organization. Lind's discovery, however, was not widely accepted by individuals in the Royal Navy's Arctic expeditions in the 19th century, where it was widely believed that scurvy could be prevented by practicing good hygiene, regular exercise, and by maintaining the morale of the crew while on board, rather than by a diet of fresh food.[8] As a result, Arctic expeditions continued to be plagued by scurvy and other deficiency diseases. In the early 20th century, when Robert Falcon Scott made his two expeditions to the Antarctic, the prevailing medical theory was that scurvy was caused by "tainted" canned food.
The discovery of vitamins and their structure Year of discovery Vitamin Source
1909 Vitamin A (Retinol) Cod liver oil
1912 Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) Rice bran
1912 Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid) Lemons
1918 Vitamin D (Calciferol) Cod liver oil
1920 Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) Eggs
1922 Vitamin E (Tocopherol) Wheat germ oil, Cosmetic and Liver
1926 Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin) Liver
1929 Vitamin K (Phylloquinone) Luzern
1931 Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) Liver
1931 Vitamin B7 (Biotin) Liver
1934 Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) Rice bran
1936 Vitamin B3 (Niacin) Liver
1941 Vitamin B9 (Folic acid) Liver

In 1881, Russian surgeon Nikolai Lunin studied the effects of scurvy while at the University of Tartu in present-day Estonia. He fed mice an artificial mixture of all the separate constituents of milk known at that time, namely the proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and salts. The mice that received only the individual constituents died, while the mice fed by milk itself developed normally. He made a conclusion that "a natural food such as milk must therefore contain, besides these known principal ingredients, small quantities of unknown substances essential to life." However, his conclusions were rejected by other researchers when they were unable to reproduce his results. One difference was that he had used table sugar (sucrose), while other researchers had used milk sugar (lactose) that still contained small amounts of vitamin B.

In the Orient where polished white rice was the common staple food of the middle class, beriberi resulting from lack of vitamin B was endemic. In 1884, Takaki Kanehiro, a British trained medical doctor of the Japanese Navy observed that beriberi was endemic among low ranking crew who often ate nothing but rice but not among crews of Western navies and officers who were entitled to a Western-style diet. Kanehiro initially believed that lack of protein was the chief cause of beriberi. With the support of Japanese navy, he experimented using crews of two battleships, one crew was fed only white rice, while the other was fed a diet of meat, fish, barley, rice, and beans. The group that ate only white rice documented 161 crew with beriberi and 25 deaths, while the latter group had only 14 cases of beriberi and no deaths. This convinced Kanehiro and the Japanese Navy that diet was the cause of beriberi. This was confirmed in 1897, when Christiaan Eijkman discovered that feeding unpolished rice instead of the polished variety to chickens helped to prevent beriberi in the chickens. The following year, Frederick Hopkins postulated that some foods contained "accessory factors"—in addition to proteins, carbohydrates, fats, et cetera—that were necessary for the functions of the human body. Hopkins was awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Christiaan Eijkman for their discovery of several vitamins.

In 1910, Japanese scientist Umetaro Suzuki succeeded in extracting a water-soluble complex of micronutrients from rice bran and named it aberic acid. He published this discovery in a Japanese scientific journal. When the article was translated into German, the translation failed to state that it was a newly discovered nutrient, a claim made in the original Japanese article, and hence his discovery failed to gain publicity. Polish biochemist Kazimierz Funk isolated the same complex of micronutrients and proposed the complex be named "Vitamine" (a portmanteau of "vital amine") in 1912. The name soon became synonymous with Hopkins' "accessory factors", and by the time it was shown that not all vitamins were amines, the word was already ubiquitous. In 1920, Jack Cecil Drummond proposed that the final "e" be dropped to deemphasize the "amine" reference after the discovery that vitamin C had no amine component.


Throughout the early 1900s, the use of deprivation studies allowed scientists to isolate and identify a number of vitamins. Initially, lipid from fish oil was used to cure rickets in rats, and the fat-soluble nutrient was called "antirachitic A". The irony here is that the first "vitamin" bioactivity ever isolated, which cured rickets, was initially called "vitamin A", the bioactivity of which is now called vitamin D. What we now call "vitamin A" was identified in fish oil because it was inactivated by ultraviolet light. In 1931, Albert Szent-Györgyi and a fellow researcher Joseph Svirbely determined that "hexuronic acid" was actually vitamin C and noted its anti-scorbutic activity. In 1937, Szent-Györgyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery. In 1943 Edward Adelbert Doisy and Henrik Dam were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery of vitamin K and its chemical structure.

Medifast contains the correct ratio of carbohydrates and protein to allow you to lose weight and not feel depleted of energy. Medifast works!

Carbohydrate metabolism denotes the various biochemical processes responsible for the formation, breakdown and interconversion of carbohydrates in living organisms.

The most important carbohydrate is glucose, a simple sugar (monosaccharide) that is metabolized by nearly all known organisms. Glucose and other carbohydrates are part of a wide variety of metabolic pathways across species: plants synthesize carbohydrates from atmospheric gases by photosynthesis, which can then be consumed by other organisms and used as fuel for cellular respiration. Oxidation of one gram of carbohydrate yields approximately 4 kcal of energy. Energy obtained from carbohydrate metabolism is usually stored in the form of ATP. Organisms capable of aerobic respiration metabolize glucose and oxygen to release energy with carbon dioxide and water as byproducts.

All carbohydrates share a general formula of approximately CnH2nOn; glucose is C6H12O6. Monosaccharides may be chemically bonded together to form disaccharides such as sucrose and longer polysaccharides such as starch and cellulose.

