What is Jenny Craig

Jenny Craig was originally started in Australia in 1983 and 1985 in America by Jenny Craig and Sidney Craig. However, it has been sold off to a private investment fund a few years back and is now part of nestle nutrition. (since 2006)

No matter who you are, chances are there is a program in Jenny Craig that are catered to you. (they are very big on personalization) There is a diet plan for women, seniors, men, teens and even diabetic.

With that said, let’s get into the big picture of their weight management program. With this we will get into the core of what is jenny craig. The diet program consists of three levels in which they creatively named food, mind and the body plan. The first level, (food) consisting of selling you pre packaged frozen and dry food. (Why they insist on calling this gourmet food and Jenny Cuisine is beyond me, this is no where near gourmet level) They will also teach you some basic (but outdated and debunked myths) nutrition that you need to adhere to. For example, you will need to eat frequently and in smaller quantities. This supposedly will increase your metabolism and keep your blood sugar stable.

The 2nd level is described as simple activities which increases your energy level. Sounds great but its called exercise for normal folks. The third level is to build balance into your lives to maintain your hard earned weight loss and lean figure. By balance they mean a balanced and healthy diet and maybe some exercise.

Jenny Craig Support

So what about the support? They offer 24/7 support over the phones and they provide forums for you to interact with other people who wants to lose weight. There are also some written materials but you are required to buy them. Consultants are also available for consultation, you can ask for help if you are stuck. Online tools like their etools are available to help you plan your life. (its essentially an activity planner and menu planner with more bells and whitles)

Support will of course vary according to the package you have chosen. There are two Jenny Craig Programs at the time of this writing. (This is different from the silver, teen, diabetes, and men plan) You can either sign up at their 600 plus centers across the US or choose to do everything from the comfort of your house with Direct At Home Jenny Craig program.

Designing your diet and marketing strategies is a board of professionals. They have everyone from certified psychologist to medical doctors and nutritionist. Their job is to make sure you join and pay on time (just joking, well not really) and design the meal you eat everyday. However, the meals all follow the USDA Dietary Guidelines which in my opinion is old and outdated. Not only that, the guideline is supposed to help you prevent disease not optimize for health. (Things like lowering your cholesterol level) So much for healthy and enjoyable eating from an expert medical advisory.

It consists of 50 to 60% carbohydrate (not a bad thing if you exercise), 20 to 25% protein and 20% to 25% fat. You are free to supplement the Jenny Cuisine with both fruits and vegetables, whole grains (again, as advised by the USDA Dietary Guidelines) and some low fat dairy products.

The goal of all that pre-packaged meal, psychology brain washing (again, just joking) and exercising is to train you to be self sufficient (able to cook) and stop paying them money. (gasp! really?) Surprisingly, the pre packaged meal served as the healthy model of what you should be eating and the right portion size. No idea pre packaged meal is the right model for eating but then again this is corporate America.

Jenny Craig goes on to say that no food is taboo in their weight loss plan. They really understand that you need to gorge on that Thanksgiving turkey or eat that ice cream. Its no brainer that those food are delicious. Especially after a week on their dry pre packaged food. However, they are quick to add that this must be done in a balanced way. Read, you must not exceed your given daily calories and you must have an active lifestyle. This is labeled as having a healthy relationship with food. Thankfully they have cheat days once a while where you can eat pretty much anything you want. (within moderation of course)

According to the counselors, these cheat food and cheat days aren’t really a problem because they will be educating you on eating responsibly. Things like how many calories those food contains, trans fat to avoid to how fatty is the food. I am naturally skeptical. All the calories book in the world doesn’t make an iota of difference in weight loss, why should their same old information be any different?

Summary: The Jenny Craig diet (no matter which plan you choose be it teen or silver) is based on calorie counting and physical exercise. Which in turn is based on your goals, height, and weight.

Does Jenny Craig Work?

The main question most people have about any diet plan is does it really work as advertised? Now, Jenny Craig claims that you will lose one to two pounds per week. That’s a pretty good weight loss rate. To verify that claim we need to look at how it works and what is involved here. We know that you need to eat only the pre packaged food and the allowed food. And if you happen to want a cake or something with high fat then you must watch your calories.

