What is the ratio of carbohydrates to protein in the Medifast diet?

Someone recently emailed me asking “what is the ratio of carbs to protein in most medifast meals and also the ‘lean and green food’ you are supposed to eat every day?” I didn’t know the answer to this question off the top of my head. So I set out to investigate it. What I found was that I would pretty much have to figure this out myself if I wanted a very accurate answer. Company literature encourages a favorable ratio and foods appear to be very specifically designed to be low carbohydrate and high protein. But, for those who want more specific measurements than this, I’m going to look at some of the most popular medifast meals to really determine the ratio of protein to carbs in these items.

The shakes: Probably the most popular food on this diet are shakes. There are many different types of them. Some are intended to curb your appetite or speed up your metabolism. Others are designed for diabetics or for women nearing menopause. Some are intended to improve heart or joint health. But for the purposes of this article, I’m going to focus on the 55 shakes as I think 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 ones or the crunchy ones. You are only supposed to have one of the maintenance bars each day because they are higher in carbs and sugars. So, I’m going to use the crispy bars because they are not limited. The chocolate crunch flavor is actually the same as 55 shakes with 13 carbs and 11 grams of protein. Again, the ratio is 1.18.

The brownies: Medifast brownies are a relatively new addition to the menu. They are extremely popular and can be served hot. These are a bit higher in carbs at 15 grams. But they also have 11 protein. So the ratio here increases a bit to 1.36. By the way, the oatmeal (apple cinnamon flavor) comes with the exact same numbers.

The pudding: This is a bit higher in terms of carbs, but it’s also true for protein, so it balances 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 around 1.1 like bars and shakes.

The soups: There are many varieties of soups, but I really like chili 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 equals around 1.07.

Now this is not an exhaustive list of all medifast foods, but it does include many of the most popular foods. And, the composition of your lean and green food is probably going to vary slightly, but I suspect there’s a reason they give you such specific lists on the recommended ounces of lean protein to include and how to choose low-glycemic vegetables.

So while some of the foods varied slightly, I hope this article has shown you that most foods limit carbs to around 15 and have at least 11 protein. I’m certainly not a math or diet expert, but it seems to me that the goal was to keep the ratio as close as possible. And, if you’ve been checking the nutrition labels on diet foods in grocery stores, I think you’ll find that very few of them succeed at this in the way that these examples used here have.