Carbohydrates are a superior short-term energy reserve for organisms, because they are much simpler to metabolize than fats or proteins. In animals, all dietary carbohydrates are delivered to cells in the form of glucose. Carbohydrates are typically stored as long polymers of glucose molecules with Glycosidic bonds for structural support (e.g. chitin, cellulose) or energy storage (e.g. glycogen, starch). However, the strong affinity of carbohydrates for water makes storage of large quantities of carbohydrates inefficient due to the large molecular weight of the solvated water-carbohydrate complex. In some organisms, excess carbohydrates are catabolised to form Acetyl-CoA, where they enter the fatty acid synthesis pathway. Fatty acids, triglycerides, and other lipids are commonly used for long-term energy storage. The hydrophobic character of lipids makes them a much more compact form of energy storage than hydrophilic carbohydrates.
Contents

* 1 Catabolism
* 2 Metabolic pathways
* 3 Glucoregulation
* 4 Human diseases of carbohydrate metabolism
* 5 External links

Catabolism


Oligo/polysaccharides are cleaved first to smaller monosaccharides by enzymes called Glycoside hydrolases. The monosaccharide units can then enter into monosaccharide catabolism

Metabolic pathways
* Carbon fixation, whereby CO2 is reduced to carbohydrate.
* Glycolysis - the breakdown of the glucose molecule in order to obtain ATP and Pyruvate
o Pyruvate from glycolysis enters the Krebs cycle in aerobic organisms.
* The Pentose phosphate pathway, which acts in the conversion of hexoses into pentoses and in NADPH regeneration.
* Glycogenesis - the conversion of excess glucose into glycogen in order to prevent excessive osmotic pressure buildup inside the cell
* Glycogenolysis - the breakdown of glycogen into glucose, in order to provide a steady level of glucose supply for glucose-dependent tissues.
* Gluconeogenesis - de novo synthesis of glucose molecules from simple organic compounds

Glucoregulation

Glucoregulation is the maintenance of steady levels of glucose in the body; it is part of homeostasis, and keeps a constant internal environment around cells in the body.

The hormone insulin makes the body convert glucose into glycogen and puts it into the liver; the insulin is made in the pancreas, and is secreted when the blood sugar is too high. Insulin also promotes the use of glucose by the muscles.

The hormone glucagon, on the other hand, acts in the opposite direction and promotes the conversion of glycogen to glucose in response to low blood sugar.

Human diseases of carbohydrate metabolism

* Diabetes mellitus
* Lactose intolerance
* Fructose intolerance
* Galactosemia
* Glycogen storage disease

Medifast products give you all the daily vitamins you need each day just by using the products. Medifast works!

Niacin, also known as nicotinic acid and vitamin B3, is the organic compound with the formula HO2CC5H4N. This water-soluble, colorless solid is a derivative of pyridine, featuring a carboxylic acid functional group at the 3-position. The designation vitamin B3 also includes the corresponding amide nicotinamide ("niacinamide"), wherein the CO2H group has been replaced by a CONH2 group. Niacin is converted to niacinamide in vivo, and though the two are identical in their vitamin functions, niacinamide does not have the same pharmacologic and toxic effects of niacin, which occur incidental to niacin's conversion. Thus niacinamide does not reduce cholesterol or cause flushing, although nicotinamide may be toxic to the liver at doses exceeding 3 g/day for adults. Niacin is a precursor to NADH, NAD, NAD+, and NADP, which play essential metabolic roles in living cells. DNA repair, and the production of steroid hormones in the adrenal gland.

History

Niacin was first described by Weidel in 1873 in his studies of nicotine. The original preparation remains useful: the oxidation of nicotine using nitric acid. Niacin was extracted from livers by Conrad Elvehjem who later identified the active ingredient, then referred to as the "pellagra-preventing factor" and the "anti-blacktongue factor." When the biological significance of nicotinic acid was realized, it was thought appropriate to choose a name to dissociate it from nicotine, in order to avoid the perception that vitamins or niacin-rich food contains nicotine. The resulting name 'niacin' was derived from nicotinic acid + vitamin.

Niacin is referred to as Vitamin B3 because it was the third of the B vitamins to be discovered. It has historically been referred to as "vitamin PP."

Dietary needs

Severe deficiency of niacin in the diet causes the disease pellagra, whereas mild deficiency slows the metabolism, causing decreased tolerance to cold. Dietary niacin deficiency tends to occur only in areas where people eat corn (maize), the only grain low in niacin, as a staple food, and that do not use lime during meal/flour production. Alkali lime releases the tryptophan from the corn in a process called nixtamalization so that it can be absorbed in the intestine, and converted to niacin.

The recommended daily allowance of niacin is 2-12 mg/day for children, 14 mg/day for women, 16 mg/day for men and 18 mg/day for pregnant or breast-feeding women.

Note: Niacin synthesis is deficient in carcinoid syndrome because of metabolic diversion of its precursor, tryptophan, to form serotonin.

Pharmacological uses

Niacin, when taken in large doses, blocks the breakdown of fats in adipose tissue, thus altering blood lipid levels. Niacin is used in the treatment of hyperlipidemia because it reduces very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), a precursor of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol. Because niacin blocks breakdown of fats, it causes a decrease in free fatty acids in the blood and, as a consequence, decreased secretion of VLDL and cholesterol by the liver.

By lowering VLDL levels, niacin also increases the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or "good" cholesterol in blood, and therefore it is sometimes prescribed for patients with low HDL, who are also at high risk of a heart attack.

Niacin is sometimes consumed in large quantities by people who wish to fool drug screening tests, particularly for lipid soluble drugs such as marijuana. It is believed to "promote metabolism" of the drug and cause it to be "flushed out." Scientific studies have shown it does not affect drug screenings, but can pose a risk of overdose, causing arrhythmias, metabolic acidosis, hyperglycemia, and other serious problems.

