Medifast® has been around since 1981, operating previously only within the medically supervised Low Calorie Meal Replacement fasting segment of the weight loss industry. It ranks among the top modified fasting vendors such as HMR and Optifast®, in terms of the number of physicians, clinics, and other healthcare sites, and number of people using this type of program.
Medifast® is a leader in soy-based medical meal replacement products used by customers and medical practitioners for over 20 years. With over 1 million patients and 15,000 doctors previously working with its products, this program has been pre-sold to much of the consumer base. The main end-users of the Medifast® program are consumers and some clinics and hospitals. This is a liquid supplement modified fasting program for the treatment of obesity. Many items are Kosher certified.
Medifast is no longer primarily a medically supervised weight loss program. Most customers now buy Medifast products directly from the company, with no medical supervision required. Yes, it still does offer the medical option, but claims that only 10% of its current customers fall into this category. The company is not as much of a "diet food" company as Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers or NutriSystem. These companies derive most of their revenues from the sale of full meals--breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees, and have more extensive product lines with more "real food" items. Rather, Medifast is primarily a meal replacement company, that has a few solid food items such as chili, oatmeal, and now, scrambled eggs. But, you will not find dinner items such as pasta, chicken, beef, etc.
The company is trying to make the transition to a full diet food product line consumer oriented company, but is not quite there yet. Consequently, it's a much smaller operation than Jenny, Weight Watchers or NutriSystem, in terms of sales. However, this is not to say it's products and program are not as good or effective