We also know that it is a high carbohydrate diet. With what we currently know about dieting and weight loss, can i say that Jenny Craig does work? The short answer is yes with a caveat. (a huge one unfortunately) You see, a LOT of the current diet we have on the book shelves works on theory. But not many had much success doing them. why? This is because we’re really bad at following instructions. Especially the ones instructing us to starve ourselves. It is a given that our body will resist that tooth and nail. It takes a lot of will power to be able to resist hunger for a limited time period. This is why people bounce back to their original fat self.

Plus, its not realistic with the current environment we live in. Healthy, non-fattening food is expensive while fatty and calorie laden food is cheap and everywhere. Simply put we get hungry for various reasons and we want to eat. The Jenny craig method needs (a ton of) discipline, healthy eating, controlled eating and etc (sounds familiar? its what every diet book is preaching right now)

Lets get on to how jenny craig works

If you are convinced that this is the best diet plan for you but you need more details then read on.

When you first joined Jenny Craig, you will be assigned a consultant. He or she will personalize the Jenny Craig diet plan for you. Its called the YourStyle profile which consists of personal eating style, activity stage (simply exercise level), weight loss mindset, weight in and measurements.  If you are confused by now don’t worry, just keep in mind that the main program is basically the pre packaged meal. This is what makes everything works the way it works. Everything else is just marketing talk.

After that is done, you will be assigned your daily Jenny’s cuisine meal with once a day snack allowance. (consisting fruits and vegetables) The meal is claimed to be balanced, has lots of variety and will come in small portions. (to teach you about moderation)

And finally your consultant will design an exercise program for you. Keep in mind that these exercise program are mostly from the company and there won’t be much variations at all. this is because your Jenny Craig consultants doesn’t need to be a certified professionals in nutrition, health or exercise in order to be hired. Their job is to conduct private meetings with you where they will try to motivate, teach and help you with challenges.

The first 4 weeks will consist on weekly educational meetings on food, body and mind. (one topic for one week) At the fifth week you will be required to do a weight in and design new goals if necessary. If it all goes well you will then proceed in learning how to prepare your own food. (cooking!)

To summarize, this is a pretty comprehensive weight management package that promotes healthy eating & diet. I don’t agree with a lot of their so called scientifically proven way but this is only my opinion. Its also essentially the same as weight watchers, even the jenny craig at home or jenny direct is (i suspect) copied from them.

Jenny Craig Cost

There is a lot of bad reviews on the internet about the Jenny Craig diet, especially about how expensive it is. Customers feeling ripped off and stories of huge charges are a norm. Jenny Craig claims that it only costs $36 for six weeks including food. I don’t know how they get away with it because customers are claiming it actually costs $150 per WEEK. This is not including the $300 to $400 to join as a member. (depending on your package) So how much does jenny craig cost? In reality, jenny craig cost from $900 to $1000 on the first month. Of course you are eligible to some insurance deduction and maybe you might even get some special packages, but personally i won’t be comfortable doing business with them.

Not only is the jenny craig food cost unbelievably high, (unless you spend more than $600 per month eating bland food) the customer service has left many disgruntled customers complaining on the forums and review websites. One jenny craig reviews website describes the jenny consultant as “robots” reading out a script. Many were feeling frustrated because these so-called consultant cannot respond to questions beyond what they have been trained in. Unfortunately, the lousy customer service isn’t just contained in the phone lines but also to the various jennycraig centers all over The United States. It has been reported that customers felt like they are being ignored when they arrived at the office, one women even go so far as to state that she felt “invisible”. They refuse to sell the food to her (just because she was from another state) and they refuse to speak to her politely.

The jenny craig food or the jenny craig cuisine is the only thing that these consultants are trained to tell you about. Their goal (as i suspect) is to sell you as much of their jenny craig food as possible without telling you any of the jenny craig recipes for as long as possible. The stories about people being weaned off the program is untrue. (well, maybe there is some truth in it but i doubt it is typical)

Jenny Craig For Men

The jenny craig for men program is essentially the same with the main program. The only differences is the marketing slant. With this program the marketing emphasized on not needing to count calories (you do need to) and having the freedom to splurge on an occasional beer or fries. (And they mean RARELY)

The food that are advertised on the front page includes a really tasty looking burger. Which i suspect is for illusion, i mean illustration only. Food that you can eat on their jenny craig’s menu includes pizzas, spaghetti with meatballs and even cheese. On top of that, you won’t feel like you’re eating cardboard but real food! And if you’re being a good boy you can increase your stamina, energy and health. Man, that’s a lot of big and bold promises right there. Is it any wonder that men all over the countries are slimming down at an alarming rate? I don’t need to tell you this but if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

jenny craig vs nutrisystem

There are so many negativity surrounding jenny craig that i am simply dumbfounded on how they managed to grow to such a large company they are today. It probably means that the weight management industry is so lucrative and huge that you can afford to be rude, over charge and treat customers like a fool and still profit like a king. However, this might nit be the case for long as I am reading a lot of people comparing jenny craig vs nutrisystem or maybe weight watchers. If you want to know more about nutrisystem you should click here for a full blown review.

