We’ve all heard it before: if one wants to lose weight, then one needs to eat fewer calories than they burn. This reality might be inescapable, but it’s also easier said than done. However, this is where we found the Nutrisystem weight loss program to be very helpful. The brand delivers pre-made, balanced meals with just the right portion of food we need for that meal, thus taking the guesswork out of calorie restrictions. What’s more, this meal plan service not only helps with weight loss, but could even potentially control cholesterol and blood sugar, too.
Interestingly, long before meal delivery services were common, Nutrisystem was already delivering pre-made food boxes to consumers. Over the years, it has garnered a lot of admirers and espousers in the form of celebrities and the common man, who have seen the benefits of its weight loss program. While previously based in centers nationwide, today getting on the Nutrisystem diet is as easy as ordering your meals directly to your home over the internet. How good is it, though? Read on.
What is Nutrisystem’s weight loss program?
Nutrisystem is a subscription-based meal delivery program that sends its subscribers ready-made, low-calorie meals for losing weight in a healthy manner. They ship these calorie-controlled portions directly to customers, which ensures that we don’t have to do any guessing for calorie counting anymore. What’s more, they even have an on-demand weight loss and coaching app that allows you to track your progress and how far you’ve come.
Once we had selected a plan based on our sex and age, Nutrisystem’s program offered us a variety of diet plans and menu choices to meet users’ food preferences. While we needed to keep some meals in the freezer, others were non-perishable and didn’t require refrigeration. The program had multiple plans to choose from that provided up to six meals every day. What’s more, every plan included as many as 5-7 weekly meals, including breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, as well as protein shakes and snacks. Moreover, there were even options for people with health issues such as diabetes, and for those who followed specific vegetarian diets.
If that wasn’t enough, Nutrisystem even included recipes so that we could make meals on days when we didn’t use the ready-made ones. These are flex meals and include everything from high-fiber carbs to nutritious veggies and lean proteins.
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How does Nutrisystem work?
Nutrisystem works via a combination of calorie restriction and portion control. They designed the ready-made meals in a way that they limited the number of calories one can consume (and needs to consume) per meal. Roughly, one needs to consume close to 3,500 fewer calories than what’s used up for normal bodily functions and physical activity to lose a pound of weight. For those whose weight is on the excess side, losing 1-2 lbs per week is what can be considered a healthy rate of losing weight. The best part is that this formula is easier to navigate since it doesn’t require us to count calories.
Nutrisystem specifically focuses on low glycemic index foods, that is, foods that are less likely to spike your blood sugar levels. When one consumes foods with high glycemic indices, it causes the blood sugar to increase sharply, resulting in the pancreas releasing large amounts of insulin. This basically tells the cells to take in sugar, which results in an extremely quick drop in blood sugar, leaving one feeling very hungry very quickly. However, consuming foods with low glycemic indices means that one can avoid these blood sugar spikes, thus feeling fuller for longer.
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Benefits of Nutrisystem
Weight loss might be the primary goal, but Nutrisystem has a whole lot of other benefits, too. Firstly, we’re huge proponents of the Nutrisystem program as we found it find it very easy to follow, thanks to the pre-portioned meals. Of course, we loved the convenience of Nutrisystem delivering the meals right to our door. What’s more, we loved the variety of flex meals, supplementary foods, and snacks that kept our menus varied, complemented by the easy-to-follow grocery lists that helped simplify shopping.
We also loved the fact that we were having balanced meals thanks to Nutrisystem. Are you having trouble regularly consuming multiple servings of fruit and veggies during the day? Nutrisystem greatly helps with that, while keeping a calorie deficit for spurring weight loss, and yet filling our stomachs. Moreover, the program even offers weight-maintenance plans for an additional fee once people have reached their goal weights, which include combinations of snacks and meals and even weekend meal plans.
