Anyone here use Nutrisystem?

Oh, god. I tried it once. I was 15. I was maybe 5 pounds "overweight" (not even, I would have been normal according to BMI, just wanted to lose 5 pounds). First of all, I can't believe they had no problem selling me the stuff. Secondly, the "food" was disgusting.

socioseguro wrote: »

Hi:

If you know it already works, why are you asking the pros and cons ?.

^This

I've done all of that stuff. The food sucked and being so restricted as to what I could eat that wasn't powdered food I quit after a week. Do something you can do for the rest of your life... it's a lifestyle change after all. We're here because we've made poor choices in what we eat, how we eat and why we eat. I think addressing those three issues in your normal environment will set you up for long-term success. Small but consistent changes win in the long run

I personally think it's gross food and overpriced. I tried it last year I think...fairly recent.You can probably accomplish the same thing with Lean Cuisine for less money. Nutrisystem stuff tasted like canned Chef Boyardee food. Might be okay once in a while but after a week or so I was depressed and not looking forward to eating.

My sister tried it. It was expensive and she said the food was awful.

There's nothing inherently bad about a program like Nutrisystem or that other one that's named after some woman... brain like a steel trap, mine.

As others have said, the main problem is that in order to lose weight and keep it off, most people need to learn how to eat less, not just realize that they need to. When your food is pre-packaged and you don't have to pay any attention to the numbers involved, sure, you'll lose weight (given that you stick to it). But once you arrive at your goal, and have to start eating at maintenance levels, you're going to have to learn and adjust to the process of counting calories and tracking macros, which most people on a site like MFP did while they were still losing. Arguably, it's easier to climb up that learning curve when you're losing weight and have a goal in mind than when you're at your ideal weight and aren't seeing any changes for your efforts. There will also be a lot more trial and error and therefore weight fluctuation, which can be quite frustrating when you're trying to maintain.

I'd also like to echo the fact that those meals tend to be fairly bland, which is one of the reasons people tend not to stick with these programs long-term. Most pre-packaged meals aren't as flavourful as stuff you make yourself, because they have to appeal to the masses. If you're someone with quite tame taste buds and/or someone who doesn't mind very repetitive eating, then using Nutrisystem to lose weight might not be a terrible idea. You just have to consider what you'd do once the weight is gone.

But really, though, it would boil down to money for me. If it was a choice between getting a car in 6 months or getting one in a year, I'd personally rather have my car to drive myself to the grocery store and buy my own cheaper, tastier food.

My grandmother tried it recently and hated it. The food was terrible, she said. It'd be much cheaper (as a fellow college student! ) to get a Pinterest account and find some amazing, tasty, low/decent calorie recipes and budget a little. But if you can stomach the food (it never smelled very appetizing, haha), the only cons I see are that you can't possibly live on it forever, so what will you do when you reach your goal if you haven't learned how to manage your calories on your own? And the price.

Good luck!

jose4096mfp wrote: »

I buy mine at walmart just started but 44 bucks for a 5 day supply beats 250 a month and when you do order it online they auto deduct it from your account and send it to you very frequently it was anoying i think weekly is better maybe you dont have money one week you can alternate with different foods and go back to it next week

Errr, $44/5day supply actually comes out to like $262/30 days, which is a bit more than the above poster mentioned it would cost to buy monthly.

I did nutrisystem before and all I lost was money.
Honestly? Shop around the frozen section of your local grocery store. You can get the same thing but cheaper and tastier. Green Giant Steamers - frozen vegetables, you just microwave for a couple of minutes. They have a little sauce already on them. Really good really cheap. You can get fish frozen by the fillet, too. You just cut open the package and put it on a baking sheet for how long the package says. Squeeze lemon juice on it. You can even buy pre-packaged brown rice that you just pop in the microwave. Buy frozen baby shrimp, thaw under warm water, chop lettuce, or just tear it with your hands, and put ceaser dressing on it. The frozen vegetarian burgers are good too. What I'm saying is, give the grocery store a fair shake. there are alot of pre-packaged and/or frozen meals that taste better and are cheaper. Everything is already portioned for you, too. In the organic section at my grovery store they have really good and low calorie soups too. breakfast for me is 2-3 slices of 35 calorie a slice toast with 2 tablespoons of light cream cheese/greek yogurt on each. Super easy, super fast. Oh, another good breakfast food - egg beaters, with some flour, like a couple of tabelspoons, slice of bananas, cook like a pancake. You don't even need syrup. Takes 7 minutes.
You can eat healthy buying frozen pre packaged foods, right from your grocery store. You don't have to make kale and arugala salad, there are in between options.
Good luck!

