What You Need To Know About The Jenny Craig Diet Plan

The Basics

The key to the Jenny Craig diet program is its prepackaged meals. Primarily these are frozen breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and desserts. The frozen meals are supplemented with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and reduced fat dairy products. Generally speaking the meals contain 50% to 60% carbohydrate, 20% to 25% protein, and 20% to 25% fat. The diet is calorie based and tries to teach dieters how to identify correct portion sizes so that, eventually they can eat correctly without the need of the prepackaged foods. Their focus is on moderation, a balanced diet, and getting enough exercise.

Things to Eat

As I mentioned above, the focus of the Jenny Craig program is on it's frozen meals, which they suggest you supplement with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low fat dairy products.

They claim that there really isn't anything you can't have. What they inform their participants about are the foods that are high in fats and calories. They suggest that these foods should be used in moderation. The other thing they try to educate people about is proper portion control.

The menus that are developed for a client are calorie based; they are determined by the person's weight, height, and goals.

They Claim It Works Because . . .

The Jenny Craig diet program has three elements, all of which combine to make the system work most effectively.

Food is first. The client is taught how to eat sensible portions, how to plan and prepare healthy menus, and what to do when they end up eating in a restaurant.

Second, is physical fitness. They help their clients work on strategies to develop physically active lifestyles that not only address weight loss, but help with them maintain long term fitness.

Third, is the mind. The people at Jenny Craig feel that, in order for a client to really be successful, they must have a positive mind set and surround themselves with support and positive thinking. The client must be motivated. The Jenny Craig system helps the person stay in touch with their goals and gives them support at every step.

By combining these three elements, the Jenny Craig diet addresses all of the factors that contribute to a successful weight loss program.

Some Opinions I Found

A sports nutritionist says that teaching portion control is very commendable, but she isn't sure of the value of learning it from prepackaged foods. She said that when someone goes off the prepackaged meals they may have some difficulty seeing the relationship to real food which is not packaged the same way.

Some testers from WebMD said that the foods were similar in taste to other, similar frozen foods. They also said they were hungry again shortly after eating the meals.

My Thoughts

The Jenny Craig diet seems like a well thought out diet program addressing not just the foods, but the physical fitness, and motivational aspects of a good diet program. The support aspect also seems like something that will help people to get and stay motivated, which is usually the most challenging part of any diet.

One of my biggest concerns is the cost. Ordering all of the prepackaged, frozen foods has got to cost considerably more than what someone would pay if they bought and prepared their own foods. Of course, that also seems to be a big challenge for many people who are trying to diet. They are put off by the necessity of having to go out and buy all these foods that they may not be accustomed to preparing.

If you have failed repeatedly with diets in the past, and you know that a big reason for your failure was having to prepare the special meals, then you might find the added expense of buying the prepackaged foods worth it.

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