Packaged Meals and Clinics - Nutrisystem, Medifast, Jenny Craig, Etc - Nutrisystem Alternative!

Just wanted to tell everyone on here who are struggling with finances about an alternative to NS....and it tastes a heck of a lot better in my opinion!

I signed up on the Lean Cuisine website for their tools just to see what they had. You pick your meal "type" first. Here are the choices they give.

Active Lifestyle: Low fat diet with increased carbs and protein for those individuals with higher energy needs
Carb Conscious: Low Carb diet
Convenience Lifestyle: Manage your calories with Lean Cuisine meals combined with fruits, vegetables and salads.
Healthy Living Lifestyle: Low fat diet with fruits, vegetables and lean protein sources
Vegetarian: Meatless but includes milk and egg products with a balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates


I chose Convenience Lifestyle. The next step is to choose your calorie needs. They recommend 1800 calories for my needs (based on weight and activity level) but you can choose from 1200 calories to 3400 calories. You also pick how long you want your menu, 1 week, 2 weeks or a month at a time.

I chose the 1500 calorie plan for 1 week. You then have preplanned meals, that you can check off when you have eaten a particular food item. You can also change the food listed if you do not like it. Here is a sample of the menu they gave me, for one day.

Breakfast:
1 fruit (2-7/8" dia) Oranges, raw, navels Edit

1 muffin English Muffins, toastedSubstituteEdit

1 slice Low Fat Muenster Cheese Edit

1 cup Low Fat Milk (1% fat), protein fortified and vitamin A Edit
Total = 59.5g Carbohydrate, 403.8 Calories,
9.1g Fat, 23.2g Protein, 4.5g Dietary Fiber

Snack:
Addtab_snack1 1 small (6" to 6-7/8" long) Bananas, rawSubstituteEdit
Total = 23.1g Carbohydrate, 89.9 Calories,
0.3g Fat, 1.1g Protein, 2.6g Dietary Fiber

Lunch:
Addtab_lunch 1 1/2 cup Tossed Salad, without dressing Edit

1 serving (8 1/8 oz.) LEAN CUISINE Chicken Marsala Edit

1 small (2-1/2" dia) (approx 4 per lb) Apples, raw, with skinSubstituteEdit

1 tablespoon Ranch Dressing, reduced fat Edit
Total = 35.7g Carbohydrate, 261.1 Calories,
6.9g Fat, 17g Protein, 5.7g Dietary Fiber

Snack:
Addtab_snack2 8 medium Carrots, baby, raw Edit

1/8 cup Peanuts, dry-roasted, without salt Edit
Total = 10.5g Carbohydrate, 134.8 Calories,
9.2g Fat, 4.8g Protein, 2.9g Dietary Fiber

Dinner:
Addtab_dinner 1 serving Spinach Salad Edit

1 serving (8 1/2 oz.) LEAN CUISINE Cheese Ravioli Edit

1 cup Low Fat Milk (1% fat), with added vitamin ASubstituteEdit

1 small (2-1/4" dia) Tangerines, (mandarin oranges), rawSubstituteEdit
Total = 64.7g Carbohydrate, 480.6 Calories,
15.5g Fat, 23.1g Protein, 6.9g Dietary Fiber

Snack:
Addtab_snack3 1/8 cup Soybeans, dry roasted Edit
Total = 7g Carbohydrate, 97 Calories,
4.6g Fat, 8.5g Protein, 1.7g Dietary Fiber

Michelle, thanks for posting this. It's very helpful.

Previously I did DTG for a few weeks and lost fairly well. It was getting too expensive for me at the moment and I think your suggestions will be a good alternative!

After exploring a little more, I found that you can make "custom menus" also! I think this is really cool....especially to be free to use.

I wish I had found this before I bought 3 months worth of nasty, expensive Nutrisystem food, lol. Oh well, I live and learn.

thank you so much for posting that site. very very useful

This looks awesome!! Thanks for posting.. I am in love with DTG but we just bought our first home so I actually have a MORTGAGE now and can't continue DTG unfortunately.. I am going to try this out.. THANKS!!

Hmmm.... I'm new here but NOT to dieting. NutriSystem works for me in theory but I too cannot justify the ongoing expense. But I already pick up some L.C. foods here and there, so this might work for me. (And we have a big chest freezer with room in it--yay!)

Thanks for posting this. This looks fairly brainless (which is why I did like NS). Brainless, I can handle right now. :)

Oops, forgot to say... Hello! Great to have found this site!

Nutrisystem worked for me as long as I DIDN'T follow it strictly ( I think my body would go into starvation mode after a while and quit losing....going off the system for the weekend would kickstart my metabolism).

What didn't work for me is the taste...and the excitment wore off the nastiness of the food really got to me.

Any how this is cheaper and I think completely doable...quite comparable to NS.

I never tried Diets to Go because it was too expensive....in fact NS was too expensive for me also. I have 4 birth children, just adopted 3 more kids, so I'm feeding 7 kids (including 2 teen boys).