Toxicity

People taking pharmacological doses of niacin (1.5 - 6 g per day) often experience a syndrome of side-effects that can include one or more of the following:

* Dermatological complaints
o facial flushing and itching
o dry skin
o skin rashes including acanthosis nigricans
* Gastrointestinal complaints
o dyspepsia (indigestion)
* Liver toxicity
o fulminant hepatic failure
* Hyperglycemia
* Cardiac arrhythmias
* Birth defects

Facial flushing is the most commonly-reported side-effect. It lasts for about 15 to 30 minutes, and is sometimes accompanied by a prickly or itching sensation, particularly in areas covered by clothing. This effect is mediated by prostaglandin and can be blocked by taking 300 mg of aspirin half an hour before taking niacin, or by taking one tablet of ibuprofen per day. Taking the niacin with meals also helps reduce this side-effect. After 1 to 2 weeks of a stable dose, most patients no longer flush. Slow- or "sustained"-release forms of niacin have been developed to lessen these side-effects. One study showed the incidence of flushing was significantly lower with a sustained release formulation though doses above 2 g per day have been associated with liver damage, particularly with slow-release formulations.

High-dose niacin may also elevate blood sugar, thereby worsening diabetes mellitus. Hyperuricemia is another side-effect of taking high-dose niacin, and may exacerbate gout. Niacin at doses used in lowering cholesterol has been associated with birth defects in laboratory animals, with possible consequences for infant development in pregnant women.

Niacin at extremely high doses can have life-threatening acute toxic reactions. Extremely high doses of niacin can also cause niacin maculopathy, a thickening of the macula and retina which leads to blurred vision and blindness.

Inositol hexanicotinate

One popular form of dietary supplement is inositol hexanicotinate, usually sold as "flush-free" or "no-flush" niacin (although those terms are also used for regular sustained-release.) While this form of niacin does not cause the flushing associated with the nicotinic acid form, it is not clear whether it is pharmacologically equivalent in its positive effect.

Medifast has an exciting announcement about the upcoming training meeting at the Sundance resort in Utah.

Hosting this Leadership Call for Dr. Andersen will be Global Director Bryan Drollinger! This enlightening call will also feature newest Global Director Margaret Hartman.

To participate in this enlightening weekly call, please see the following call details:

Take Shape For Life Field Leadership Call - 9:00 p.m. Eastern (6:00 p.m. Pacific). Dial 1-512-305-4638 followed by the pin code: 99662#. Led by Dr. Wayne Andersen and our Field Leaders, anyone interested in building a successful business and staying current with Take Shape For Life needs to listen and participate in this incredible call!

This call is recorded live each week. Please call 1-512-505-6854 to listen to the recorded call. The recording is posted the day following the call (Tuesday morning).

This is the new Medifast support call schedule and topics. Medifast strives to keep you up to date on the latest developments.

Wednesday Evenings:


Stay in Shape! Maintenance Call - 8:00 p.m. Eastern (5:00 p.m. Pacific). Dial 1-512-225-9427 followed by pin code: 77421#. For the fun, interactive Stay in Shape! Maintenance Call, Lori Andersen, RN, coordinates discussions with various Masters of Weight Loss who have lost 60+ lbs. and kept the weight off for at least 4 years. Each week, Lori and her guest(s) share helpful hints and tips for everyone on the Maintenance Program. Be sure to listen and participate in this exciting, informative call.

This call is now recorded live each week! To hear the recorded playback, dial 1- 512-505-6863. The recording is posted the day following the call (Thursday morning).


Medifast Doctor's Support Call - 8:30 p.m. Eastern (5:30 p.m. Pacific). Dial 1-646-519-5860 followed by the pin code: 0971#. Listen and participate in this call, where Dr. Wayne Andersen, Medical Director and Co-Founder of Take Shape For Life, or one of his colleagues discusses current topics regarding creating a healthy weight and a physically optimal life.

This call is now recorded live each week! To hear the recorded playback, dial 1-212-461-8671. The recording is posted the day following the call (Thursday morning).

Monday Evenings:

Medifast Nurse's Support Call - 8:30 p.m. Eastern (5:30 p.m. Pacific). Dial 1-646-519-5860 followed by the pin code: 0971#. Join Lori Andersen, RN, for the weekly Medifast Nurse's Support Call. Every week, Lori provides our callers with supportive information to maximize success with their weight-loss and health goals! Be sure to listen in and participate in this inspirational call. Anyone and everyone is encouraged to participate in this call.

This call is now recorded live each week. To hear the recorded playback, dial 1-212-461-8672. The recording is posted the day following the call (Tuesday morning).


Take Shape For Life Field Leadership Call - 9:00 p.m. Eastern (6:00 p.m. Pacific). Dial 1-512-305-4638 followed by the pin code: 99662#. Led by Dr. Wayne Andersen and our Field Leaders, anyone interested in building a successful business and staying current with all that is happening with Take Shape For Life needs to listen in and participate in this incredible call!

This call is now recorded live each week. To hear the recorded playback, dial 1-512-505-6854. The recording is posted the day following the call (Tuesday morning).

We are excited to announce a revision to our current Take Shape For Life Leads Program. Due to the tremendous growth of the Medifast Company, we are able to modifying our Medifast Leads Program to better fit the needs of our Health Coaches and Clients.

We will continue to honor our commitment to fulfill all leads already earned but not yet received; a process that may require months.

For those who would like a speedier payout for their earned Leads, we will begin offering the following Leads Exchange Program:

1 Client Lead = 10 It's Not Your Fault CDs
1 Business Lead = 10 It's Not Your Fault CDs, 20 Business Opportunity Brochures, 10 Creating Optimal Health DVDs, 1 box of Strawberry Lemonade Momentum Flavor Infusers (recommended for use as samples)
All Health Coaches who are owed Leads have 90 days - from August 1 to October 31, 2008 - to notify Leads@tsfl.com of whether they would like to receive their earned Leads or exchange them for the TSFL tools above.

After October 31, and after all new Medifast Leads are distributed to those who have earned them, Leads will be handled using a new process.

