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
I’m an employee of Jenny Craig and am also displeased about the emphasis on which the company places on pushing the food.
To those complaining that the counselors are too thin, hello, would you like it if they were heavy? If you questioned whether or not your counselor could relate to you, you should just ask for another counselor. I’m a size 6 myself.
To poster 127, you have 3 days to get a refund, not 30. You should’ve read your service agreement before signing.
I visited Jenny Craig last night. I had a 6pm appt and had to wait 30 mins in the (not so clean) lobby.
I finally got to meet with the manager and was weighed right off the bat. Then came the sales pitch. I finally had to ask how much everything costs. I was told that the $20 for 20 pounds wouldn’t really work for me because I had more to lose than that and that I should go with the maintenance program which was $399 - however, they could take off $50 - bringing the price to $349 - and that way I could get the food discounts.
I wasn’t really wanting to spend that much when I hadn’t even tried the food. So the manager pulled out a list and said that since I had Unicare Ins - they could take $100 off of a 6 month program and then I could upgrade to the full program for $169 - for a total of $269. I felt like I was buying a used car.
I finally agreed that I would do that … so off we go to the front counter to check out. The more I stood there - the more I felt like this was not the right thing to do. So I told her that I wanted to think about it overnight - and left.
I put pen to paper last night — if you sign up on this program for the $268 and then purchase food (say at $119 per wk) - with the discounts taken into account - for 20wks, $2350.50 is the total cost. Assuming you lose the 2 pounds per wk - $58.76 per pound is the price.
Thank you to everyone getting the word out!
I joined Jenny Craig but was skeptical of the outrageous prices. So, I canceled before my second shipment of food, but can’t get the $329 membership fee back even though I canceled within the first 30 days.
I’m pissed, I can’t get anybody from the company to return a call! After threatening to complain to the Better Business Bureau they finally refunded my money for the second shipment of food that I had paid for in advance. As for refunding my membership fee, no one has bothered to call me or email me back.