Can anyone give me feedback on Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem??

[Anonymous]

I am at a plateau with losing this baby weight and I'm starting to think the only way I might be able to do it is if someone is handing me the food to eat. Has anyone done either of these? Can you tell me what you liked/didn't like about it? Did it work for you? Were you able to stick to it while cooking for the rest of your family? that's my primary concern. Was the food terrible?

I'd appreciate any feedback you have! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I did Nutrisystem a couple of years ago. I felt like I was tricked. They go on about how its meals for a month etc etc but in reality iirc they gave you the base meal which was about 100-120 calories. You still needed to pair it with a fruit/vegetable and it came with a little booklet of what was allowable. The food was ok, I thought. My husband hated it.

I lost weight yeah, but I wouldnt go that route again.

[Anonymous]

Done both. Jenny Craig food is much better than Nutrisystem. The key to Jenny Craig is getting the right coach. A good one can motivate you. A bad one can annoy you. It can be a pain to go to the Jenny Craig center and weigh in and pick up your food. But it can also be a motivating factor in losing weight as it keeps you accountable.

[Anonymous]

I'm doing Nutrisystem right now and have lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. The food's hit or miss. One of the first things I ate was some sort of cheesy potato thing for lunch and almost gagged. Fortunately I only had one of those in my first order. I custom-selected my second month's order based on what I did like. You add dairy, fresh fruits, and veggies to all meals, so other than the fact you eat an NS entree for dinner, you should be able to cook and eat with family. I eat a regular meal with family about once a week, if the protein is going to be a lean option, like grilled shrimp or roast chicken without the skin. I just keep that portion small.

Why it's working for me -- I have a sweet tooth and NS doesn't allow that. There are very few simple carbs. You aren't eating rolls or bread very often at all. The higher protein content at each meal and snack has kept me full. It really feels like I'm eating too much sometimes (dinner is the worst, but I've scaled back portions of raw/steamed veggies and salads). It's teaching me true portion control, and how to make the lean protein a small part of a meal, bulked up by lots of fresh fruit and veggies. I used to think I ate a lot of these, but I didn't. My sweet tooth cravings are completely gone now, FWIW.

I log my food, exercise, and water consumption online, which is really helpful. I am not following it super-strict (don't measure foods), but my calories are staying between 1,100 and 1,300 daily.

My life is so crazy stressful these days, the idea of someone else planning meals for me was very attractive. And it is working great. If this aspect is appealing to you, I encourage you to try any of the food delivery diets. I'm not familiar with Jenny Craig, although a friend of mine did it and it seemed to be similar to NS, entrees and you add fruits/veggies. Diet to Go might be a good option too.

What I don't like -- the entrees have tons of additives and weird ingredients, bulking up seemingly regular foods with high protein and fiber. The sodium content is balanced throughout the day, but for some reason some of the foods taste extremely salty. Sometimes the tomato sauce on pizzas taste outrageously sweet to me. Even the ice cream has something like 4 grams of fiber (from where?). But I figure my extra weight is more of a health risk right now than the additives are.

What I worry about -- I am learning great portion control, but since the entrees are artificially high in protein and fiber, do they keep me fuller longer? After I lose this weight, will a similar portion size of a regular food be as satisfying and keep me full? But I'll worry about maintenance when I get to it.

Typical day:

Breakfast:
NS meal (wide variety from cereal to breakfast bars to oatmeal to western omelets)
You add a dairy/protein (like 8 ounces skim milk or one egg) (I do skim milk in my coffee)
You add a fresh fruit (1/2 a banana)

Lunch:
NS meal
You add salad plus ff dressing
You add dairy/protein (I eat yogurt)

Afternoon snack:
You add dairy/protein (cheese, milk, egg)
You add fruit (I eat a bit of cheese and apples usually)

Dinner:
NS meal
2 veggies (steamed broccoli and carrots, for example)
1 salad or fruit (I make a tiny salad)
1 fat serving (I use real salad dressing)

Snack:
NS snack (range from soy chips to chocolate to candy bars to ice cream)

[Anonymous]

I have done Jenny Craig and the food is decent. The frozen stuff is better than the shelf stable stuff. I managed to lose 20lbs.

[Anonymous]

I went to the Jenny Craig place to check it out, and spent some time looking at the ingredients and nutritional make-up of the meals. I thought the food was overprocessed, had too many ingredients I didn't even recognize - with chemical-sounding names, and was way too high in sodium. (And the lady I talked to thought there was nothing wrong with consuming 4 grams of sodium in a day!) I used Diet-to-Go instead and customized the menu to items I liked - mostly vegetarian.

