So, here I am more than 8 months later and my Nutrisystem journey was an epic fail. There are lots of reason…and a few excuses but I’ll explain it all below in my Diary of a Nutrisystem Journey – Or Not.
I should have known when I joined Nutrisystem so impulsively that I wasn’t ready for such a restricted commitment. There are things I like and things I don’t like about Nutrisystem. I’ll break it down below. I’ll start with the negative so that I can leave it on a positive note!
Things I don’t like about Nutrisystem:
I am a creature of habit, but at the same time I like variety (try being in my head…). For me, the hardest part about Nutrisystem is that I didn’t love any of the food. I liked several of them alot and tolerated a few more but that’s not sustainable. What I found is that almost all of the things I liked were pasta based. And even though I am a huge fan of pasta, I just can’t eat it every day on a long term basis!
Another thing I didn’t like about it is that I found the program to be a little misleading. It’s advertised as a program where you just eat their food and you lose weight! That’s true..and not. You not only have to eat your own food two days a week (breakfast, lunch and dinner on different days throughout the week) but every day you need to incorporate your own food. Vegetables, protein snacks, etc. Note: It was only one meal a week when I originally went on the program last year but in 2019 it’s two meals a week. So bottom line is, you’re not only spending a fair amount of money on the packaged food, but then you also have a decent size grocery bill each week. This is what it says on their website…
I’m sorry but I find that simply to be untrue. It’s alot more than a few grocery items…it’s 6 meals a week plus daily snacks and vegetables!
And speaking of eating your own meals, figuring out what to eat was a little tough for me. The program is so focused on eating the Nutrisystem food that I felt it was a little lacking in conveniently figuring out your own meals. It felt like what Weight Watchers was 10+ years ago where they just give you a list of food and portion sizes and the rest is up to you. I think bottom line is if the ultimate goal when you’ve lost the weight is for you to eat your own food more often than the Nutrisystem food, I don’t think the program is set up in a way that gets you there easily.
The last thing I’ll say about it is I live in the Arizona desert and from about May until November, it’s hot! My Nutrisystem orders reflected that. Anything chocolate based that I ordered would be melted by the time it got to me. I went to customer service and they replaced the items the first time, but then of course the replaced items were melted too. I contacted them again and they basically said they can’t guarantee their food up to a certain temperature — I forget what temp they said — so if I wanted the chocolate I’d have to deal with the condition it would be in. Okay, fair enough…but life without chocolate just doesn’t work for me. 🙂
Things I like about Nutrisystem:
As I said above, I’m a creature of convenience so eating prepackaged food is convenient! Finding the foods I liked and sticking with those would have been perfect if I had been in the right frame of mind to stick within the limitations of eating just those foods every week. Some people like that and this program is made for those people.
I also liked that you could postpone your shipments. If you find you skipped some prepackaged meals throughout the month and you have a bit of a build up in the cupboard, you can postpone your shipment. I really liked that flexibility.
They’re also really good about notifying you when your order is getting ready to ship, to allow you time to go online and make any adjustments to the order.
Bottom line:
So the bottom line is, Nutrisystem is not for me. My idea of the perfect diet is a diet that allows me to eat anything I want in controlled moderation. For me, that diet is Weight Watchers. I joined WW …. AGAIN…this week and lost 6.6 lbs my first week. I’ll keep you posted on my journey as I find things that might help you in your own weight loss journey.
Happy tinkering,
Susan
Boy, oh boy! I related to your posting even though it is an older one. I am on the third week of Nutrisystem – actually 4th, but I was at a convention last week, in which I tried to eat healthy, but still gained back 2 pounds. In total, I’ve lost 8.2 pounds but gained back the 2. Food is okay, but like you said, not super-duper. I agree that the main problem is with the flex meals and daily add-ins. I don’t like to eat the same thing everyday. I don’t have the time to figure out a menu for every week that also includes the needs of my husband who will support me in eating healthy but is not on Nutrisystem. I rather spend my money in another way than all the extra expenses of food. So, I’m really thinking of cancelling my automatic shipments. I would have loved to see a a variety of pre-made meal plans or menus that you could just tweak each week. I need convenience and spending three to four hours a week planning and shopping for meals is not my idea of convenient. Even browsing the web, I only found a couple of sites with a few days of meal plans, most of which I don’t necessarily want to repeat. But WW, even though there are many helps and daily menues available, has too much preparation work, unless you want to go the frozen foods route! What to do . . .
WW is still my favorite but I get what you mean about prep. I eat alot of soups which is easier for me because it makes enough for multiple meals. Good luck!