In 2005, Nutrisystem reported an increase in revenue of well over seven hundred percent, a number almost unheard of among weight-loss centers. A company that went bankrupt a little over a decade ago is back and promoting their products on seemingly every channel. Despite all the hype, the simple question remains: does it work?
Nutrisystem’s main idea centers on the convenience they provide dieters by shipping pre-packaged food right to your door. For every full month’s worth of food you order from their website, they will ship one week’s worth free. It sounds like a great deal, and to an extent it is-but you’ll still end up paying somewhere around $300 for five weeks of food.
If you spend more than that at the grocery store this may help you save money, but remember this is for a single person, and doesn’t include the food you must purchase separately to supplement it (such as dairy and fresh fruit.) The convenience factor makes Nutrisystem a popular choice for many individuals, especially those living in major metropolitan areas.
The diet itself revolves around recent discoveries made about the glycemic index, relying on low-glycemic foods and vegetables to make up the majority of your caloric intake. With various options for men, women and even vegetarians, the daily caloric intake stabilizes around 1400-1500, with three meals and two in-between snacks so you never feel truly hungry. Alcohol is strictly prohibited, as is regular soda, but diet soda, coffee and tea are fine.
The beauty of the Nutrisystem diet lies in its simplicity as well as its convenience: as long as you stick to the food you order through their website and supplement it with exercise and the recommended foodstuffs, even if you have problems with insulin resistance you will lose weight. This makes it an ideal diet for those with diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome, metabolic disorders and other insulin issues.
Although following a low-calorie, low glycemic index diet of your own design will also help you lose weight, Nutrisystem puts everything together for you to help you on your way. The problem with their system is the lack of variety in their food, leading many people to get tired of the diet within a month or two. People who are used to an eclectic assortment in their diet will quickly tire of the same food over and over again.
Some have complained that they left Nutrisystem after only a few weeks simply because they couldn’t stand the food anymore, even though they were losing weight. Because the food is pre-packaged it doesn’t always taste very fresh, which unfortunately turns many people away to look for diets with more variety.
Another major issue is with the consistency of quality control and order fulfillment within the Nutrisystem warehouse itself. Many people have complained that their order was substituted with items they didn’t want without previous notification, and Nutrisystem does in fact have a disclaimer that they have the right to such a practice.
This has led to more than one disgruntled customer demanding their money back. Other times the food arrives as ordered, but an item doesn’t taste the way it did last month, causing endless consternation from dieters who expect their food to remain consistent from month to month. This has been a small number of the Nutrisystem population, but nevertheless it has occurred.
Nutrisystem is a good way to lose weight in a more convenient fashion, but you have to be ready not to have a great deal of variety while on the diet. If you’ve wanted to lose weight but haven’t found the time or means necessary to do it and can afford the prices Nutrisystem charges for their products, you may want to give them a try. Otherwise, you may be better off coming up with your own low glycemic index-based diet.