If you're willing to spend what the commercial diet programs want to charge you, maybe you can come up with a creative alternative for the same money or less. I think it may be considerably cheaper than the commercial diet programs to just go to the grocery store and buy high quality frozen meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) that add up to the calorie count, fiber, protein, fat, and sodium you want to target each day. There is some really tasty stuff to choose from these days (including ethnic cuisines and whole grain, low fat choices), especially if you look in the frozen section at My Organic Market or Whole Foods. Then treat yourself to a couple of big bottles of elegant sparkling water a day and some yummy raspberries or strawberries or Ranier cherries for dessert, and call it a day!

[Anonymous]

Try weight watchers frozen meals. Other brands have the points value too, and with the slider thing its so fast and easy to caluclate the points values of the meals your eatting.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the comments. I like the idea of kind of doing it myself, I've thought about that too. To the PP who mentioned weight watchers, where do you get the slider thing?? I have done weight watchers online, but never gone to meetings. Do I have to do that to get one?

[Anonymous]

I did nutrisystem - samething- baby fat.. I lost 10 lbs in 5 weeks- it took a lot of planning of the right snacks to supplement (you supplement a LOT- this is costly and time consuming IMO) and lots of the food was gross.. but i was determined and viewed this as temporary so I stuck with it.. about the pp who said it helped with the sweet tooth- that's funny since i don't have a sweet tooth (unless pregnant) but with ns i had desserts (their meals) so i got used to ending the day with a sweet..

i took a break and was pretty happy - until i saw my beach picture and reality struck that the scale did go down but not where it used to be and i physically wasn't back to normal - so I moved on to medifast- talk about easy and no thinking- i should have started with this diet! the first days as i read were hard but from here on it's been very easy- i don't feel hungry which is odd given the low cals (and i felt hungry with ns).. i lost 12 so far in 4 weeks- now i just need 3-4 more and I'm DONE!!!!

I did read a lot about people who lost and then gained back+ more- but my weight was where i'm trying to get to for my entire adulthood and was a skinny kid- i was never those model thin people but i at my worst, i was considered average to slim.. (except for after pregnancy)

Anyway- it's up to you on whether you do it yourself- i just needed a HUGE motivator (meaning faster weight loss) to get me out of my weight/size rut.. i also cut out alcohol which technically made this diet a bargain since DH and i made elaborate meals with a few glasses of wine.. i still cook for the kids and DH- I just don't eat it.. anyway- one more week and i should be back to my weight..

best of luck!

[Anonymous]

My mom does Jenny Craig and swears by it. My bet is that JC is imposing discipline, which is great, but I doubt it is teaching her effective tools for changing the lifelong habits she needs to change.

I think the food looks and smells gross.

[Anonymous]

I'm the weight watchers pp. I did go to a meeting, and honestly they do help you stay on track but you don't have to go, if you go to where they hold the meetings you can buy all sorts of supplies. I bought the intro pack that came with tons of information, books for telling you the point values of all sorts of different foods for when you have to eat out, and things you don't think about like fruit. It also came with the "slider." Its basically this thin cardboard thing where you match up the calories, fat and protein and it tells you the points value. It comes in so handy. Another trick I do is when I buy something, like a box of wheat thins, I split it up when I get home into little snack size baggies and put them back in the box. Its so easy to grab one for a snack and know its points value. The slider is also great to take to the grocery store

[Anonymous]

I have lost 45 pounds tracking the food I eat using nutridiary: http://www.nutridiary.com/. You put in your current weight, the weight you'd like to be, the number of pounds you want to lose per week, and it tells you how many calories you can eat each day. As you add what you eat, it tells you what you have left for the day.

I looked into Nutrisystem, but didn't like that they put that fake fat stuff in all their meals.

[Anonymous]

I did Nutrisystem and the food made me sick as in stuck in the bathroom for an hour after every meal sick. Sorry for the TMI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did Nutrisystem and the food made me sick as in stuck in the bathroom for an hour after every meal sick. Sorry for the TMI.

I was worried about that too. I think it was because of what PP said about that fake fat, Olestra? I don't think the foods have that any more, at least I haven't had problems. They do have a lot of fish oil products added to weird foods to boost omega 3 content though.

[Anonymous]

To the PP who did Medifast....can I ask why you like it so much more? It seems very expensive. Thanks!