Nutrisystem: My Thoughts
This may be shorter than my thoughts on Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig because a lot of what needed to be said has already been said.
Nutrisystem has been in the weight loss industry for more than 40 years. Nutrisystem plans include comprehensive support and counseling options from trained weight loss coaches, registered dietitians and certified diabetes educators available seven days a week.
Nutrisystem claims to want to simplify weight loss. They emphasize that you don’t have to decide what foods will fit your diet. You don’t have to count calories or carbs. For the most part, you don’t have to make sure you’re eating proper portion sizes. Why? Because you buy most of your food from Nutrisystem. The company ships it to your door. Each day, you eat a Nutrisystem breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Looking at the image above, the breakfast, lunch, dinner and desserts you will be eating likely contain carbs, sugar, more carbs and you guessed it, more sugar. To be fair, it does look like the snuck in a bit of protein in the lunch pictured.
You may also add side items like fresh fruits and veggies and snacks that you buy from the grocery store. And like Jenny Craig, it is likely that the healthiest item you put in your mouth each day will be the fresh vegetables you bought at the store.
The challenge will be when you decide you are finished with the program. Now you have to make more food choices on your own. The program does claim to provide information on how to do this. But information is far different from actually getting into your car and navigating the grocery store. Information isn’t the same as getting out pots and pans and preparing a healthy dish. You will have had months of the habit of sitting at home and having meals arrive on your door step. Months of meals that took little culinary effort on your part. Those months could have been spend building the habit of cooking, but now the program is over and suddenly you are left with some information on how to transition but not practical skills.
Much like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem food leaves much to be desired. With ingredients like, corn syrup, fructose, thickeners, GMO soy, enriched flour and other additives [1], it does not appear that your overall health is among Nutrisystem‘s top concerns. With an average price tag of over $350 after shipping to receive a month worth of their food [2 and 3], I think I know what Nutrisystem is concerned with.
Will you lose weight? More than likely, Nutrisystem suggests consuming between 1200 to 1500 calories a day [4]. Wow, in writing they suggest 1200 to 1500 calories with no consideration for gender, weight or current diet. At least Jenny Craig did take into account several factors when coming up with their calorie total.
In light of full disclosure, on the Nutrisystem website it does say:
If you work out vigorously or have more than 100 pounds to lose, contact our weight loss counselors and dietitians , as you may require additional calories from SmartCarbs and PowerFuels to achieve optimal weight loss results. [4]
But how many people do you think have 100 pounds to lose? And how many people starting one of these weight loss programs are engaging in vigorous exercise? I would guess not many for both of these questions which means that most people on the program are going to be eating a very low amount of calories. I feel like a broken record, they will lose weight, but they problem is they will also lose muscle and the weight loss will not be maintainable as they find their metabolism taking a dive.
Nutrisystem recommends exercise similar to Jenny Craig. They encourage their customers to achieve national health recommendations of 150 minutes of moderately intense physical activity each week (5 days of 30 minutes each) while working towards their weight loss goals [5]. To their credit, their system, called My Daily 3, specifically encourages strength training 2 days per week.
They provide a huge list of weight loss activity suggestions, all customized to the type of activity you want to do on their NuMi app. The customization is good, but it also means they are likely not being pushed out of their comfort zone if they are simply selecting activities they like. Granted, enjoying exercise is a great way to build the healthy habit, but sometimes you simply have to bite the bullet.
Struggling with weight loss but have no desire to spend $350 per month on packaged meals with additives and preservatives? Not confident in developing a strength routine. Reach out to me.
https://healthguidereviews.info/nutrisystem-diet-review/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-best-ways-to-lose-20-pounds/
https://www.nutrisystem.com/jsps_hmr/diet-plans/weight-loss-programs.jsp
https://leaf.nutrisystem.com/faqs/diet-food-nutrition-and-science/how-many-calories-should-i-eat-to-lose-weight/
https://leaf.nutrisystem.com/faqs/about-nutrisystem/do-i-have-to-exercise-on-the-nutrisystem-program-2/
