As millions of fingers flip millions of calendars to January, a feeling of resolve spreads across the United States. This year will be the year when I lose the weight for good, we preach to ourselves.
In reality, only 9% of us will succeed. Studies show that the winners follow certain steps that increase their chances of sticking with their goals. People who join a weight loss program are 42% more likely to drop significant pounds for good than people fighting their way to weight loss alone.
But not all weight loss programs are alike. Before plunging into a program this year, give this guide a quick read. We’ll rank 5 popular weight loss programs through the lens of a Registered Dietitian. This year, dodge the duds, and pick the program proven to work.
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Nutrisystem
What is Nutrisystem?
Nutrisystem takes all the guesswork out of dieting. This weight loss program provides premade, portioned, and packaged meals and snacks to keep people in a calorie deficit. A typical day on Nutrisystem might include:
- Bacon, egg, and cheese melt or a bagel
- Pepperoni pizza pocket melt
- Microwave turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes
- Snacks or a dessert, like chips, a cupcake, or ice cream
Nutrisystem’s forced meal plan can expose unhealthy eating habits, like emotional eating, stress-snacking, and overeating.
The upside of this program is that it can save you time in the kitchen and the mental energy of figuring out what, when, and how much to eat. But that’s where the positives end.
Is Nutrisystem Right for Me?
If you’re stuck on junk food, Nutrisystem might sound tempting, with its menu of burgers, pizza, and chocolate cupcakes. But let me give you a few more details about why this program should be the last one on your list:
- Nutrisystem starves you: The standard Nutrisystem diet plan provides between 1200 and 1500 calories per day (for both men and women). However, cutting calories drastically will only teach your body to burn fewer calories each day. Ignoring hunger cues while cutting calories can only last so long. Eventually, regardless of how much willpower you have to stick to your diet, your body will rebel. The snack cabinet becomes irresistible. You ditch your diet, and binge.
- Nutrisystem lacks nutritional training: Instead of teaching you how to choose healthy meals for yourself, Nutrisystem delivers premade food straight to your door. This creates a dependence on the program. When you’re done paying the high-ticket price for their tiny portions, you won’t know any healthy habits that will help you keep the weight off. That’s why most end up gaining all the weight back, if not more after they go off Nutrisystem.
- Nutrisystem is socially isolating: Food brings people together. But if you’re only allowed to eat what’s inside Nutrisystem’s plastic packages, you can say goodbye to nights out with friends, dinners with the family, and date nights with hubby. This relational sacrifice isn’t necessary for healthy, sustainable weight loss, and actually makes reaching your goals much harder.
- Nutrisystem is made from fake food: A quick glance at the ingredients list on Nutrisystem’s packaged meals will remind you of the junk-food aisle at your grocery store. These meals are loaded with artificial flavors, industrial seed oils, preservatives, fillers, and food coloring. It’s a far cry from healing, satiating, whole-food meals that will give your body what it needs to stop craving junk food, lower inflammation, and lose body fat.
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Jenny Craig
What is the Jenny Craig Diet?
Jenny Craig members are given an allotted amount of calories for the day. All foods and drinks fit, as long as they fit within the calorie limit. Most people on the diet will opt to eat Jenny Craig’s prepackaged foods (she offers a menu of 70 or so items).
You’ll find items like packaged cinnamon rolls, pepperoni pizza, spaghetti, and cookies.
In Jenny Craig’s diet plan, portion control is a big emphasis. She promotes low-fat and low-calorie foods in an attempt to fast-track weight loss. But is this the best strategy?
Is the Jenny Craig Diet Right for Me?
Jenny Craig may push your body to lose weight temporarily. However, the food items on the meal plan are packaged, processed, and unhealthy for your body. Over time, you’ll be perpetuating the problem. The weight you’ll lose will be very hard to keep off once you stop paying for her packaged meals.
Like other antiquated diet methods, most people on the Jenny Craig diet are allotted a measly 1200 calories per day. The 1200-calorie diet isn’t a new, trendy weight loss scheme. This plan was created in the 1800s by European scientists who claimed that the calories we eat should precisely match the calories we burn.