Jenny Craig Locations

If you insist on joining jenny craig even if it costs a lot and despite all those negative reviews then you’re welcomed to do so. This is after all, a free country. Because the locations of jenny craig centers keep on increasing year after year. (many may shift or close shops) I find it troublesome to include the locations here. It would be better if i could provide you with the link to its official site.  This link will bring you to the page where all jenny craig locations in the USA is listed. (Other countries are available, just click the link “find other centers”

First of all, the short answer is yes (in my opinion) weight watchers does seem to be a rip off . There are several reasons why i said that. First of all, the rate in which you lose weight is excruciatingly slow. (how does a diet that only helps you lose on average 0.2 pounds per month be the BEST diet in 2011 ranked by U.S News and World Report?)

Notice that they are ranked by the newspapers and some unknown organization. The credibility of these organization is flawed at best. Where do I get the 0,2 pounds on average per month? It is from Journal of American Medical Association or JAMA as they are popularly known. In a study funded by Weight Watchers themselves, participant in the JAMA weight loss study lost on average only 6 pounds of weight in 2 years. This is by adhering to the strict points system.

Now, is there any wonder that this JAMA study is nowhere to be found on their website even though they funded the study themselves? Is it any wonder that they cannot provide you with an exact number on their website?

Points System – The 2nd Scam

They make their Weight watchers point system sounds so good it made me blush to attach the word scam at the end of it. Weight Watchers claim that you won’t need to calculate calories anymore and you can eat anything you want. Well, looks like its nothing but hot air.

Let me give you an example. If you are about 35 years old and you want to lose about say 40 pounds you will be allocated only 27 poinds per day. To put that into perspective a Beef sandwich (not the restaurant type but made according to weight watchers recipe) will cost you 9 points. You are now being left with 18 points after your mini sandwich snack. If you ate this sandwich on a restaurant you can bet your last dime that it will cost you way more than 9 points.

As such, the number one complain that people have on this diet is the constant hunger and craving for food. This is despite the claim that their recipe is filling. Yes, they are pretty filling if you only eat their high fibre food. Which is essentially processed food made by the company themselves. More money for them i guess but bad for your health and wallet.

They also claim that you won’t need to calculate any calories but they conveniently forgot to tell you that you will need to count points. Is there any difference between the two? Of course, Weight watchers make it easy by providing you with tracking tools and calculators. But then, is there any difference with the abundance of free calorie calculators and tracking tools out there?

Weight Watchers Food – Bland and Tasteless

Now, a lot of you might want to refute my final point here but you will be disappointed. Hey, I admit that the weight watchers system has plenty of good tasting food like beef and chicken. However, there is little of that to be had when you are on their point system. Here’s how the point system calculates the food point. The higher the fibre, the lower the point is for that food. The higher the fat content, the higher the point will be.

If you want to stay within your points (very hard) you will have to eat a lot of oats and whole wheat. Last time i checked, they taste like card boards to me. Unless you like vegetables a lot then you will probably fall off the bandwagon on this diet plan. Of course, you won’t need weightwatchers anyway if you are a vegetarian.

Weight Watchers Meetings – Boring But Good

You don’t think I would bash everything about weightwatchers do you? Of course, there are good things about them. One shining example would be the meetings (depending on who you ask of course) done every week to keep each other accountable. You will meet up and do a weight in every week to determine where you are in your goal. This will be followed by some sharing and pep talk with each other. Nothing you couldn’t do on your own with the Internet nowadays. (Maybe that is why they are offering weight watchers online? Meetings just aren’t the added value they used to be)

Will You Need To Exercise

According to them you won’t need to be it is of course encouraged. This is because their system is so good that you won’t need to. (as insinuated by them) This is of course, false. I suspect that many men and women on this diet program will not have the energy necessary to carry out any exercise. You eat so little you start wondering if you can go through the day without thinking of food constantly. (maybe some low points food to curb your cravings?)