by Adams M
Jenny Craig Diet
Overview
The Jenny Craig program was designed with help from a medical advisory panel and a team of registered dietitians. The goals of this program are to help clients develop a healthy relationship with food, live active lifestyles, and find balance in their life. On this diet you start by eating mostly Jenny Craig cuisine, supplemented with some healthful foods of your own, but the end goal is to have you plan and prepare your own meals.
How Is This Diet Supposed to Work?
The Jenny Craig diet helps you lose weight by limiting your calorie intake, as well as increasing physical activity and maintaining motivation. When you are eating mainly prepackaged Jenny Craig foods, you don’t have to worry about portion sizes and your calorie intake is controlled. But once you start switching to “regular” food, you will need to know how to control your calorie intake on your own.
What’s Involved?
The Jenny Craig program begins with a 28-day diet plan that consists of eating mainly prepackaged Jenny Craig meals that are supplemented with your fresh groceries consisting of: fruit, vegetables, whole grains, heart-healthy fats, and nonfat dairy products. Daily meal plans, starting at around 1,200 calories, include three meals plus one snack and an evening dessert. After a certain point on this program, you begin to prepare some of your own meals, using recipes provided by Jenny Craig.
The program also includes a weekly in-person or over-the-phone counseling session. This is to provide you with support to stay on the plan and educate you about healthy weight habits, such as practicing portion control and getting regular exercise, as well as to help you maintain your mindset on losing weight.
There are different versions of this program. The two main ones: the centre-based and the home-based. The centre-based program includes weekly visits with a trained Jenny Craig consultant at one of their 650 locations in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. These visits include private weigh-ins, as well as the chance to select and purchase your Jenny Craig food. The home-based version entails weekly phone sessions with a Jenny Craig consultant, as well as food delivery. Either program claims that your 1-1 expert coach will address your key issues and personalize the program for you. There are also variations on the program for different groups of people: men, ‘silver’ (seniors),
type 2 (diabetes)
, and teens.
After you choose between centre-based or home-based, you can choose the program that is right for you:
- Jenny-Set-Go—if you do not have a lot of weight to lose and want to try the program
- Premium Success—if you have more weight to lose and need additional motivation and rewards
- Metabolic Max—if you are motivated by tracking calorie and are ready to jump into weight loss
All plans include:
- Planned and personalized menus
- Personalized activity and motivational plans
- One-on-one consultations
- Weight loss success manuals and guides
- Online support (including message boards and live chats, personal menu planner, weight loss tracker, and weekly tips newsletter)
- 24/7 customer care support
The premium plans offer additional features, like cash incentives for reaching milestones, discounts, fitness tracking tools, and more.
The cost of the Jenny Craig program varies depending on the program that you choose and the foods that you buy.
What Does the Research Say?
While there are no studies looking specifically at the Jenny Craig program, the diet itself is based on sound nutrition. Meal plans are designed by registered dietitians and adhere to the US Department of Agriculture's nutrition guidelines.
Are There Any Concerns With This Diet?
The cost of food on this program is expensive if you also have a family to feed. But if you are just buying for yourself, then it may make sense when you factor in how much you would normally spend on groceries or eating out.
Another concern is that Jenny Craig’s weight loss consultants don’t have formal training in nutrition or behavior modification. Therefore, although they claim to be experts, they may not have a lot of knowledge in these areas.
But the main concern with this program is that the diet, which consists mostly of prepackaged meals, quickly gets boring and can be hard to stick with. And while one of the goals of the program is to get clients to prepare their own healthful food, part of the appeal of the program in the first place is that you don’t have to do this. Thus, many people see Jenny Craig as an easy way to lose weight and approach it with laziness, but do not really think about the long-term maintenance of this weight loss. To their credit, the program has added motivational tips and personalized counseling for this very reason.
Bottom Line
Overall, Jenny Craig is a healthful weight loss program that may be right for you if you don’t mind living on prepackaged food for a while. This program is especially good if you tend to do better with the motivation and guidance of a counselor—versus being self-motivated enough to follow a plan on your own. The success of this diet in the long run depends on how well you transition to planning and preparing your own healthful food, and how well you maintain your newly developed habits such engaging in regular exercise.
RESOURCES
American Dietetic Association
http://www.eatright.org
Choosing a Successful Weight-loss Program
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/choosing.htm
CANADIAN RESOURCES
Canada's Food Guide
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index%5Fe.html
Dietitians of Canada
http://www.dietitians.ca
References
Jenny Craig website. Available at:
http://www.jennycraig.com/programs/program%5Foptions/
. Accessed January 31, 2011.
Nutrition fact sheet: Jenny Craig. Northwestern University website. Available at:
http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/nutrition/factsheets/jenny-craig-diet.html
. Accessed June 19, 2007.