I'm excited about this!

P31Mom (and others in this thread),

I'm game for holding each other accountable in a supportive way, right here, if that works, or in the support forum.

Small bummer for me here -- although I already have a few LC meals in my freezer, I'm leaving town Monday-Wednesday to go to a family funeral (distant relative) and won't be able to start till Wednesday evening! Oh well, two more days, right?

Thanks for posting this, I was already thinking of doing my own nutrisystem type plan by using Lean Cuisines, Progresso low cal soups etc... this will be a great help.

Just a little tip for anyone considering doing this (which btw looks like a great alternative)...add fibre!! Take a fibre supplement 'cause NS foods have been fortified with fibre and protein which as I'm sure we all know fill us up and keep us full longer. The plan looks pretty good for the protein part but looks like it could use a fibre boost. I did NS for 6 mos. and it worked well for me...I think this could be a great alternative!

I'm going to give this a try. Seems like something I'd be able to do.

I've been doing this since monday with the help of light frozen entrees and soups and have so far lost 5 lbs. Yippee!

I would like to find some tasty low-sodium (and low-cal) frozen entrees though, anyone know of some?

Just wanted to tell everyone on here who are struggling with finances about an alternative to NS....and it tastes a heck of a lot better in my opinion!

I signed up on the Lean Cuisine website for their tools just to see what they had. You pick your meal "type" first. Here are the choices they give.

What is the URL for this site?

leancuisine.com/index/index.aspx

Hmm. What a great idea. I have been doing something like this since I stopped NS about 2 months ago. But to have it printed out is really nice. thanks for this
:carrot:

I think that it is good to eat dry fruits or varieties of nuts, as they are great source of fiber and also have a lot of nutritional contents........what do you think.........

Slim Fast also has something similar on their site using their products. I don't think you can check off the meals though, but it's all laid out and you can use their shakes and bars for quick meals.

Whoo Hoo! Thank you for posting this! I was going to order NutriSystem, but this is the way to go. I love Lean Cuisine.

Hi I am new here, well signed up 2 yrs ago but I only posted once and forgot about the stie. I am Stupid at times. Great site, missed out.
I like to mention that I use and love Amy's Frozen and her soups. Some are over in cal but I get the ones that are lower. They are vegetarian but that is OK. PLus they are like real home made. Very natural ingredients. I do stay about from the cheese entries but love many other, they have a variety from each nationality that are most popular. They have a site with a diet on it also. That is so cool.
Once in awhile I use Skinny Cow frozen ice cream and the sandwiches, my husband splits with me so it is lower in carbs. So he is happy and I am happy. I love the taste not overly sweet. Nice to have different choices.

I want to second Dariann on this. I do Ourlife Fresh five days of the week and then have two days of no delivered food where I cook for myself. If I'm rushed or tired on those offdays from OLF, then Amy's does the trick.

In particular: if everyone in the family is having a pizza night, I pop the Amy's Margharita pizza in the oven (only 250 cal for 1/3 of the pizza) and am good to go. Waaay better for you then any of the chain restaurant pizzas!
Oh- and if you need fiber, the canned low sodium lentil vegetable soups can't be beat :-)

And many stores will periodically have great sales on Lean Cuisine. I have gotten LC as low as $1.99 at my supermarket.

How do you all feel about the label of ingrediences in LC and other frozen products? When I look at Amy's and Kashi I dont freck out. I do like a more natural product. The front can say anything, some are saying natural but when you read the labels it is full of chemicals. I have this problem with mail replacements also. Am looking for more natural in those also. Help.

How do you all feel about the label of ingrediences in LC and other frozen products? When I look at Amy's and Kashi I dont freck out. I do like a more natural product. The front can say anything, some are saying natural but when you read the labels it is full of chemicals. I have this problem with mail replacements also. Am looking for more natural in those also. Help.

-Dariann: you hit on a big problem- the mass market produced lean cuisine and weight watchers (not sure about healthy choice though) frozen stuff is loaded with bizarre ingredients, which is why I won't do nutrisystem. Many of the lean cuisine meals have (and this is my biggest concern) a lot of high fructose corn syrup. You know it's a large amount b/c it's one of the first ingredients on some of their dinners. The dinners also contain stuff called "potassium chloride" and food coloring. Kind of strange isn't it?

I've been doing the Amy's meals and some of the Kashi stuff. But it's frustrating b/c those product lines are typically more expensive :-(
So just get those frozen meals and I also order five days of fresh (not frozen) prepared meals from the website Ourlife Fresh. I believe that Personal Chef to Go ( a company in Virginia) prepares my food and delivers it on behalf of Ourlife. Besides the LC stuff is loaded with so much sodium that if I eat it for too many days in a week my rings don't fit!

Good luck!

It's been a few months since I first posted this and I'm getting ready to start it again.

I'm planning this time to start January 4th. I know this week is out because of all the Christmas plans with family...next week, I will be in SC with family so it's out to.

