A review of Optavia diet

Optavia diet is one of the newest in its league, and many people are trying it to attain weight loss. Here is a quick review of how user-friendly and effective this diet is and what are the positives and downsides of following this diet.

Optavia diet is built around the concept of minimizing cooking time to prepare health-friendly meals. This diet also encourages the consumption of pre-packed and really simple to cook meals rather than focusing on an elaborate menu.

This diet is owned by Medifast, which is a meal replacement company. It offers a low-calorie and reduced-carbs program by combining a few packaged foods and encouraging the consumption of home-cooked meals to attain weight loss.

One-on-one coaching is a salient feature of this program, which is helpful for the clients to achieve their desired results. There are also several branded meals and quick fueling products in this program that can provide instant nutrition. Right from bars, shakes, cookies, cereals, pudding, pasta, and soups, a wide range of low-carb and high-protein products have been created for this diet, which are also rich in probiotic culture.

There are several versions of this diet that you can choose based on your requirements. Each version has a different range of prepackaged products that can assist in weight loss. This diet mainly focusses on reducing calorie consumption to a specific number. This means many artificial sweeteners are used to manage calories count, and the prepackaged meals are served in small food portions.

A few studies do support greater weight loss and effective results with this meal replacement-based diet, as it is low in carbohydrates. In one of the studies, it was found that people who followed Optavia’s 5&1 Plan lost significant weight, fat, and reported a lower waist circumference compared to that of the control group. Medifast funded this study, and the result demonstrated was only for short-term weight loss. Following this diet has also been found to improve blood pressure as it limits the sodium intake slightly.

There are also some of the downsides associated with following this diet:

• This diet is deficient in calories, and some people may not be pleased with rapid calorie reduction as it can lead to significant weight loss.
• Some people also complain of increased hunger pangs and food cravings while following this diet, which makes it difficult for them to adhere to this diet for a long duration.
• Some plans/versions of this diet are quite restrictive and may also not meet the requirements of essential nutrients.
• This diet can be quite expensive, and it is not easy to follow for a long duration.
• This diet can be incompatible for people who are vegans and have specific food allergies.
• Optavia diet can only provide short-term weight loss, and there is a strong probability that people may experience fast weight gain once they stop following this program.
• This diet is highly dependent on prepackaged foods, which contains preservatives, food additives, processed vegetable oil, and sugar substitutes.
• All of these may contribute to chronic inflammation and may harm the gut health.
• Most of the coaches of this program are not certified health professionals; therefore, their guidance may lose credibility and people will not be compelled to take their suggestions seriously.