Besides all this, Nutrisystem even has plans for people who are diabetic or battle with obesity. In the short term, the diet lowers HbA1c (hemoglobin A1c). It approximately measures one’s blood sugar levels, and higher HbA1c levels indicate diabetes. Studies have also shown that Nutrisystem reduced the use of hypoglycemic medications for diabetics over the course of a few months. Finally, people who used Nutrisystem’s plans even saw a significant reduction in cholesterol levels.
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What You Can Eat on Nutrisystem – and What You Can’t
After you complete the initial week on Nutrisystem, you can have some foods besides the ones you buy from Nutrisystem. These include carbs, veggies, and lean proteins, besides their own packaged snacks and meals.
Pre-Packaged Meals/Snacks and Shakes
Each of Nutrisystem’s meals provides around 200 calories, which also includes comfort-food choices such as meal bars, pizzas, grilled chicken sandwiches, mac and cheese, and double chocolate muffins. Nutrisystem’s shakes (“Turbo Shakes” and “NutriCrush”) contain herbal ingredients such as monk fruit, sweeteners, flavoring, and whey protein, providing nearly 120 calories per serving (sans milk).
Lean Proteins, Fruits and Veggies, and Carbs
Nutrisystem encourages subscribers to consume three “Power Fuels” every day, which are proteins that the meal program approves. What’s more, every serving should provide 80-120 calories and 5 grams of protein. The Nutrisystem approved list includes nuts, low-fat dairy, plant-based protein, poultry, seafood, and meat.
When it comes to carbohydrates, Nutrisystem allows men to eat two SmartCarbs every day and women to eat one SmartCarb every day. The meal program has a list of “SmartCarbs,” which are low glycemic carbs providing fiber. Moreover, every serving should have at least 80-120 calories and 1g of fiber. Nutrisystem’s approved list of food includes starchy vegetables (carrots, squash, corn, potatoes), fruits (oranges, apples, bananas), legumes and beans (kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas), and whole grains (whole grain pasta, whole-wheat bread, oatmeal).
Finally, Nutrisystem strongly encourages subscribers to consume at least 4 servings of non-starchy vegetables every day. What’s more, we could also consume low-sodium vegetable juice as an alternative. Nutrisystem’s list of approved veggies includes tomatoes, asparagus, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, broccoli, and bell peppers.
Condiments, Seasonings, and Extras
Nutrisystem defines “Free Foods” and “Extras” as stuff that you can use to flavor, season, and prepare your food. However, approved “Free Food” seasonings shouldn’t amount to more than 10 calories per serving. Approved ingredients include salsa, ginger, garlic, and mustard.
Last but not least, “Extras” are cooking oils, condiments, and other foods that we could eat as Nutrisystem subscribers. That being said, we were allowed a maximum of 3 “Extras” every, which could provide only 10-35 calories per serving. The approved list included sunflower oil, avocado, mayonnaise, honey, and ketchup.
Beverages and Alcohol
It’s no surprise that the Nutrisystem diet emphasized drinking lots of water. However, there were a couple of other accepted drinks, including seltzer, herbal tea, unsweetened tea, and black coffee. While the Nutrisystem diet allowed alcohol, they did so in limited quantities, which was 2 servings every week. According to Nutrisystem, a serving included 1.5 oz of liquor (80–90 proof), 12 oz of light beer, and 4 oz. of dry wine.
What You Can’t Eat on Nutrisystem
If there were any foods beyond what was listed as compliant above, those foods weren’t allowed. However, some sweets and desserts weren’t allowed at all, which included chocolate, cake, cookies, and candy.
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What can I eat while on Nutrisystem?
You can eat every Nutrisystem-approved food, which consists of “pantry-ready” meals and snacks, and frozen meals. There is a wide variety of options, including restaurant favorites and comfort food.
If you’re beginning the Nutrisystem diet, check out the best combination food processors and blenders.
How many calories do you eat a day on Nutrisystem?
Nutrisystem advises consuming 1,200-1,500 calories every day.
How much weight can you lose in a month on Nutrisystem?
Since there’s a calorie limit that’s set on the Nutrisystem diet, most people can lose 1-2 lbs every week on Nutrisystem.
Some images on this article are copyrighted by Nutrisystem.