For teens who need to lose weight, it can be tough choosing the right diet. Active, growing bodies need more calories and more nutrients than adults. So if you’ve been looking at the Medifast diet for yourself or a teenager in your family, then you will want to know whether the Medifast diet is appropriate for teens.

Thankfully, Medifast can easily be used by teens to lose weight. There’s a few program changes to their standard diet that need to be added to any teen’s diet plan, but they are easy to implement. There are quite a few changes from the traditional Medifast 5 and 1 plan, as teenager’s developing bodies require more calories and nutrients, particularly protein, calcium and iron, than adult bodies do.

Medifast has two different plans for teens. One is called the Weight loss plan and the other is the Weight Maintenance Plan. Choosing the right plan is based on your teenager’s BMI and this is usually best determined by a pediatrician or general practitioner. So it’s a good idea to discuss the Medifast programs with your teen’s doctor so they can help determine the appropriate plan.

The Medifast weight loss plan for teens looks like this:

• 3 Medifast Meals per day
• 5 Servings Fruit and Vegetables (canned fruits are okay if they are packed in water)
• 2 servings of low fat dairy such as low-fat milk, soy milk or low fat yogurt (cheese is on the protein list instead of the dairy list)
• 2 servings of whole grains (ex: 1 slice whole grain bread)
• 2 servings lean protein (meat, beans, low fat cheese, etc.)
• 2 servings of fats (Tsp butter, margarine or cream)

The above servings are recommend for girls. For boys, an additional two servings of whole grains and one serving of fats are added to the plan.

You can find out more about how the diet for teens works on Medifast’s official website.

As you can see this is a common sense, healthy diet. The Medifast meals are mostly used to supplement the plan and I think they are a great way to stave off hunger. They ideally help with appetite control and making sure that the nutritional profile of each day is as perfect as possible. In addition, Medifast publishes a guide for teens which helps with recommendations for meals, suggestions for exercise and ways to get active. It also covers in depth the nutritional needs of teenagers which is useful for any parents concerned about how their kids are eating.

Disclosure: DietInspector.com is a paid affiliate of Medifast.

Tags: Medifast, teen diets, teen weight loss