Efficacy of Parent-Child Dieting Plans Incorporating Medifast Meal Replacements for Weight Loss

1. Does a joint parent-child dieting approach, as opposed to an individually-based approach, improve weight loss outcomes? 2. Is a diet which includes Medifast meal replacements as efficacious as a non-supplemented Food Guide Pyramid-based diet (reference diet) in achieving better adherence to the diet, initial weight loss, reduction in % body fat, and weight maintenance? 3. Does regular use of Medifast meal replacements, in conjunction with a Food Guide Pyramid-based diet, result in significantly better compliance, greater dietary satisfaction, dietary quality, and palatability than the reference diet? 4. Do children who have lost weight using Medifast meal replacements, as an adjunct to a Food Guide Pyramid-based diet, achieve health benefits compared to baseline values and are these health benefits greater than those obtained following the reference diet?