Coaches who become Certified will qualify for the new Leads pool, where Medifast Leads will be assigned in a "round-robin" order. Going forward there will no longer be a "guaranteed" number of promised Leads for performing certain behaviors.

We are always looking at new and innovative ways to generate leads through all Medifast channels and this, we believe, best fits the needs of a continually growing Take Shape For Life. Exciting days are ahead as we work together to assist you in building your TSFL business. Stay tuned!

Please contact Field Support with any questions at 1-877-270-5708.

Medifast contains the correct amount of carbohydrates and protein to insure fast weight loss. Medifast works quickly and safely.

Carbohydrates General Information

Carbohydrates comes from 'hydrates of carbon) or saccharides (Greek meaning "sugar") are the most abundant of the four major classes of biomolecules, which also include proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. They fill numerous roles in living things, such as the storage and transport of energy (starch glycogen) and structural components (cellulose in plants, chitin in animals). Additionally, carbohydrates and their derivatives play major roles in the working process of the immune system, fertilization, pathogenesis, blood clotting, and development.
Chemically, carbohydrates are simple organic compounds that are aldehydes or ketones with many hydroxyl groups added, usually one on each carbon atom that is not part of the aldehyde or ketone functional group. The basic carbohydrate units are called monosaccharides, such as glucose, galactose, and fructose. The general stoichiometric formula of an unmodified monosaccharide is (C•H2O) n, where n is any number of three or greater; however, the use of this word does not follow this exact definition and many molecules with formulae that differ slightly from this are still called carbohydrates, and others that possess formulae agreeing with this general rule are not called carbohydrates (eg formaldehyde).
Monosaccharides can be linked together into polysaccharides in almost limitless ways. Many carbohydrates contain one or more modified monosaccharide units that have had one or more groups replaced or removed. For example, deoxyribose, a component of DNA, is a modified version of ribose; chitin is composed of repeating units of N-acetylglucosamine, a nitrogen-containing form of glucose. The names of carbohydrates often end in the suffix (ose).



D-glucose is an aldohexose with the formula (C•H2O) 6. The red atoms highlight the aldehyde group, and the blue atoms highlight the asymmetric center furthest from the aldehyde; because this -OH is on the right of the Fischer projection, this is a D sugar.
Monosaccharides are the simplest carbohydrates in that they cannot be hydrolyzed to smaller carbohydrates. The general chemical formula of an unmodified monosaccharide is (C•H2O)n, where n is any number of three or greater.
Classification of monosaccharides

The A and β anomers of glucose. Note the position of the anomeric carbon (red or green) relative to the CH2OH group bound to carbon 5: they are either on the opposite sides (α), or the same side (β).
Monosaccharides are classified according to three different characteristics: the placement of its carbonyl group, the number of carbon atoms it contains, and its chiral handedness. If the carbonyl group is an aldehyde, the monosaccharide is an aldose; if the carbonyl group is a ketone, the monosaccharide is a ketose. Monosaccharides with three carbon atoms are called trioses, those with four are called tetroses, five are called pentoses, and six are hexoses, and so on. These two systems of classification are often combined. For example, glucose is an aldohexose (a six-carbon aldehyde), ribose is an aldopentose (a five-carbon aldehyde), and fructose is a ketohexose (a six-carbon ketone).
Each carbon atom bearing a hydroxyl group (-OH), with the exception of the first and last carbons, are asymmetric, making them stereocenters with two possible configurations each (R or S). Because of this asymmetry, a number of isomers may exist for any given monosaccharide formula. The aldohexose D-glucose, for example, has the formula (C•H2O)6, of which all but two of its six carbons atoms are stereogenic, making D-glucose one of 24 = 16 possible stereoisomers. In the case of glyceraldehyde, an aldotriose, there is one pair of possible stereoisomers, which are enantiomers and epimers. 1,3-dihydroxyacetone, the ketose corresponding to the aldose glyceraldehye, is a symmetric molecule with no stereocenters). The assignment of D or L is made according to the orientation of the asymmetric carbon furthest from the carbonyl group: in a standard Fischer projection if the hydroxyl group is on the right the molecule is a D sugar, otherwise it is an L sugar. Because D sugars are biologically far more common, the D is often omitted.
Conformation


Glucose can exist in both a straight-chain and ring form.
The aldehyde or ketone group of a straight-chain monosaccharide will react reversibly with a hydroxyl group on a different carbon atom to form a hemiacetal or hemiketal, forming a heterocyclic ring with an oxygen bridge between two carbon atoms. Rings with five and six atoms are called furanose and pyranose forms, respectively, and exist in equilibrium with the straight-chain form.
During the conversion from straight-chain form to cyclic form, the carbon atom containing the carbonyl oxygen, called the anomeric carbon, becomes a chiral center with two possible configurations: the oxygen atom may take a position either above or below the plane of the ring. The resulting possible pair of stereoisomers are called anomers. In the α anomer, the -OH substituent on the anomeric carbon rests on the opposite side (Trans) of the ring from the CH2OH side branch. The alternative form, in which the CH2OH substituent and the anomeric hydroxyl are on the same side (cis) of the plane of the ring, is called the β anomer. Because the ring and straight-chain forms readily interconvert, both anomers exist in equilibrium.
Use in living organisms
Monosaccharides are the major source of fuel for metabolism, being used both as an energy source (glucose being the most important in nature) and in biosynthesis. When monosaccharides are not needed by cells they are quickly converted into another form, such as polysaccharides.
Disaccharides


Sucrose, also known as table sugar, is a common disaccharide. It is composed of two monosaccharides: D-glucose (left) and D-fructose (right).

