Losing Weight for a Fee

Everywhere I look, I see ads for ways to lose fat, lose weight, shape up, slim down or otherwise make myself smaller.  I will never touch an acai berry or do a “cleanse,” especially not if I have to pay for it.  If your beverage contains a mystery, magical ingredient that is supposed to make me instantly look better but does not have FDA approval for its miracle properties, I will not allow it to pass my lips.  I’m conservative that way.

But there are some pay-for-use diet plans that have legitimized their claims with results, with FDA and Better Business Bureau approvals and are respected companies.  Not only have I tried these plans, but I have had success (to one degree or another) with them.  Here’s the skinny on each.

Jenny Craig
Pros	Cons
Food is quick & easy to prepare	Processed food – not the best thing for you.
Most food tastes pretty good	Eating the same foods gets really old after a while.
Desert is included in the meal plan.  Yum!	EXPENSIVE – I spent $100/wk on Jenny food alone, plus another $50+ in grocery store supplements (salad, fruit, cheese, yogurt, etc.)
Mindless – Check your menu, pull from freezer, heat. No more menu planning required	Does not teach you how to select your own foods and how to construct your own healthy menu.
Low Fat food plan.  Vegetarian option available.	Your freezer fills up with Jenny food that you didn’t eat because life (eating out or skipping meals) got in the way.
Supportive consultations at weekly weigh–ins.	You have to buy food from Jenny – it’s not available anywhere else.

At Jenny Craig, I started at 210 lbs (post-baby).  I ate Jenny Craig food on their breastfeeding mom’s plan, which meant that I got extra food that other people didn’t.  I ate processed everything.  The weight did come off – six months later I was down to 190 lbs – but I got very tired of eating the same dozen foods for six long months.  I quit the plan – and promptly gained back 10 lbs.

eDiets.com
Pros		Cons
original eDiets.com	Fast preparation - microwave and go	Processed food – not the best thing for you.
	You buy at the grocery store - no special stores	Limited selection of foods, but still wider than Jenny Craig.
	You select what meals you like - not dictated which to eat on which day.	No desert built into daily menu.
eDiet Delivery	Yummy foods	The menu is so standardized that it is easy to replicate on your own.  So why are you paying them for this?
	Home delivery in cool insulated packing.	Portions are good, but sometimes seem on the small side.
	Mindless – Check your menu, pull from fridge and heat. No additional menu planning required	Food is fresh and therefore expires if not eaten within a certain window of time; expensive to waste.
Low Fat food plan.  Vegetarian option available.		Very limited selection of prepared foods, must decide in advance.

I originally did eDiets.com when I was in college, and I picked their convenience option.  I only followed the paid plan for two or three weeks before I was confident I had their formula down and could replicate it on my own without paying them an ongoing subscription fee.  It was this:  Buy a Lean Cuisine and add a salad with a fat-free dressing.  Eat this combo, for lunch and dinner, everyday.  (Breakfast was something sensible, but I can’t remember it anymore.)  I lost a little weight, but not much.  And then my overconfidence about menu planning  quickly devolved into NO menu planning and the entire effort was forgotten about within a month or two.

Then, in 2010, about a year after quitting Jenny Craig, I decided to put my now 200lb body on a diet again.  I didn’t want to do Jenny again, so I tried eDiet’s new delivery service.  The food was great!  But it was expensive. When I had to throw food out I could hear the “cha-ching!” going off each time I tossed an expired meal into the garbage.  I only stayed on it for 2-3 weeks, due to the sheer cost of food.  But I did lose a couple of pounds .  They came right back on, however, after I stopped eating their food.

Weight Watchers (weekly meetings or online)
Pros	Cons
Plan is flexible - YOU pick what and how much to eat.	You track everything you eat, which can be a PITA.
You track everything you eat, building food awareness.	The proprietary POINTS system is mysterious and is hard to correlate to nutritional information; must use a calculator or book to find Point values.
The plan's focus is on health, not just weight.	Some people hate attending meetings or being weighed at them.
You do your shopping at your normal grocery store. No requirement to eat WW foods; they may actually be discouraged.	Some people are uncomfortable doing an online-only approach or in finding support in online forums.
It's fun to check off "Healthy Checks" little daily to-do's like drinking enough water, having healthy oils, taking a multivitamin, etc.	You have to plan your own meals and menus; no one does it for you.
Non-tracking option is available, which limits food selections.
You learn to eat healthfully, foods you selected and prepared yourself.

Weight Watchers is hands-down my favorite of the paid plans, which is probably why I’m still a Weight Watchers member, though I do not exclusively follow their plan any longer.  I began WW within two weeks of quitting eDiets Delivery, at a weight of 200 lbs.  At my best success when eating following the Points system alone, I was down to 160.  I love that the plan teaches you how to eat better – it helped me make significantly better food choices and raised my understanding of what I was putting into my mouth.  I never attended a meeting (years ago I did, so I remember what they’re like), but I used the online option instead, which fit my single-mother-of-a-small-child schedule best.  The amazing thing was that I met a great group of women on the discussion boards, whom I now consider personal friends and my very own virtual support group, though they live all over the country.  That connection with others, which is a powerful component of WW, has made the single greatest impact on my health and wellness.

There are plenty of paid plans out there.  I haven’t tried everything.  My vanpool-mate was having tremendous success (50 lbs, I think) on NutriSystem, which I’ve never tried.  (He said the food was good too, if you’re wondering.)  But if I were considering going on a paid plan, I would ask myself these questions:

·         Does the plan teach me to make better food choices or does it just help get the weight off?

·         Does it provide me with emotional/educational support?

·         Does it help me find healthy alternatives when I cannot bring along prepared foods?

·         Does it give me a framework to help keep the weight off when I’ve reached my goal?

·         Is it affordable to do this plan on a long-term basis?

No one has to pay anyone to lose weight; you can do it all by yourself.  But sometimes a paid plan sounds easier and provides more supportive than going it alone.  Most of us will pay for weight loss at one time or another.  Let’s just hope we get our money’s worth!