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 four things 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) Audio Tapes
The tapes are pretty well the same sort of info as the classes above.
4) 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 or tapes, 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
Thanks to all. I have been trying to decide between Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem. After researching both diet programs, the choice for me is clear. I will go with Nutrisystem.
I have visited both websites and Nutrisystem is cheaper ($293 for 28 day food supply with FREE shipping). Plus you get 3 weeks FREE food (one week per each of the first 3 shipments). The only reason I was leaning more towards Jenny Craig going into this was because I have 100+ pounds to lose and I thought the weekly consultations and weigh-in would help me be more disciplined.
After reading all the comments about problems with the Jenny Craig counselors, it doesn’t justify spending twice as much on their program!! I will go with Nutrisystem. Thanks!
Jenny Craig is all about the money. They could care less about you losing weight. Run into a problem and customer service is out the window. Its all about the $$
I lost 25 pounds on Jenny Craig back in 2000, just in time for a wedding. It cost a lot of money and took nearly a year, but it worked. I found the food to be rather tasty, and the plan was easy to follow. The biggest inconvenience was simply having to go to the Jenny Craig office every week in order to obtain my food. In principle, I was going in primarily for the weight loss counseling, however I found that most of the “counselors” were largely focused on selling me food and trying to convince me to buy more Jenny Craig items and services. That was a turn-off. But the program did work… at least for taking the weight offf. Unfortunately, over the next seven years, I managed to steadily regain all of that weight — and then some! There was simply no maintenance plan with Jenny Craig, other than to keep coming in and paying them money!
Today, nearly 50 pounds heavier than I was when I finished the Jenny Craig program, I’m on the Nutrisystem program. I am losing weight with it, at a rate of ~2 pounds per week. The plan is actually simpler and easier than the Jenny Craig prgram, since I don’t have to make weekly meetings with a “counselor” in order to obtain my food. It is also convenient that none of the Nutrisystem meals require refrigeration, which means that I can take them with me anywhere. It isn’t the best tasting food in the world, but it’s tolerable. Who knows whether the weight loss will stick this time, but at least I’m not paying an arm and a leg to stay in a program that clearly didn’t help me to maintain my weight loss the first time! Bottom line: I would definitely recommend Nutrisystem over Jenny Craig.