Nutrisystem!! Does it work?

Essentially it is just providing you with a relatively easy/convenient way of having a calorie deficit, something you can achieve by yourself. Hey, if you've got the money AND are learning to eat the right way once you stop it, why not? Not for me.

zaynesmommy2015 wrote: »

I'm horrible at "not eating so much" I try so hard to eat less but I'm always hungry! I don't know what to do here

Nutrisystem is just another way of "not eating so much," you're just paying them to determine what you can eat. If you think that kind of structure will be helpful for you, then Nutrisystem will work. But if hunger is an issue for you when reducing calories, it may still be an issue on Nutrisystem. And you will still have to figure out what you are going to eat to maintain your weight loss.

The benefit of choosing your own foods when losing weight is that when it comes time to maintain, you already know how to choose foods that fit into your calorie budget.

I would rather eat real food and account for the calories. I've heard the food is disgusting, and from what I see it's mostly pasta. Pasta is cheap, why pay so much for a program with pasta.

It has definitely worked for me. I'm a horrible cook, so was eating packaged food anyway most of the time - and with costco & insurance discounts i'm not paying more for food now than I was when I was eating on my own. I did 3 months of JUST the Nutrisystem food - the frozen is almost all quite good, the shelf stable is pretty hit or miss for me.

Now i'm trying to learn to cook too - slowly adding in food that i've prepared to supplement the NS food. I'm ordering 4 weeks worth of food every 6 weeks and trying to do "regular" food the rest of the time. I'm hoping that by mid-summer I can transition off of the NS food entirely, or at least mostly, and prepare regular grocery store food for myself.

That said, they're right that it's just CICO at the end of the day - if you get insurance discounts etc it's not too pricey. If you don't it can get expensive fast, and you might be just as well off to buy frozen food at the grocery. It's worth investigating - I get a discount off the price for having my insurance, and then my work gives me a discount on my insurance premium as part of their "wellness initiative".

You can just stock up on a bunch of Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine frozen dinners, eat those for every meal, and spend a fraction of what you would on Nutrisystem.

Husband tried it. Their food is gross, comes in ittybitty portions and has huge long ingredient lists.

zaynesmommy2015 wrote: »

I'm horrible at "not eating so much" I try so hard to eat less but I'm always hungry! I don't know what to do here

This is the same thing we all need to practice.

NutriSystem can take this work away. But when you get to maintenance you will still need to practice some restraint anyway. Why not practice the restraint now, and learn how to be less hungry.

Smart Ones, Healthy Choice, Lean Cusine..... and a few others are a good place to start. Protein, fat and fiber are all filling....but the combination is a little different for everyone. Look for higher protein counts, and add more veggies (fiber) to small portions.

Just take the time to meal prep on your own. You will save yourself a lot of money.

I agree with what everybody said. For my own personal experience, I started nutrisystem from QVC. I would suggest if you want to try it, that is the way to go because you have 30 days to try to program and see if it works for you. If you dont like it, you can get a refund. I started out with the shelf stable food and I actually liked it and I do know how to cook and I rarely eat prepacked food before the program.
I did eventually move up to the frozen foods and it made a world of difference. I have lost over 70 lbs. Could I have done it without NS? Sure, but obviously I did not have to tools to do so or I would have. It is my goal to move away from entirely eating nutrisystem this year, but honestly, I like some of the food so much that I will still order it anyway.
If you have no structure, I would say try to program and see if if works for you. At the very least, you will have a starting place to lose weight on your own. Whatever you decide, good luck to you.

I tried it several years ago when I was struggling to deal with an erratic work schedule and creeping weight gain.

Pros: very convenient- although you do have to add in some fresh foods, you can basically just grab and go.

Cons: Basically everything else. I'm not a picky eater, but the food was not good. A slight pro is that this takes the romance and attraction out of eating- if you're not super-excited about your next meal, you kind of stop thinking about it. But this only works if you have enough emotional distance and self-control around eating to not just say to hell with it and eat something off-plan.

It was very expensive, even with discounts.

And the biggest con of all? I stuck to the plan faithfully and I lost no weight. I think the issue is that because their target customer has a lot of weight to lose and I didn't, and because I'm on the small side, it simply wasn't a big enough calorie deficit. They can only adjust your projected intake down by increments that their food comes in, and because the foods that can sub out for each other in each category vary in nutritional content, if you happen to like or choose the slightly higher-calorie options, and if you're near your goal weight and not a tall person, you might not create a meaningful calorie deficit to see loss before you lose your mind from eating really boring, bland food.

I could see it being a helpful way for someone with a lot of weight to lose and absolutely no idea how to manage meal prep or calorie counting to kickstart the process, but I don't think overall it's worth the money, and definitely not for people who don't have a significant amount of weight to lose. There's nothing magic about it- it's just a way of (hopefully) achieving calorie deficit. You can lose more weight eating better food for less money.

I did Nutrisystem in the past for 3 months using the non-frozen food option. I went from 185 to 160 and have kept the weight off for 4 years, and have maintained better eating habits since then. I lost another 5 pounds over the last 4 years based on diet/exercise.

Now I'm back on Nutrisystem hoping to get from 155 to around 140 - this time I am doing the frozen food option. Frozen food is SO much better than the shelf-stable. I just went back on it a few days ago, and I've enjoyed all the food so far.

It worked for me, and it can help change your habits if you are on it for a few months.