Two joined monosaccharides are called disaccharides and represent the simplest polysaccharides. Examples include sucrose and lactose. They are composed of two monosaccharide units bound together by a covalent bond known as a glycosidic linkage formed via a dehydration reaction, resulting in the loss of a hydrogen atom from one monosaccharide and a hydroxyl group from the other. The formula of unmodified disaccharides is C12H22O11. Although there are numerous kinds of disaccharides, a handful of disaccharides are particularly notable.
Sucrose, pictured to the right, is the most abundant disaccharide and the main form in which carbohydrates are transported in plants. It is composed of one D-glucose molecule and one D-fructose molecule. The systematic name for sucrose, O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-D-fructofuranoside, indicates four things:
• Its monosaccharides: glucose and fructose
• Their ring types: glucose is a pyranose, and fructose is a furanose
• How they are linked together: the oxygen on carbon number 1 (C1) of α-D-glucose is linked to the C2 of D-fructose.
• The -oside suffix indicates that the anomeric carbon of both monosaccharides participates in the glycosidic bond.
Lactose, a disaccharide composed of one D-galactose molecule and one D-glucose molecule, occurs naturally in milk. The systematic name for lactose is O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-(1→4)-D-glucopyranose. Other notable disaccharides include maltose (two D-glucoses linked α-1,4) and cellobiose (two D-glucoses linked β-1,4).
Oligosaccharides and polysaccharides


Amylose is a linear polymer of glucose mainly linked with α(1→4) bonds. It can be made of several thousands of glucose units. It is one of the two components of starch, the other being amylopectin.

Oligosaccharides and polysaccharides are composed of longer chains of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic bonds. The distinction between the two is based upon the number of monosaccharide units present in the chain. Oligosaccharides typically contain between two and nine monosaccharide units, and polysaccharides contain greater than ten monosaccharide units. Definitions of how large a carbohydrate must be to fall into each category vary according to personal opinion. Examples of oligosaccharides include the disaccharides mentioned above, the trisaccharide raffinose and the tetrasaccharide stachyose.
Oligosaccharides are found as a common form of protein posttranslational modification. Such posttranslational modifications include the Lewis and ABO oligosaccharides responsible for blood group incompatibilities, the alpha-Gal epitope responsible for hyper acute rejection in xenotransplanation, and O-GlcNAc modifications.
Polysaccharides represent an important class of biological polymers. Their function in living organisms is usually either structure or storage related. Starch is used as a storage polysaccharide in plants, being found in the form of both amylose and the branched amylopectin. In animals, the structurally similar but more densely branched glycogen is used instead. Glycogen's properties allow it to be metabolized more quickly, which suits the active lives of locomotive animals.
Cellulose and chitin are examples of structural polysaccharides. Cellulose is used in the cell walls of plants and other organisms, and is claimed to be the most abundant organic molecule on earth. It has a variety of uses including in the paper and textile industry and as a feedstock for the production of rayon (in the viscose process), cellulose acetate, celluloid and nitrocellulose. Chitin has a similar structure to cellulose but has nitrogen containing side branches, increasing its strength. It is found in arthropod exoskeletons and in the cell walls of some fungi. It has a variety of uses, for example in surgical threads.
Other polysaccharides include callose or laminarin, xylan, mannan, fucoidan, and galactomannan.
Nutrition


Grain products: rich sources of complex and simple carbohydrates
Carbohydrates require less water to digest than proteins or fats and are the most common source of energy. Proteins and fat are vital building components for body tissue and cells and are also a source of energy for the body.
Carbohydrates are not essential nutrients: the body can obtain all its energy from protein and fats. The brain cannot burn fat and needs glucose for energy, but the body can make this glucose from protein. Carbohydrates contain 3.75 and proteins 4 kilocalories per gram, respectively, while fats contain 9 kilocalories and alcohol contains 7 kilocalories per gram.
Foods that are high in carbohydrates include breads, pastas, beans, potatoes, bran, rice and cereals.
Based on evidence for risk of heart disease and obesity, the Institute of Medicine recommends that American and Canadian adults get between 40-65% of dietary energy from carbohydrates. The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization jointly recommend that national dietary guidelines set a goal of 55-75% of total energy from carbohydrates, but only 10% should be from Free sugars (their definition of simple carbohydrates).

Classification
Dietitians and nutritionists commonly classify carbohydrates as simple (monosaccharides and disaccharides) or complex (oligosaccharides and polysaccharides). The term complex carbohydrate was first used in the Senate Select Committee publication Dietary Goals for the United States (1977), where it denoted "fruit, vegetables and whole-grains". Dietary guidelines generally recommend that complex carbohydrates and nutrient-rich simple carbohydrates such as fruit and dairy products make up the bulk of carbohydrate consumption. The USDA's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 dispenses with the simple/complex distinction, instead recommending fiber-rich foods and whole grains.
The glycemic index and glycemic load systems are popular alternative classification methods which rank carbohydrate-rich foods based on their effect on blood glucose levels. The insulin index is a similar, more recent classification method which ranks foods based on their effects on blood insulin levels. This system assumes that high glycemic index foods and low glycemic index foods can be mixed to make the intake of high glycemic foods more acceptable.

While on the Medifast diet it is important to make sure your thyroid is functioning correctly. This is not so much of a problem with Medifast and hyperthyroidism as it is with a low thyroid state. Remember, Medifast works!

