Hi all I have been getting fairly frustrated with calorie counting and semi fallen off the wagon, and have decided to take the delivery route for a few months to kick-start my weight loss again. I did JC about 4 years ago and was, admittedly, not in the right mindset to just eat what I was given. I lost 10lbs with JC and stopped, but I think I am at a point now where I will stick to it until I feel I will have a handle on taking care of food by myself.

Has anyone here tried both Jenny Craig and Bistro MD? If so, would you say Bistro is worth the extra money? I found JC food fairly good (although Bistro food looks amazing on their website!), and would have a hard time justifying the additional $60-$70/week on food with the same 1200 caloric value, unless it is significantly better and provides a more sustainable eating plan. I will not be starting until April (parents visiting from overseas in March for 3 weeks so figuring it's going to be a waste of money starting now) so I'm trying to use this time to do my research so I can make the best possible decision. Thank you in advance for your help!

Okay...so in my personal opinion while pre-packaged food is great for an easy way to stick to it..it costs tons of money..why not do ww? They have a lot of lean cuisine and weight watchers packaged individual portions in the store..thats a lot cheaper..

I have recently bought the book...the 17 day Diet (was on Dr. Phil) and its beenwonderful so far. I do much better with a lower carb diet and with this one you don't calorie count at all because it does it for you with portions. There are several sections...each 17 days to loose quickly , then trick your metabolism to lower itself and then to add back foods to your plan. So far, I have lost 6 lbs. and that's great for me because my goal is 20lbs.

My two cents, I have done about all of them. I am doing bistro so that I can come home after a hard, stressful day, pull out my meals and I am done. After 25 years of yo yo dieting, I know what I should and should not be eating, I know all the tricks about eating small portions, I could probably write a book, LOL, but I am loving the fact that I don't have to plan, shop, prep, slice, dice, cook and clean or cook for the entire weekend on my time off. Yes, i have had success with WW, suzanne sommers, zone, south beach, biggest loser, nutrisystems, food lovers fat loss, you get the picture. I was not kidding when i said I have been on them all, LOL. I also seem to do better with a 40, 40, 20 way of eating using good carbs.

I am doing the snacks on my own to lower the price, and so far have found the meals to be great. After 11 meals, so far, there have been only two that I have not cared for, but didn't totally hate either. For that plan I am paying $184 per week with delivery.

My family is great, and if I were eating frozen meals from the store they would still be eating something different than me. Plus I have tried to get them to eat the better meals that I have cooked, and they frankly both don't have to watch what they eat like I do. Yes, I can't do this forever, I wish, but I really don't feel that I am spending that much more and frankly, as they say, I am worth it, for my health alone. Bottom line is everyone is different and you have to do what is going to work for you. Good luck!

I tried Diet 2 Go and Bistro. Have not done Jenny, but Diet 2 Go was boring to me. I'm a little more exotic in my tastes so Bistro was a closer fit. BUt Siet to Go was easy to deal with as far as customer service. BistroMD is a breeze. I used it to get through the crazy holiday season in one piece.

I got BistroMD as lunch and dinner only for 5 days and also Breakfast, lunch and dinner for 5 days. Mainly it was for me for breakfast, lunch, sometimes dinner because I still cook and eat dinner with the family. I like the food and the handy factor. I'm not crazy about having so many styrofoam coolers. I did not like their snacks. I rather have fruit or yogurt.

It does cost more than getting groceries and ingredients, but not so much more once I figure in my wage for cooking/cleaning up. I liked the sodium content of BistroMD better too -- more reasonable.

HTH!
A.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

@Porthardygurl: Thanks so much for that suggestion! I think that will be my intermediate step once I transition into the "Okay, i think I have the hang of this" stage lol. Right now I just want a plan that takes the guess work out of everything, and will work as long as I commit myself to it. WW is awesome and all but counting points is such a huge hassle sometimes :/

@LBBUGS & astrophe: Awesome to hear from folks who have experience with the programs! Thank you. LOL believe me I have tried a crapload of diets too - from JC to VLCDs that just made me sick to my stomach but that I tried sticking to anyway, just to get some of the weight off..grr. Are the Bistro serving sizes as decent as they look online or are those just overly tempting pictures? :P At $184 (I was thinking of passing on the snacks too, they don't look like they are worth the additional charge) I will probably lean towards JC - even if I am on a delivery plan I still have to budget groceries in for my hubby, so that might be pushing it a little. Bahh.

The meals come in a tray that is similiar in size to those you can buy in the grocery store, but seem to me at least, to contain, less of the sauce and more of the food. Plus they seem to have more protein and fiber, and a little less sodium. I am still tracking everything in my app because that is what you have to do on your own eventually

I have never tried JC, but have heard they have good food. They seem to rate pretty high on some of the taste comparsion lists. Just curious what do their prices run?

Good news, in five days I have lost 5 pounds, 35 more to go

Wow, that's awesome!!! Keep it up! JC runs about $135/week for 3 meals + snacks... I can't remember if they give you 2 or 3 per day. You can also get additional items such as Soupitizers or their Anytime bars on top of your weekly order - if I remember right you get like 3 Limited foods you can eat per day, so either of those two can be substituted for your Limited foods if you prefer to stick 100% to JC foods. I need to look at the sodium content on their stuff though, the last time I did it it wasn't something I paid attention to lol.