You have probably seen the advertisements on television: A woman shows off her slim body in a swimsuit while the announcer says, "Susan lost 54 pounds on Nutrisystem." Nutrisystem claims to use science in the form of the gylcemic index to help both men and women lose weight, but its long-term effectiveness depends on your personal lifestyle changes and self-discipline.
Nutrisystem
Nutrisystem is a diet system that uses the glycemic index and careful portion control to help you manage your eating and lose weight. You select a program, and within a few days, preportioned meals and snacks begin arriving at your door. This can be a good system for people who are unable to cook healthy meals or who struggle with portion control.
Glycemic Index Diets
The Mayo Clinic explains that glycemic index diets like Nutrisystem try to help you control your blood sugar levels, leading to weight loss. The glycemic index analyzes food with carbohydrates and classifies them according to their impact on your blood sugar. While many other glycemic index diets fail by claiming you do not need portion control -- you just need to choose foods with a low GI rating -- Nutrisystem does encourage portion control. However, the glycemic index does not necessary classify foods according to their nutrition, so GI diets may not be nutritionally adequate on their own.
Nutrisystem Weaknesses
Due to the portion control aspect of Nutrisystem, it has been effective in helping people lose weight in the short term. As the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center explains, you receive premade meals, but you do not learn principles of healthy cooking and eating. In addition, you do not receive guidance from any dietitians. Rather, you are on your own once you go off the diet plan, leading many patients to regain the weight they lost.
Conclusion
This plan may be the boost that gets you to begin losing weight, if you are already familiar with the principles of healthy eating and can keep the weight off. It is also a good choice if you need the convenience of premade and proportioned meals. However, it has not demonstrated long-term effectiveness by itself, since it fails to teach you the skills you need to eat healthy in today's world. If you decide to use Nutrisystem, make sure you are supplementing its easy preliminary weight loss with resources that will teach you how to eat properly in the long term.
References
- Nutrisystem: Overview
- MayoClinic; Glycemic Index Diet: Losing Weight with Blood Sugar Control; November 2009
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Nutrisystem Diet; Maria Adams, MS, MPH, RD; March 2011
- Colorado State University Extension; Weight Loss Products and Programs; J. Anderson et al.; December 2008
