What you need to know about the Nutrisystem weight loss system before signing up
Nutrisystem is a weight loss program designed to teach people how to eat smaller portions by providing those smaller portions through prepackaged frozen meals. You’ll select the plan from the Nutrisystem website and create your own individualized 28-day menu that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a dessert for each day. Or you can start with a pre-selected favorite food pack. Once you have completed this, request a 28 day schedule or you can select an automatic delivery for recurring monthly deliveries at a significant discount.
The cornerstone of the Nutrisystem is that it is a so-called “no fuss” meal plan that does not teach you how to count calories, carbs, or points, but instead uses a pre-portioned meal that is delivered right to your door. The plan also comes with a grocery and fruit shopping list to complement the frozen food. Nutrisystem has an online community and weight loss tracking system for support and motivation.
At its core, the entire show is about convenience, and in this incredibly fast-paced world, convenience may not be so bad. For the prize of approximately $10 a day with free food every four weeks, the final cost is around eight dollars a day. Compared to Jenny Craig, also a prepackaged and portion control weight loss program, Nutrisystem has no membership or contract fee.
However, as with any prepackaged and portioned weight loss program, it is very helpful in getting you back on track, but it is not a permanent answer to either weight loss or weight maintenance. After you’ve finished several weeks on the Nutrisystem diet, you need to get back to preparing your own meals, learning portion control, and figuring out how to deal with snacking and food cravings.
The program itself is designed around the glycemic index. This index measures the amount of insulin a particular food will require to be digested. Those foods that require a higher amount of insulin also prepare the body for insulin resistance and a higher amount of fat cell growth. This is because with more insulin floating around the body, the body’s cells cannot absorb as much energy as efficiently as before. This energy is then stored in the body’s fat cells, which encourages weight gain rather than weight loss.
The Nutrisystem diet has options for men, women, diabetics, and vegetarians, which is typical of most prepackaged meal programs. Your typical daily caloric allotment will range from 1,200 to 1,500 calories and most days consist of three meals and two snacks. Doctors recommend that you never take your calorie intake below 1200 calories per day because it throws your body into starvation mode which then slows metabolism and lowers the success rate for any weight loss.
By strictly following a low-calorie diet for weight loss, such as Nutrisystem, most people will lose weight. Weight loss has always been a matter of negative calorie balance. This means that you will lose weight by eating less than you are burning off. How long the lost weight will be maintained can only be answered on an individual basis, as the challenge of restoring normal eating habits after finishing the program remains difficult for most people.
People can choose from up to 120 different entrees and desserts that are made up of 55% carbs, 25% protein, and 20% fat. Most meals are low in saturated and trans fats and high in whole grains. The meals provided should be supplemented with six servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
However, despite the program offering 120 different diet options, Consumer Affairs.com continues to receive occasional complaints about the Nutrisystem program. The complaints are not for the lack of results but for the taste of the food and the lack of variety in the diet. Many of the complainants said that the food was salty and unpleasant.
Nutrisystem has a program that allows people to choose the foods they would like to eat. Although this adds price to the program, many people choose to go this route so that they can choose the foods that they will find most edible. Unfortunately, Consumer Affairs.com has been receiving complaints since November 2005.
Most of those who follow a 1,200 to 1,500 calorie diet will lose weight, whether the food is prepackaged and frozen shipped from Nutrisystem or purchased at the grocery store in the frozen food section. For those people who require a little more structure in their lives to achieve their goals, Nutrisystem is definitely a better cost advantage than Jenny Craig. However, there is no substitute for understanding the value of each regular healthy food and learning portion control.
For this reason, the Nutrisystem may be an excellent choice for the first eight to 10 weeks of a long-term lifestyle choice to fuel a diet program, but should be further evaluated if a person wishes to maintain their weight loss while Learn to eat properly. portions outside the program.