bump

Nutrisystem
Pros:

• It works.
• It takes no thought, just eating.

Cons:

• You don't learn serving sizes because the food is often low-fat-low-sugar-low-everything that isn't available everywhere.
• People come to MFP and say they gained back the weight after coming off of it.
• The food is not as good as food you can make yourself.
• It's very expensive.

MyFitnessPal (aka weigh your own food)
Pros:

• It works
• You can eat literally anything you want, so long as it fits in your daily calories.
• You learn serving sizes.
• It's free (minus the cost of the food scale, which is like USD $15-20).
• It is as tasty as you want to make it.
• What you learn lasts you a lifetime

Cons:

• You have to put thought into your food choices instead of paying extra to have someone else do that for you.

stinsonkms wrote: »

I know it works because my mom lost a ton of weight on Nutrisystem. She said the only bad side was that the food tasted bland. Since in my last post a lot of people were all about counting and portioning your food, Nutrisystem is great because it does that for you. Now the only bad side for me is that it costs A LOT of money. It's over $250 for a month. It may not sound like much but as a college student, I'm also trying to save up for a new car and $250 would be half of what I'm saving each month for my new car, and I really need a new car, but I'd also like to lose weight.

What are some of the pros and cons of Nutrisystem?

I've had friends who did this diet, lost weight, but gained it back once they returned to their regular eating. Obviously this is because they ate more calories on the real food than they did on Nutrisystem. Because I saw what happened to friends, I never tried this diet.

I'd like to suggest that the reason your mom lost weight on this diet is because she was able to stick to it and eat at a calorie deficit. In other words, the type of diet is personal preference only, the hard work of moderating our food is really up to us.

If I were in your shoes, I would put that $250 in the bank and create a calorie deficit eating all the foods you love. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to set up your goals in MFP, to weigh all foods and log whatever you eat, log your cardio calories and eat a portion of them back, and see how that works for you. You get all the foods you love, you don't spend any extra money, and your food won't be bland.

britishbroccoli wrote: »

Nutrisystem
Pros:

• It works.
• It takes no thought, just eating.

Cons:

• You don't learn serving sizes because the food is often low-fat-low-sugar-low-everything that isn't available everywhere.
• People come to MFP and say they gained back the weight after coming off of it.
• The food is not as good as food you can make yourself.
• It's very expensive.

MyFitnessPal (aka weigh your own food)
Pros:

• It works
• You can eat literally anything you want, so long as it fits in your daily calories.
• You learn serving sizes.
• It's free (minus the cost of the food scale, which is like USD $15-20).
• It is as tasty as you want to make it.
• What you learn lasts you a lifetime

Cons:

• You have to put thought into your food choices instead of paying extra to have someone else do that for you.

THIS is the best post I've seen in a long time.

britishbroccoli wrote: »

Nutrisystem
Pros:

• It works.
• It takes no thought, just eating.

Cons:

• You don't learn serving sizes because the food is often low-fat-low-sugar-low-everything that isn't available everywhere.
• People come to MFP and say they gained back the weight after coming off of it.
• The food is not as good as food you can make yourself.
• It's very expensive.

MyFitnessPal (aka weigh your own food)
Pros:

• It works
• You can eat literally anything you want, so long as it fits in your daily calories.
• You learn serving sizes.
• It's free (minus the cost of the food scale, which is like USD $15-20).
• It is as tasty as you want to make it.
• What you learn lasts you a lifetime

Cons:

• You have to put thought into your food choices instead of paying extra to have someone else do that for you.

You are awesome.