What is the relationship between hyperthyroidism and weight?
Since the BMR in patients with hyperthyroidism is elevated, many patients with an overactive thyroid do,
indeed, experience some weight loss. Furthermore, the likelihood of
weight loss occurring is related to the severity of the overactive thyroid.
Thus, if the thyroid is extremely overactive, the individual’s BMR
increases which leads to increased caloric requirements to maintain
that weight. If the person does not increase the calories consumed to
match the excess calories burned, then weight loss will ensue. As
indicated earlier, the factors that control our appetite, metabolism, and
activity are very complex and thyroid hormone is only one factor in
this complex system. Nevertheless, on average the more severe the
hyperthyroidism, the greater the weight loss observed. Weight loss is
also observed in other conditions where thyroid hormones are elevated,
such as in the toxic phase of thyroiditis and
if one is on too high a dose of thyroid hormone pills. Since
hyperthyroidism also increases appetite, some patients may not lose
weight, and some may actually gain weight, depending on how much
they increase their caloric intake.
Why do I gain weight when hyperthyroidism is treated?
Because the hyperthyroidism is an abnormal state, we can predict that
any weight loss caused by the abnormal state would not be maintained
when the abnormal state is reversed. This is indeed what we find. On
the average, any weight lost during the hyperthyroid state is regained
when the hyperthyroidism is treated. One consequence of this
observation is that the use of thyroid hormone to treat obesity is not
very useful. Once thyroid hormone treatment is stopped, any weight that
is lost while on treatment will be regained after treatment is
discontinued.

Join Dr. Anderson in a Medifast Leadership call to help your business. This Medifast Leadership call is special as several of the Medifast leaders will also be on the call.

Joining Dr. Andersen this evening will be several of our top Medifast Business Leaders so be sure to dial in to this enlightening Leadership Call!

To participate in this enlightening weekly call, please see the following call details:

Take Shape For Life Field Leadership Call - 9:00 p.m. Eastern (6:00 p.m. Pacific). Dial 1-512-305-4638 followed by the pin code: 99662#. Led by Dr. Wayne Andersen and our Field Leaders, anyone interested in building a successful business and staying current with Take Shape For Life needs to listen and participate in this incredible call!

This call is recorded live each week. Please call 1-512-505-6854 to listen to the recorded call. The recording is posted the day following the call (Tuesday morning).

We have some other excellent weekly support calls, including Nurse's, Doctor's, and Maintenance calls. To learn more about those, simply scroll down to the "Support Calls Schedule" section of this E-Update. Don't miss out!

Clients with hypothyroidism will have a difficult time losing weight even on the Medifast diet. Medifast supplies all the nutrients you need on a daily basis, but you must still get your thyroid function under comtrol.

Hypothyroidism and Weight Loss

What is the relationship between hypothyroidism and weight gain?

Since the BMR (basic metabolic rate) in the patient with hypothyroidism is decreased, an under active thyroid is generally associated
with some weight gain. The weight gain is often greater in those
individuals with more severe hypothyroidism. However, the decrease
in BMR due to hypothyroidism is usually much less dramatic than the
marked increase seen in hyperthyroidism, leading to more modest
alterations in weight due to the under active thyroid. The cause of the
weight gain in hypothyroid individuals is also complex, and not always
related to excess fat accumulation. Most of the extra weight gained in
hypothyroid individuals is due to excess accumulation of salt and water.
Massive weight gain is rarely associated with hypothyroidism. In general,
5-10 pounds of body weight may be attributable to the thyroid,
depending on the severity of the hypothyroidism. Finally, if weight gain
is the only symptom of hypothyroidism that is present, it is less likely
that the weight gain is solely due to the thyroid.

How much weight can I expect to lose once the hypothyroidism is
treated?

Since much of the weight gain in hypothyroidism is accumulation in
salt and water, when the hypothyroidism is treated one can expect a
small (usually less than 10% of body weight) weight loss. As in the
treatment with hyperthyroidism, treatment of the abnormal state of
hypothyroidism with thyroid hormone should result in a return of body
weight to what it was before the hypothyroidism developed. However,
since hypothyroidism usually develops over a long period of time, it
fairly common to find that there is no significant weight loss after
successful treatment of hypothyroidism. Again, if all of the other
symptoms of hypothyroidism, with the exception of weight gain, are
resolved with treatment with thyroid hormone, it is less likely that the
weight gain is solely due to the thyroid. Once hypothyroidism has been
treated and thyroid hormone levels have returned to the normal range
on thyroid hormone, the ability to gain or lose weight is the same as in
individuals who do not have thyroid problems.

Can thyroid hormone be used to help me lose weight?

Thyroid hormones have been used as a weight loss tool in the past. Many
studies have shown that excess thyroid hormone treatment can help
produce more weight loss than can be achieved by dieting alone.
However, once the excess thyroid hormone is stopped, the excess weight
loss is usually regained. Furthermore, there may be significant negative
consequences from the use of thyroid hormone to help with weight
loss, such as the loss of muscle protein in addition to any loss of body
fat. Pushing the thyroid hormone dose to cause thyroid hormone levels
to be elevated is unlikely to significantly change weight and may result

Medifast Peach oatmeal is a delicious treat in the morning or anytime. Medifast announces that they will substitute the Medifast Peach oatmeal into the packages.

Due to supply shortages,Medifast Scrambled Eggs will be replaced in the Medifast 4-Week Packs by Peach Oatmeal starting today, Monday, August 4.

This substitution will only be for a period of 3 to 4 weeks and the Scrambled Eggs should return to the kits sometime in late August. We will keep you posted on this via News in Motion.

Please note that the Scrambled Eggs can still be ordered as an individual item, but will not appear in the Medifast 4-Week Packs.

We appreciate your cooperation and understanding. We also appreciate you alerting your team members about this temporary substitution.

Medifast works hard to provide leads to the people working out in the field. You must qualify for these Medifast leads. Remember, Medifast Works.


We are excited to announce a revision to our current Take Shape For Life Leads Program. Due to our tremendous growth, we are modifying our Leads Program to better fit the needs of our Health Coaches and Clients.

We will continue to honor our commitment to fulfill all leads already earned but not yet received; a process that may require months.

For those who would like a speedier payout for their Leads, we will begin offering the following Leads Exchange program:

1 Client Lead = 10 It's Not Your Fault CDs
1 Business Lead = 10 It's Not Your Fault CDs, 20 Business Opportunity Brochures, 10 Creating Optimal Health DVDs, 1 box of Strawberry Lemonade Momentum Flavor Infusers (recommended for use as samples)
All Health Coaches who are owed Leads have 90 days - from August 1 to October 31, 2008 - to notify Leads@tsfl.com of whether they would like to receive their earned Leads or exchange them for the TSFL tools above.

