Anyone here ever use Jenny Craig?

[3kids4me]

I'm looking into programs that give you some food to buy and use, for maintenance purposes (not really to lose weight, but to make sure I don't gain weight). Has anyone here used Jenny Craig (for either weight loss or maintenance) and if so, did you like it?

Thanks!

Sharon

 

[lanalee]

I've used it and got tired of the food really fast. I lost weight, but gained it back when I stopped buying their food. (I'm not blaming Jenny Craig for my weight gain, I'm just stating a fact)

Plus it was very expensive. About $100 a week for food for one person for one week (does not include any of the extras, like fresh fruits and veggies). I also got very tired of eating my meals separate from my family.

Something you may consider...places like Designed Dinners located here in Washington: Designed Dinners
These places are cropping up all over the place, you may have something similar near you. Normally they are for the dinners only, but you get food for 4 people, not just 1 person. They provide nutritional information so you can make it work with your food program.

 

[Luanne]

I haven't used them personally, I'm a real Weight Watcher's believer, but a co-worker of mine used Jenny Craig and successfully lost 50 pounds. She went with Jenny because she didn't want to have to "think" about what she was going to eat from meal to meal and wanted it all planned out for her. Not, I haven't seen her recently and I don't know if she's kept the weight off.

 

[2Blessed]

I have no experience with Jenny Craig, but I am a lifetime member with Weightwatchers. I would suggest that you figure out how many calories you are allowed during your maintenance phase , and use Weightwatchers, Lean Cuisine and other low calorie/low fat meals to plan your own meals.. Just remember to add some fruiits and vegetables and drink plenty of water. Here is a sample day for me:

Breakfast- Granola bar and a piece of fruit and l cup of coffee with Equal

Snack - another piece of fruit, or lowfat snack

Lunch - Lean cuisine with a small salad, low fat or nofat salad dressing

Snack- 100 calories popcorn (94% fat free)

Dinner - Baked chicken breast or fish, veggies and salad

There are times when I treat myself, or I may splurge a littl when we are celebrating a birthday or something at a restaurant. The key is you can afford to splurge once in a while if you are good most of the time. Moderation is the key. You may also want to try Ediets. They are an online type support group, but you can plan your meals there, and they will even give you a shopping list to print out. It has been several years since I have used them, but they are still pretty popular. Remember your maintenance plan should be something that you can reasonably continue for the rest of your life. I know for me, spending $100.00 a week for meals is not an option that I would want to continue. I can always find something to eat at home or eating out that fits into my maintenance plan. Good luck.

 

[Gadabout]

Something you may consider...places like Designed Dinners located here in Washington: Designed Dinners

These places are cropping up all over the place, you may have something similar near you. Normally they are for the dinners only, but you get food for 4 people, not just 1 person. They provide nutritional information so you can make it work with your food program.

We have something like this near us. It seems to be Once-a-Month-Cooking done for profit. You could do the same thing yourself if you like to cook with your own recipes, or pair up with a friend, or spouse or other helper. If you have several friends you could each do several recipes and get together for swapping, free .

This site has samples from all their books (and some downloadable ebooks). I have not tried their software, because it is not made to run on a Mac, and I do not have Virtual PC installed which *might* run it (if someone does try this, please let me know if it works, thanks .

http://www.30daygourmet.com/

I'm not putting any of the pay services down at all. They may very well have really good recipes that freeze well and still taste good. To me, that is the biggest downfall of the OAMC books available for the most part--most of the recipes are casserole-type kid food. You really have to wade through a lot of the books to find some good recipes. The other disadvantage is buying containers or Ziploc Freezer Bags or vacuum sealer bags if you really want to cut the chance of freezer burn. Main advantage is that you know exactly what is in your food.

This is a really good crockpot book, and if you don't mind some prep work like browning meats/veggies in a pan and thickening gravy after cooking, this would give you some excellent entrees for OAMC (your library might have it, too):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/06...002-7118142-2697630?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

If you want just a prepaid diet food program, there is also Nutrisystem (you may remember the commercials with Zora from Joe Millionaire). I don't know how they taste.