So January 4th is my start date! I'm going to do a Lean Cuisine plan.

Some asked how other's felt about all the "unnatural" ingredients. I guess my thoughts is this....none of that is as unhealthy as being fat is, IMO. So no, I'm not worried about that right now.

Anyone else starting their diet in January? Anyone else using Lean Cuisine's or some other frozen food?

hmmmm...thanks for the tip, I'm checking it out now :)

Thank you for starting this thread. I have said to my husband many times: "Why do people spend so much money to have a box of room temperature dehydrated, deoxygenated or whatever food delivered to their door? I mean, you're talking serious money here. Isn't it close to $300.00 per month? Then you must add fresh fuits, fresh vegetables and most likely low fat milk products. I don't get it.

I keep Lean Quisine fresh frozen meals in my freezer. They taste delicious and can be purchased on sale for $2.00.

Theresa

Awesome suggestion!!! Thanks!

Thank you for starting this thread. I have said to my husband many times: "Why do people spend so much money to have a box of room temperature dehydrated, deoxygenated or whatever food delivered to their door? I mean, you're talking serious money here. Isn't it close to $300.00 per month? Then you must add fresh fuits, fresh vegetables and most likely low fat milk products. I don't get it.

I keep Lean Quisine fresh frozen meals in my freezer. They taste delicious and can be purchased on sale for $2.00.

Theresa

i think it's more like $640 a month. isn't it around $160 a week (assuming you get the food every week, not biweekly)? i'm going to start the lean cuisine diet with my mom either this week or next, and i like that you can print out shopping lists, and plus it is going to be so much cheaper than nutrisystem, and taste much better!

It's between $250 (Costco) or $350 (Nutrisystem website). My husband has been doing it for the first year on auto delivery direct from Nutrisystem and picking his own food. If you let them pick for you, it's cheaper but I wouldn't recommend it. It has high glycemic food which keeps him more full than the grocery store frozen and in many cases has way less sodium.

Now having said that, I could only stick to Nutrisystem for a week. I ended up on Jenny Craig eating primarily the frozen food.

ah, ok. i always thought it was around 140-160 (shipping) per week. i know i've looked at it before and it only lets you get a weeks worth of food at a time, which is why i thought of it like that.

The majority of people do not stay on these packaged diets, but the companies are making lots of money as there are always new people trying them. What with 7 out of 10 American adults overweight, there will always be a market. Manufactur2rs spend big bucks to advertising firms to get people on their products.

There is NO MAGIC in these foods, none of them. The only thing is the convenience, if you can put up with the taste, not to mention that you must have several hundred to toss out the window every month.

I have been on their web sites and read their ingredients. One famous bar contains 6 artificial sugar alcohols, including maltitol syrup. Anything with maltitol syrup will double me up with abdominal pain.

My sister asked me how I lost my weight. She was thinking of getting on Medifast, but couldn't afford it, so I suggested she do what I did to lose my weight.

My suggestions to her were:

Cut your food consumption in half. YES IN HALF!
Don't have seconds, EVER!
Eat healthy foods, fruit, vegetables and lean meats.
Eat several small meals per day. I eat six.
Drink lots of water.

One of my meals used to be a Pria nutrition bar (110 calories) while I was losing weight. Now that I've lost the weight, I'm allowing myself a Luna nutrition bar (180 calories) for woman. These cost $1.00 each and contain lots of vitamin and minerals and soy protein. I buy them at Wal-Mart in a box of 6 for $5.00. A box containing 7 Medifast bars (110 calories) would cost me $16.25 plus shipping. There is nothing magical about all these different diets. Ever take a look at what famous brand diet bars which are outdated or nearly so are selling on eBay? Ridiculous! People must think they have something magical in them. That's all I can figure out.

When I saw my sister, last week she looked fantastic. She is losing weight just by cutting her portions in half. She's choosing healthy foods, eating smaller more frequent meals and is never hungry.

On my diet, you save money because you are eating half of the food you ate before. So your grocery money stretches further.

remember though, what works for you doesn't work for everyone. i for one, have absolutely no portion control. i could easily eat a nachos bell grande, three soft tacos and a burrito supreme and a large coke from taco bell just for lunch, then sit down and have a nice big dinner. i don't have portion control, and i don't have as much will power as i would like. i'm going with lean cuisine because i actually like their food, and the plans they give you, the always have you eat tons of fruits and veggies for your snack and with your meals. to lose weight before, becuase i knew i had no portion control, i would starve myself, eat every other day or every two days. with lean cuisine i can eat healthy and still lose weight. i think eating lean cuisine for a while on their plan will help me learn portion control and give me the will power that i do need to continue to maintain my weight when i hit my goal weight. i know there is no magic in these foods to where i will be magically at my goal weight tomorrow, but it's a helpful tool for people like me who need to have everything written down on what you should eat to unlearn all of your bad habits and learn new healthy, good habits.