After October 31, and after all Leads are distributed to those who have earned them, Leads will be handled using a new process. Coaches who become certified will qualify for the Leads pool, where Leads will be assigned in a round-robin order. Going forward, however, there will no longer be a "guaranteed" number of promised Leads for performing certain behaviors.

We are always looking at new and innovative ways to generate leads through all Medifast channels and this, we believe, best fits the needs of a growing Take Shape For Life. Exciting days are ahead as we work together to assist you in building your TSFL business. Stay tuned!

Please contact Field Support with any questions at 1-877-270-5708.

Medifast has set the stage for the next Medifast Leadership retreat. The Medifast Leadership retreat will be held in Utah.

Sundance III

Set in Robert Redford's awe-inspiring Sundance Resort in Utah, the third annual Take Shape For Life Leadership Retreat empowers motivated leaders to set and reach goals beyond what they may have thought attainable.

Led by Dr. Wayne Andersen and Dan Bell, this inspirational 4-day, 3 night event is open to Executive Directors or higher (paid rank 8 or higher) with 5 qualified Senior Advisor legs.

Sundance III is set to take place October 16 - 19, 2008, but availability is limited. If you plan to be eligible by the end of September, we suggest that you book early!

Sundance registration includes training, take-home materials, and eight fantastic meals.

For more information, download the flyer in Documents on Demand in the Sundance III folder or contact Field Support at 1-877-270-5708.

Medifast has announced the location for the 2009 Medifast National convention already. Medifast strives to bring you developments and news as quickly as possible. Remember, Medifast works!

National Convention 2009

Mark your calendars because National Convention 2009 in Scottsdale, Arizona is right around the corner on July 9 - 11, 2009. Being held at the lavish Phoenician Resort, National Convention 2009 will far surpass all that have come before it!

Just to give you a frame of reference on how spectacular the Phoenecian is, the Omni Orlando Resort was a 5 diamond resort; the Phoenician is a 6!

National Convention 2009 Early Bird Pricing will run through the month of August so be sure to get you and your team registered TODAY for less!

The Medifast diet allows you to lose weight quickly. Medifast diet products utilize a high protein to carb ratio to help you do this. Even with Medifast diet products, you will have a difficult time losing weight if your thyroid function is not correctly balanced.

Thyroid Functions and Weight Loss

What is the relationship between thyroid and weight?
It has been appreciated for a very long time that there is a complex
relationship between thyroid disease, body weight and metabolism.
Thyroid hormone regulates metabolism in both animals and humans.
Metabolism is determined by measuring the amount of oxygen used
by the body over a specific amount of time. If the measurement is made
at rest, it is known as the basal metabolic rate (BMR). Indeed,
measurement of the BMR was one of the earliest tests used to assess a
patient’s thyroid status. Patients whose thyroid glands were not working
were found to have low BMRs, and those with overactive thyroid glands
had high BMRs. Later studies linked these observations with
measurements of thyroid hormone levels and showed that low thyroid
hormone levels were associated with low BMRs and high thyroid
hormone levels were associated with BMRs. Most physicians no longer
use BMR due to the complexity in doing the test and because the BMR
is subject to many other influences other than the thyroid state.
What is the relationship between BMR and weight?
Differences in BMRs are associated with changes in energy balance.
Energy balance reflects the difference between the amount of calories
one eats and the amount of calories the body uses. If a high BMR is
induced by the administration of drugs, such as amphetamines, animals
often have a negative energy balance which leads to weight loss. Based
on such studies many people have concluded that changes in thyroid
hormone levels, which lead to changes in BMR, should also cause
changes in energy balance and similar changes in body weight.
However, BMRs are not the whole story relating weight and thyroid. For
example, when metabolic rates are reduced in animals by various
means (for example by decreasing the body temperature), these
animals often do not show the expected excess weight gain. Thus, the
relationship between metabolic rates, energy balance, and weight
changes is very complex. There are many other hormones (besides
thyroid hormone), proteins, and other chemicals that are very important
for controlling energy expenditure, food intake, and body weight.
Because all these substances interact on both the brain centers that
regulate energy expenditure and tissues throughout the body that
control energy expenditure and energy intake, we cannot predict the
effect of altering only one of these factors (such as thyroid hormone)
on body weight as a whole. As a consequence, at this time, we are unable
to predict the effect of changing thyroid state on any individual’s body
weight.

Medifast products contain mainly soy protein. All Medifast products have a high level of protein content versus the carbohydrate content. This allows Medifast products to help you lose weight and maintain your lean muscle at the same time.