 

[jlr10]

I used Jenny Craig about 15 years ago. I lost the weight I wanted and was ready to start maintenance, which weans you onto you own food. My adviser was reluctant to let me start maintenance. She gave the impression that she was making her money off selling the Jenny Craig products. I finally got tired of asking and quit going. Naturally I regained the weight.

I found the food to be expensive, and they really pushed their vitamins and supplements. Some of the food was good, some was okay, and some was so awful I refused to eat it. The menus were preplanned and allowed for no deviation.

Supposedly they have changed many of the food items, and are more flexible when it comes to menus, to encourage people to buy foods they like and will eat.

I don't know if it changed, but at the time I was in the program you had to buy into a lifetime pass to continue to buy the food if you weren't active in the weight loss program. I think it was about $75 at the time.

My personal opinion, based on this being for avoidance of weight gain, is to do as suggested, find a healthy food preparation company to make your meals. (I think we have the Healthy Gourmet.) Several companies will customize the menus based on your tastes, as well as the type of diet you wish have chosen. The cost would be about the same but I am sure the food would be much better!

 

[grest]

I also didn't like my experience with Jenny...and found success with Weight Watchers. However, Jenny has worked for a lot of people. You just have to find the program you can work with best. Good luck!
cONNIE

 

[Kal]

You use some of her products as a great shower tile cleaner, but the price would be extremely high.

 

[3kids4me]

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

[pwrshift]

Jenny Craig does lean towards women as customers. I lost weight with them but gained it back real quick. I got bored with their packaged foods and bugged by high food prices ($4 for a tiny waffle 3"x3" in size). I found as soon as I quit, I felt lost about what to eat as the program doesn't teach you how to make the food from scratch.

Brian

 

[Tacoma]

Although I myself am a weight watchers girl since I know I have todeal with real food in real situations I do know someone who lost a lot of weight with Jenny Craig. She bought the minimun amount of food per week and supplemented with President CHoice Blue label items. She said they were the same. I can't say exactlybut it worked for her. As someone said just find some ploan that works for you.

Joan

 

[Dani]

I used Jenny Craig several years ago and lost the most weight that I have ever lost on any program....this includes my many tries with Weight Watchers. The weight did however creep back up over about a year and a half. This was mostly due to my lack of excercise.

I actually really enjoyed their food. You also supplement their food with fresh food such as salads and fruit. I've been thinking of going back as it was quite simple and easy to follow. The only issue that I have with Jenny Craig is that it is a very hard plan to follow if you eat out often. They attempt to give you an "exchange" plan to follow when eating out, but I found it practically useless and I would always feel guilty eating out. It's been years since I've done the plan so maybe they have changed this aspect of the plan. If you have not done so already, take a look at the message boards at www.jennycraig.com.

I will say that no matter what, IMHO, WW's is probably the best program around for long-term maintenance.

 

[pwrshift]

Does anyone know somebody who had a "LapBand" operation? Apparently they can be reversed if it doesn't work and works very well if you have a lot of weight to lose.

Brian

 

[Dani]

Does anyone know somebody who had a "LapBand" operation? Apparently they can be reversed if it doesn't work and works very well if you have a lot of weight to lose.

Brian

Yes...it's less invasive and this is the surgery that Al Roker had. There was a Discovery Chanel special about it. It seems ideal as you can go to the doctor for a quick office visit to have the band expanded or tightened. The person I know that had the surgery had it done two years ago and is very happy with it.

You might want to take a look at the Weight Loss surgery board at www.3fatchicks.com.

 

[michelle]

I used Jenny Craig... here are some of my opinions:

* It worked really well during the week, because at the time, DH was travelling to Colorado (we are in Virginia) weekly for work, so all I had to do was get the food out of the freezer and cook. But on the w/e, when I also had to do something else fo him to eat, it was much harder.

* Over time, it became really expensive and boring.

* I lost weight really slowly. I have since discovered that South Beach is a much better diet for me: I now understand the damage of carbs and am able to make better decisions, wether I eat at home or at a restaurant, and I loose weight a lot faster, and keep it off!