This is a review from a good friend of mine. It summarizes what I hear from most people about Jenny Craig. (Also, take a look at my video post, Jenny Craig vs. Nutrisystem, where an independent reporter investigates and compares both diets.)
My sister and I have struggled with our weight for our whole lives. Like everyone else, we had tried diet program after diet program. I clearly remember the day when we finally decided to do something about it and go to Jenny Craig. I’m not sure exactly why we chose Jenny Craig.
Maybe it was the Jenny Craig ads on TV with famous spokeswomen like Kirstie and Valerie (heard they just added Queen Latifah). Maybe it was the skinny people contrasted with pictures and videos of their former fat selves (”Results Not Typical” hmm). Or maybe it was just desperation because we had tried and failed at so many other diets: Weight Watchers, Atkins, and endless diet pills.
When we went to the center they put us through the drill. We watched a video, talked to the manager/sales rep, got weighed and got measurements taken. Very simple stuff which was all filled with sales pitches about how great the program is and how much weight we can lose. The whole initialization process didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence in the program, but I looked at it like it was a ritual that I had to perform to get to the nugget of the Jenny Craig program. The nugget that we believed would solve my sister’s and my problem. We were so excited about what we thought Jenny would help us do.
Jenny Craig supplies the following in exchange for your hard-earned dollars:
1) Counseling
Basically, the counselors were a joke. None of them had any insight or understanding of our struggle. Most had been thin all their lives. Some were 10 or 20 lbs. overweight and were far from masters of fitness and didn’t really understand us. On top of this the staff was untrained. They knew way less about weight loss than we did. If you want to know what the counseling was like imagine this:
Imagine your average decent woman from the street who has never really struggled with her weight. Imagine her sitting down with you and giving you advice on how to lose weight. Whatever pops into her head. Whatever skills she has come to the table with her and that’s it. Then she gives you an expensive menu that you must buy from and she whisks you off.
I guess there are a few good counselors peppered throughout the Jenny Craig organization, but, according to my experience, the counselors are generally less than useless. They’re counterproductive. It made me feel worse having some mega thin Barbie (who had always been thin) or some semi-pudgy “counselor” rush me through the session and ask me if I drank my water or ate an extra bar.
2) Classes
If you’ve ever read a book on basic nutrition and a basic diet book then you can skip these. I don’t know if they’ve changed them in the past few years, but they were entirely lame when I went. Nutrition and behavior modification courses taught by people who knew very little about either.
3) Expensive Food
Some food was delicious and some was unbearably disgusting. I loved the bars. The menu was repetitive. There was about a week or two’s worth of different food which is redistributed over the menus for as many weeks as you’re on the program. I was on the program for a long time (8 months).
Here’s the real meat of the deal for Jenny Craig. From my experience it quickly became obvious that Jenny Craig was just a diet food retailer. They’re not really about counseling or classes, because the quality is way too low. I think it’s just a front. So, to compensate for the added overhead costs of all those diet centers, counselors, and marketing, they overprice their food. Pretty slick huh.
The Bottom Line:
As with any diet, you can have success losing weight with Jenny Craig, but at what cost? Strip away all the fluff and at Jenny Craig’s core is a company selling overpriced diet food, twice as much as their competition. Save your money and stick with better choices like Nutrisystem or Medifast.
Hi, I'm a dietitian with experience in hundreds of weight loss programs and fad diets. When forming my list of the
Hi I had to fast forward to the last of the comments so I could share my story with Jenny Craig and how bad it messed me up. Ok I started at 190lbs and used the online program which cost me around $500 monthly but did include a maintenence program so I was told.
Any how I was determined to lose this weight and set a 120lb goal weight (I’m 5′4). The food at first tasted great and I had a real nice motivating consultant that I got phone calls from weekly on the Jenny Direct program. OK I’m happy so far but spending tons of money with every order but I didn’t care because this was it and I’m gonna do it this time.
Fast forward 8 months being 100% on program and exercising more than ever in my life, yep I was down 50lbs leaving me at a very thin 140lbs for my frame cause I’m bottom heavy so my top got real small with all the exercise I was doing, I now know that I should have made 140 my goal weight rather than go for 120.
Now remember everyone at Jenny Direct they don’t know how you look so that they could really advise someone on their body weight goals. Ok so I’m going strong fitting in size 6 yay!! My hair starts falling out in clumps yikes I was afraid when I washed it I actually thought I saw a small bald spot and went to a dermatologist to see what’s up with this. Anyhow we figured it could be the JC vitamins I was taking and what do you know, I stopped the vitamins and stopped losing hair. OK all my consultant could suggest was to start eating the bars rather than the vitamins because the bars had vitamins in them. OK I started buying the bars now.
Fast forward…my consultant just quit on me with no warning and that left me feeling bad. Turns out she was promoted yeah probably from all the sales she made through me. I now am left with trying to find another good consultant which never happened so slowly but surely I was staying at 140 getting discouraged because I still had 20 more to go. I should have been put on maintenence at this point but nope Jenny Craig only wanted more sales from me and never considered anything with my weightloss.
OK OK I’m almost done here folks I had to stop buying the food due to personal reasons and still had no consultant to support me. Within a few months I watched myself binge eat like mad and I gained it all back plus some. 234lbs is where I had to start all over with. I was never this big in my life and I never was a binge eater until Jenny Craig detox. Watch your money with this program!!!
Oh my God- I am so thankful to all of you. I am so glad I found this site. I googled in about JC to get info about joining them and before I clicked on their official site I clicked on this site. I am glad I did. I am not that over weight -147.5 at5.4″ but wanted to shed some extra fat on undesired areas. When ever I excersize to shed some fat, I loose on my face than on those areas. Face looks so skinney and unhealthy. I thought may be JC could help in suggesting the right food and right excersize which will give me a glow to my face.
I’ll give Nutrisystem a try instead, I’ve heard good things about them.
Thank you again for all of your comments and experiences.
Like many women I have struggled with my weight since high school. So I go into a Jenny Craig in Manhattan, New York to find out what they were about since I’ve seen all the commercials and right a way the lady asked me how I would be paying for the program. I told her I was a full time student and that I would need some extra time to pay for it.
It’s like she didn’t even try. After that, we never talked about my weight problem or anything, she just kept saying that it would be much easier if I had someone to help me pay for it. She wasn’t even nice, just very business like, the complete opposite of the commercials.
I never even got a pamphlet or flyer or anything… I left there feeling worse than when I came in. Needless to say I never lost any weight and have been a little afraid to go into another weight loss center for fear of being treated the same way.
Don’t get me wrong, it is them I am afraid for, because if another human being treats me like that again for any reason I am likely to SNAP! Screw Jenny Craig!