Protein and Weight Loss

Proteins are broken down in the stomach during digestion by enzymes known as proteases into smaller polypeptides to provide amino acids for the organism, including the essential amino acids that the organism cannot biosynthesize itself. Aside from their role in protein synthesis, amino acids are also important nutritional sources of nitrogen.
Proteins, like carbohydrates, contain 4 kilocalories per gram as opposed to lipids which contain 9 kilocalories and alcohols which contain 7 kilocalories. The liver and to a much lesser extent the kidneys, can convert amino acids used by cells in protein biosynthesis into glucose by a process known as gluconeogenesis. The amino acids leucine and lysine are exceptions.
Sources of proteins
Dietary sources of protein include meats, eggs, grains, legumes, and dairy products such as milk and cheese. Of the over 20 amino acids used by humans, 12 nonessential amino acids can be synthesized by the body, and are not required in the diet (though there are exceptions for some in special cases). The 9 essential amino acids, however, cannot be created by the body and must come from dietary sources.
Most animal sources and certain vegetable sources have the complete complement of all 9 essential amino acids. However, it is not necessary to consume a single food source that contains all the essential amino acids, as long as all the essential amino acids are eventually present in the diet: see complete protein and protein combining.
Protein quality
Different proteins have different levels of biological availability to the human body. Many methods have been introduced to measure protein utilization and retention rates in humans. They include biological value, Net Protein Utilization or NPU, and PDCAAS (Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acids Score) which was developed by the FDA as an improvement over the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) method. These methods examine which proteins are most efficiently used by the body. In general they conclude that animal complete proteins that contain all the essential amino acids such as milk, eggs, and meat, and the complete vegetable protein soy are of most value to the body.
Egg whites have been determined to have the standard biological value of 100 (though some sources may have biological values higher), which means that most of the absorbed nitrogen from egg white protein can be retained and used by the body. Since the amino acids found in plants are biologically different from those found in humans and animals, the biological value of plant protein sources is considerably lower. For example, corn has a BA of 70 while peanuts have a relatively low BA of 40.
Digestion of protein
Digestion typically begins in the stomach when pepsinogen is converted to pepsin by the action of hydrochloric acid, and continued by trypsin and chymotrypsin in the intestine. The amino acids and their derivatives into which dietary protein is degraded are then absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. The absorption rates of individual amino acids are highly dependent on the protein source; for example, the digestibility of many amino acids in humans differs between soy and milk proteins and between individual milk proteins, beta-lactoglobulin and casein. For milk proteins, about 50% of the ingested protein is absorbed between the stomach and the jejunum and 90% is absorbed by the time the digested food reaches the ileum. Biological value (BV) is a measure of the proportion of absorbed protein from a food which becomes incorporated into the proteins of the organism's body.
Dietary requirements
According to the recently updated Dietary Reference Intake guidelines, women aged 19–70 need to consume 46 grams of protein per day, while men aged 19–70 need to consume 56 grams of protein per day to avoid a deficiency. The difference is because men's bodies generally have more muscle mass than those of women, or this may be attributed to weight difference by taking 0.8 g(of protein)/kg of body weight.
Because the body is continually breaking down protein from tissues, even adults who do not fall into the above categories need to include adequate protein in their diet every day. If enough energy is not taken in through diet, as in the process of starvation, the body will use protein from the muscle mass to meet its energy needs, leading to muscle wasting over time. If the body does not consume adequate protein in nutrition, then muscle will also waste as more vital cellular processes (e.g. respiration enzymes, blood cells) recycle muscle protein for their own requirements.
Other recommendations suggest 0.8 gram of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day while other sources suggest that higher intakes of 1-1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight for enhanced athletes or those with a large muscle mass.
How much protein needed in a person's daily diet is determined in large part by overall energy intake, as well as by the body's need for nitrogen and essential amino acids. Physical activity and exertion as well as enhanced muscular mass increase the need for protein. Requirements are also greater during childhood for growth and development, during pregnancy or when breast-feeding in order to nourish a baby, or when the body needs to recover from malnutrition or trauma or after an operation.
Protein deficiency
Protein deficiency in developing countries
Protein deficiency is a serious cause of ill health and death in developing countries. Protein deficiency plays a part in the disease kwashiorkor. War, famine, overpopulation and other factors can increase rates of malnutrition and protein deficiency. Protein deficiency can lead to reduced intelligence or mental retardation; see deficiency in proteins, fats, carbohydrates.
In countries that suffer from widespread protein deficiency, food is generally full of plant fibers, which makes adequate energy and protein consumption very difficult. Symptoms of kwashiorkor include apathy, diarrhea, inactivity, failure to grow, flaky skin, fatty liver, and edema of the belly and legs. This edema is explained by the normal functioning of proteins in fluid balance and lipoprotein transport.
Dr. Latham, director of the Program in International Nutrition at Cornell University claims that malnutrition is a frequent cause of death and disease in third world countries. Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) affects 500 million people and kills 10 million annually. In severe cases white blood cell numbers decline and the ability of leukocytes to fight infection decreases.
Protein deficiency in developed countries
Protein deficiency is rare in developed countries but small numbers of people have difficulty getting sufficient protein due to poverty. Protein deficiency can also occur in developed countries in people who are dieting or crash dieting to lose weight, or in older adults, who may have a poor diet. Convalescent people recovering from surgery, trauma, or illness may become protein deficient if they do not increase their intake to support their increased needs. A deficiency can also occur if the protein a person eats is incomplete and fails to supply all the essential amino acids.
Excess protein consumption
Because the body is unable to store in the form of protein, excess consumed protein is broken down and converted into sugars or fatty acids. The liver removes nitrogen from the amino acids, so that they can be burned as fuel, and the nitrogen is incorporated into urea, the substance that is excreted by the kidneys. These organs can normally cope with any extra workload but if kidney disease occurs, a decrease in protein will often be prescribed.
Many researchers think excessive intake of protein forces increased calcium excretion. If there is to be excessive intake of protein, it is thought that a regular intake of calcium would be able to stabilize, or even increase the uptake of calcium by the small intestine, which would be more beneficial in older women.
Proteins are often progenitors in allergies and allergic reactions to certain foods. This is because the structure of each form of protein is slightly different; some may trigger a response from the immune system while others remain perfectly safe. Many people are allergic to casein, the protein in milk; gluten, the protein in wheat and other grains; the particular proteins found in peanuts; or those in shellfish or other seafood.
Testing for protein in foods
The classic assay for protein concentration in food is the Kjeldahl method. This test determines the total nitrogen in a sample. The only major component of most food which contains nitrogen is protein (fat, carbohydrate and dietary fiber do not contain nitrogen). If the amount of nitrogen is multiplied by a factor depending on the kinds of protein expected in the food the total protein can be determined. On food labels the protein is given by the nitrogen multiplied by 6.25, because the average nitrogen content of proteins is about 16%. The Kjeldahl test is used because it is the method the AOAC International has adopted and is therefore used by many food standards agencies around the world.