I mentioned in my 6 month diet update that I used used Nutrisystem and figured I’d share my experience.

Why I Picked Nutrisystem

I picked Nutrisystem for two main reasons…

1. The food would be delivered to my home. No shopping. I tended to do fast and ready-made food because I was lazy and it was easy. Nutrisystem would be fast and easy.
2. While they stopped short of an outright recommendation, I had crossed paths with a couple people who had lost weight using it.

The first point was the primary reason I went with a home delivery plan while the second point was why I went with Nutrisystem rather than one of their competitors. Trying to do price comparisons was difficult since they all offer various promotions and plan types.

I went with the lowest cost Nutrisystem plan – Men’s Basic. I also let them pick the foods for the first shipment. That was the only time I let them pick. It was heavy on pasta and stuff with red sauce. The red sauce all tasted the same and had a metallic aftertaste. From that point on I did my own ordering and kept the red sauce stuff to a minimum.

The Food

None of the food was spectacular. I didn’t find anything I would chose over a non-Nutrisystem version of the product. So if I use the term “good” it’s relative to the other Nutrisystem food.

Most of the good food was the junk food. The things they call snacks and deserts. Thin Mint Crisp bars were ordered in considerable quantity as were peppermint cookie patties. The crisp bars were a bit more appetite suppressing so I ordered more of those. Since brownies and chocolate cake gave me a chocolate fix I ordered a fair number of those at first. Since they weren’t all that tasty I lost my craving for chocolate and haven’t needed to find an alternate source.

I found that the more I liked the “real” version of a food the less I liked Nutrisystem’s version. For example, I really like a good carrot cake so ordered several portions from Nutrisystem. It doesn’t taste anything like a good carrot cake. It’s ok I guess, but disappointing.

For breakfast I gravitated toward oatmeal (with fat free milk I provided), scones and various breakfast bars. The pancakes weren’t worth the effort needed to prepare them and clean up afterwards.

There’s lots of pizza varieties to chose from but they don’t cook well in a microwave. They might be better cooked in a toaster oven or regular oven but hardly seemed worth the trouble.

For lunches I ended up going with chicken or tuna salad and meal bars for most meals. The soups are “add water” and not very tasty. The ravioli or pasta was ok for occasional variety but was cursed by that aftertaste.

I didn’t think I’d need to provide so much of my own food. But veggies, fruits and proteins (egg, breads, chicken, etc…) need to be provided. I ended up shopping for these and just eating a mix of reasonable portions. I didn’t have the discipline to actually allocate the portions according to their plan.

Misc Observations

Like other plans of this type they provide counselors along with support through a website. I didn’t use any of it so can’t comment on its quality.

How a company handles cancellations is a big indicator for me. If I’ll need to jump through hoops to cancel they aren’t a customer service oriented company. I did need to call in order to cancel, I couldn’t do it through the website even though I signed up through the website. But at least it wasn’t a painful process. They did ask about why I was leaving and what I thought about the program. No hard sell to stay but it did take about 10 minutes. I did tell them I had been off the program a month and the rep probably saw I delayed my June delivery all the way to the end of July. I did lie a bit and say I was near my goal. In my case price wasn’t a reason I was leaving but as a tip, they did offer a $50 discount if I stayed, sounded like a standard offer. It may be worth calling in to cancel and say price is a reason. I don’t consider their cancellation process as a reason not to join.

While the packing inside the box was fine and I never received damaged items, the box itself was frequently poorly sealed. More than once the UPS driver had to re-tape the box as it had come open. They need to invest in additional tape.

While the final price was always clear at the end of the order process, it was hard to figure out what I’d be paying until I actually went through the order process. Along those lines, their promo offers usually include a minimum number of shipments (mine was 3) and if you cancel before that number of shipments you’ll be retro-actively charged when you cancel.

Prices drop the longer you have auto-delivery. My first three months were approx. $330 each while the last three were approx. $312 each. You can also delay your delivery if needed. For example, rather than cancel I delayed my June deliver to make sure I could diet without Nutrisystem before actually canceling. If I found I needed it then I could have let the order arrive.

Summary

Overall I’m happy with Nutrisystem. It did what I wanted which was to control my portions and get me into the habit of meal preparation. I did lose weight while I was on the plan, but I’m finding it easier to diet without the Nutrisystem food. I’m tired of the food and a lot of it is junk food. I’d rather be selecting my own foods and keep losing weight by tracking calories.