What's the Truth About Nutrisystem?
Unless you are emerging from a 100-year nap worthy of Sleeping Beauty, you have surely seen magazine or TV ads for the Nutrisystem Diet Plan. They are full of smiling celebrities like Dan Marino, Marie Osmond, and Larry the Cable Guy showing off their new slim and trim bodies and boasting about how easy it was to reach their fat loss goals.
So, is it all hype? Does the plan really work for average people? Can you expect to get similar results? What's in those Nutrisystem meals, anyway? These are all great questions, and after doing extensive online research, and talking with some actual users of the plan, I have some unbiased answers.
The Basic Premise
Nutrisystem is all based around Internet use. There are no real-world stores to visit or meetings to attend. You sign up online, order your food, and it is delivered to your door. You also get access to a forum where you can chat with other users and chart your progress. Counselors are available for online support, as well.
The Nutrisystem diet has plans for men, women, and vegetarians. They also offer custom-made meals for diabetics and for Senior Citizens. Your age and gender will obviously help to determine how many calories a day you should consume in order to achieve the fat loss you desire.
Once you have entered your basic information into the Nutrisystem site, you are asked to choose items to make up menus for 28 days. The food is shipped to you, mostly pre-cooked, and all in individual portions. You'll add fresh grocery items to it through the month to complete your meals. Each day has three meals and two snacks, so that you can eat something every few hours.
Rather than basing any of their eating plans around a "low fat" or "low carb" theory, Nutrisystem follows the Glycemic Index, which measures how quickly carbohydrates are used for fuel in the body. Carbs that break down over a fairly long period of time and do not cause a quick, drastic increase in blood sugar levels, are rated "low" on the Glycemic Index, and are the most desirable carbs to consume. Anything loaded with raw sugar, fructose, or corn syrup, would have a high Glycemic count and therefore be considered a bad carb that would cause a spike in blood sugar levels.
So, the basic premise is to provide plenty of lean protein and fiber, along with these good carbs so that the dieter has a wide variety of foods to choose from. Because the insulin (blood sugar) level stays fairly constant throughout the day, users experience fewer cravings and hunger pangs than they would while following many diets.
The Upside
An important factor in the Nutrisystem plan is that your food portions are automatically controlled. Each menu item is individually packaged so that you never have to weigh any food, or count carbs or calories. When you have finished an entrée like the macaroni with cheese, for example, you don't eat any more until the next meal. This is certainly a convenience for the user, and eliminates many of the frustrations of traditional diets that require a great deal of time just to plan and prepare what should be consumed for the next meal.
Portion control is a great thing for many people in our modern society who really don't know what a "sensible" meal should look like. When so many restaurants offer "super sized" dishes and "all you can eat," or "unlimited refills" as a marketing ploy, it's easy for folks to think they need to eat a large quantity of food every time they have a meal. Eating Nutrisystem foods is a good way to bring expectations back to reality.
The nutritional theory behind Nutrisystem seems to be sound, as well, which is important for anyone considering using this diet on a long-term basis. Users eat foods from all the basic food groups, and they get a good variety of choices. The Glycemic Index has been approved by the World Health Organization as a good way of measuring the influence carbohydrates have on the body, and so the science behind the menus is sound.
The Downside
One of the main drawbacks of using Nutrisystem is the cost. The ads say that you can buy their food for about $11 a day. While that may be true, and it may sound like a pretty reasonable price to pay, you must remember that the food that is shipped to you from the company is not all that you will need to eat. You will have to supplement this with fresh fruits, vegetables, beverages, and dairy products, and some of the meals even suggest that you add big-ticket items like ham slices to your pre-packaged foods. It all adds up, and you'll have plenty of expense in your food budget.
Nutrisystem also has a limited number of options for seasonings with their meals. Many users I talked to complained about the food being monotonous and bland, and would have preferred to have more choices about spices and flavorings that were used in the preparation.
Another red flag jumped out at me on the Nutrisystem website. A statement was posted below a picture of a satisfied user who had lost 60 pounds and read this way: "Results not typical. Individuals are remunerated." In plain English, that means that most users cannot expect results like this, and the smiling people you see in their ads were paid to be there. If this plan works so well, why aren't those kinds of results typical? Why aren't people so overjoyed with their success that they would gladly speak for the product, even without payment?
The Bottom Line
While Nutrisystem offers great convenience and a pretty good nutritional plan, it is very pricey, and not a good solution for long-term weight control. No one would eat food mailed to their house every day for the rest of their lives. At some point, users will have to be weaned off of a program like this and learn to control their weight without all the handholding.
That's why I think a simple eating plan like Fat Loss 4 Idiots is a good solution. It offers a wide variety of food choices, customized plans, and no counting of carbs or calories. It subscribes to the theory that your body must be "tricked" into burning fat rather than holding on to it because it has entered "starvation mode." The foods that are recommended by FL4I keep your metabolism humming and keep the fat loss happening. It also lets you enjoy three "free" days after 11 days on the plan when you can eat whatever you like. That's a good way to avoid the monotony and loss of motivation that happens so often with other plans.
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