NutriSystem is a commercial weight-loss program that allows you to buy meals you can store for later use. After consulting with a counselor, you typically design a 28-day diet that includes all your meals, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Following the meal planner provided with your delivered food, you eat only the meals provided by NutriSystem, which claims to provide low-calorie food that achieves a healthy, balanced diet.
Types
Generally, NutriSystem focuses on limiting bad carbohydrates -- for example, those found in processed white bread and sugary beverages -- and promoting good carbohydrates, such as whole-grain breads and vegetables. The diet also includes low-fat lean meats, fish and dairy products. The exact eating plan you follow will depend on your interview with your counselor. Note that the counselors are not registered dietitians.
Expert Insight
Registered dietitian Maureen Callahan points out that the weight-loss results of NutriSystem diets are inconclusive. In a 2008 article for Health.com, Callahan notes that "NutriSystem can't point to a single clinical trial to demonstrate that this diet works," adding that NutriSystem does offer anecdotal success stories in books and on its website. The University of Maryland Medical Center expresses similar concerns when it says, "there are few well-conducted studies on these programs," referring to such commercial weight-loss programs as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and NutriSystem.
Benefits
As with other diets, the effectiveness of NutriSystem depends as much on your personal tastes and preferences as it does with its objective nutritive value. If you enjoy the meals NutriSystem provides, it will be easier to resist giving in to your cravings for unhealthy foods. If the small sizes of the meals train your body to be satisfied with smaller portions, it will be easier to maintain healthy portion control, even after you finish your NutriSystem diet. If you have difficulty counting calories, having someone else make your food choices for you will make dieting easier. Finally, you might appreciate NutriSystem's counselors, interactive website and online community.
Disadvantages
On the other hand, NutriSystem does not teach you how to choose healthy foods and portion sizes. Rather, NutriSystem does the thinking for you when it gives you prepackaged meals that provide an appropriate number of calories and a suitable amount of nutrients. Once you finish with NutriSystem, you may have difficulty designing and maintaining a healthy diet of your own. Also, NutriSystem might be prohibitively expensive, especially considering you could achieve effective results by working with an expert dietitian to design a healthy eating plan that includes fresh foods, rather than prepackaged and frozen meals.
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