That kind of weight loss logic has since largely been debunked. Calories matter, but many other factors influence weight loss, including hormones, our age, how we process food, blood sugar levels, body composition, and the ingredients we’re consuming.
The 1200-calorie diet appeared in one of the first modern diet books ever released. It’s about time we update our weight loss strategies.
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Noom
What is Noom?
Noom is a mobile app that guides people through a curriculum for weight loss. On the app, you can read articles, take quizzes, log your food and water intake, and track your step count and weight.
Is Noom Right for Me?
Noom’s heavy focus on psychology and behavior could be helpful to people who are looking for answers to questions like, What triggers me to eat food when I’m not hungry? Its educational and coaching features could also help people who perform best with external motivation.
While Noom focuses on behavior, it misses big truths about how our bodies and weight loss work. Noom is still following some antiquated weight loss strategies, like:
- Cutting calories down drastically low (we’re talking 1200 daily calories for women and 1400 daily calories for men)
- Ignoring macronutrients
- Offering little nutritional guidance
- Suggesting mind tricks that make you think you’re full even when you’re not eating enough food (like using colorful plates or heavy silverware)
- Requiring daily weigh-ins, which do not inform you about your body composition (whether your weight loss is from muscle loss or fat loss).
While focusing on the mental game of weight loss, Noom seems to miss that healthy weight loss requires more than a low-calorie diet and mental endurance.
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Weight Watchers
What is Weight Watchers?
In an attempt to simplify dieting, Weight Watchers assigns point values to food and drinks which you add up to meet your daily points budget. In the past, Weight Watchers would complete weekly weigh-ins and join group meetings. Today, you can log your food digitally and find support virtually through the WW app.
Is Weight Watchers Right for Me?
A solid support system is crucial for weight loss. Researchers confirm that weight loss programs are more successful if they include support services. Weight Watchers gets this part right. The program piles on support, with virtual coaches, in-person and online support groups, and a members-only online community available 24/7.
No food is forbidden on Weight Watchers—that’s another good sign. But while Weight Watchers enjoy flexibility, they suffer financially. One 2019 study found that the average cost for women to lose 5 percent of their body weight using Weight Watchers reached a total of $1,610.
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LEAN
What is LEAN?
LEAN uses scientifically proven strategies to lay the foundation for long-term healing and fat loss in 7-weeks. While on LEAN, you’ll break through your mental barriers, heal your slow metabolism, balance your blood sugar, build lean muscle mass, and lose body fat.
We ditch deprivation diets. We’re all for freedom. We love summer vacations, date nights, Christmas cookies with the kids, and cocktail parties with the girls. LEAN teaches you realistic, long-term lifestyle habits for whole-body health and lasting weight loss.
I’ll teach you how to lose weight, feel so much healthier, and live your life to the fullest! You can do it—all you need is a helping hand to teach you the steps.
Is LEAN Right for Me?
Let’s let Jean, who participated in LEAN answer your question:
I’ve struggled with weight loss most of my adult life. I’ve counted calories. I’ve done Weight Watchers more times than I care to admit. I’ve done Jenny Craig, Medifast, Atkins, and Keto. You name it, I’ve done it.
I usually, at first, lose some weight. Then, I gain it back again and more.
Then, I turned 50 and watched every attempt at weight loss go absolutely nowhere. My hypothyroidism made weight loss seem nearly impossible.
That was 7 weeks ago before I discovered LEAN.
For the past 7 weeks, I’ve had Amanda’s professional guidance, a sustainable plan that utilizes whole food nutrition, fasting, carb cycling, food tracking, and exercise, and daily encouragement and support from Amanda and Giana.
Now, my sleep is amazing, my energy is consistent, and my dedication to this way of living is locked in. I have felt supported every step of the way.
Today, when I stepped on the scale, I was out of my mind excited! I lost 14.2 pounds and 14 inches! Yay me!
Ready to feel like Jean? Join LEAN, the program that will help you lose weight sustainably and keep it off for life!
