Jenny Craig & Money - if you shed cash, will you shed pounds too?
Written: Jan 24 '04 (Updated May 11 '04)
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Pros: Food isn't all horrible
Cons: Food prices, I didn't lose enough weight, counselor got mad at me!
The Bottom Line: Unless you need someone to stand next to you and watch you get weighed (and you could use a friend for this)- SKIP IT! Not worth the money!
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| spodgorski's Full Review: Jenny Craig Platinum Membership |
In October 2003 a friend of mine and I decided to try Jenny Craig together. We started walking in the mornings the previous January and had tried several different times to shed the extra weight we were carrying around. My friend (see, I do have one!!) had run into someone that told them they had lost weight on Jenny Craig so she wanted to give it a try.
I am the skeptical sort (surprised?) and thought that we didn't need to pay someone to help us lose weight. Turns out I was right!
At our first meeting, which we set up together (there is safety in numbers!) we met with a sales manager. She was very nice and really pushed the programs. There was a deal going on (there always is!) 20 pounds for $20 plus the price of food. "The price of food" seems like such an innocent statement, until you buy their food!
We did our weigh-in and had our measurements taken. They told us we both needed to eat 1500 calories per day. My friend has more weight to lose than I do so her diet consisted of 1500 calories until she reaches her half way point and then it drops to 1200. They mentioned in passing that doing some exercise will help in our weight loss program.
I had a lot of questions, like "Why would I do this rather than just buy diet dinners at the grocery store?" I was told I am paying for their support, their weigh-ins (yes she told me that I was paying to have someone stand next to me as I climbed on a scale and write down the number!) and for the accountability that goes along with the program.
The sales manager mentions this diet is for people who don't or can't think on their own. An independent thinker might feel limited by the diet. I asked how it teaches us to eat right for the rest of our lives and she said that they will train you for that as they wean you off of their food (like an addiction!) and you start to think on your own again.
I was tempted to skip the program but there was no way I was going to let my friend join alone -- yes, it sounds so sweet until you hear what goes along with my so called altruism! If she lost all her weight and I was still overweight I would have been jealous and very mad at myself...
Okay, we both sign up for the "deal" which we are told gives us 3 months to lose 20 pounds and then we must join either the gold or platinum memberships ($199 and $299) to continue with them.
Week 1:
My food bill was over $100! I have 4 children, so I am buying groceries at the store for 6 people -- I spend less than that for a week of food for all of us! But I tell myself, it will be worth it in the end. So I hand over my Mastercard and sign away the big bucks.
The food was bearable, but certainly not what I would consider good. The sizes of the portions were very small and it seems they feel pepper is the ultimate spice to any food!
I followed the program to the "T". The day I went back for my weigh-in, my home scale said I was down less than 1 pound and my clothes showed no improvement in allowing blood flow to my feet(very frustrating).
The scale at the Jenny Craig office showed I was down 4.6 pounds! Huge difference, if only it was true! I told the girl I was concerned that either they mis-weighed me at our first visit or this one. "That is impossible" I am told...
Week 2:
I pay $92.37 for my weeks worth of food.
Food tastes no better, but I getting used to it. Before I go to the Jenny Craig office I weigh myself at home - completely dressed and exactly as I would be when they weighed me at JC. My scale showed down less than another pound or a total of 1.5 pounds in two weeks. When they weigh me it shows I am up 2.5 pounds... I laugh and tell her that I told her the scale was off last week! My counselor was furious!!! She was rude and nasty - she felt I must have cheated or I was obviously doing something horribly wrong! I explained that I was following all the menu plans, but she refused to believe me. Gave me the complete cold shoulder! Which I thought was hysterical... I called my "dieting partner" on my way home, still laughing and she couldn't believer it! She at this point was down 3.5 pounds for the two weeks.
Okay, fast forward -- 7 weeks in: I am down a total of 6 pounds and my food has consistently cost $90 plus per week. About 1 pound per $100 is how I am figuring it. My friend and I have still been hoofin' it in the mornings and I am feeling frustrated. My clothes are no less tight! My "Diet Partner" is down 12 pounds - or as I like to say "$50 per pound"! She is down a few inches in her measurements and I am down about 1.5" overall - and that includes adding it up all over...
I am liking the food less and less each week and am very tired of "pepper" as the spice of life! But feel I need to give it a couple more weeks to really have given it a real chance. The 20 pounds in 3 months is not looking like it will be a reality...
2 more weeks pass - really not liking most of the food at this point. Except the cheese curls (snack, figures) which come with somewhere around 8 curls in the bag. I am down 7 pounds in 9 weeks - my Mastercard bill is showing close to $900 in charges for food! And my counselor is mentioning I am getting close to needing to pay and join the memberships. My diet partner has already bitten the bullet and paid the $299 for her life time support. She is down 15 pounds in the same 9 weeks.
The counselor and my friend are getting very tight - they laugh and enjoy their visits (as I told my friend, that is because she is consistently going down - put some weights in a pocket one day and see the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde transformation! Also, she has paid the bigger dollars!) The counselor is not as friendly with me as she sees me as a failure to the program and she hasn't yet gotten me to hand over the Mastercard for the $299 fee!
Nitty Gritty and Food Costs:
Anytime Vitamin bars $6.99 for 8 bars. They grow on you in the taste department,
Pasta Fagioli $4.99
Beef with Mashed Potatoes (although I think it should be named the other way around... very little beef is included)$4.99
Creamy Potato Soup $3.59
Sweet and Sour Chicken $4.99
Swedish Meatballs $4.59
Garden Vegetable Soup $3.29
Vegetable Beef Soup $3.69
Chicken Pasta Parmesan $4.99
Beef Sirloin Rice Bowl $5.99
Chicken Fettuccine $3.39
Sunshine Sandwich $5.99 (this is quite good - but at that price it better be!)
Blueberry Muffin $1.69 (and these are also pretty good)
Well, you get the idea ---- each meal is pricey. The snacks cost a little less. And you are adding food that you have to buy at the grocery store that I am not including in my weekly charges. Salads, fruit, cottage cheese, etc.
The program calories are broken up to include 3 snacks a day as well as your 3 meals a day. Not sure how eating Cheese Curls for snack teaches me to lose weight though!
Anyway, the program didn't work for me. It didn't teach me to eat correctly but it did make the Mastercard company very happy, so that is something! My friend is still plugging along -- 24 weeks later, and she is down 30 pounds, although she has added weight training to her daily routine --- so can she say it is the Jenny Craig program? And she is now plannning on quitting due to the high cost of food. She has had the $80 to $95 food bills for 6 months now. That is over $2100 not including the $299 program cost and the initial $20 -- bringing her grand total for 30 pounds to over $2400!!!!!!!!!!
I have stopped going to Jenny Craig and I am starting to build up our savings account again...
Hope this helps someone!
Thank you for reading.
UPDATE: May 11, 2004 --- my friend lost 30 pounds in March and hit a plateau, they dropped her calories to 1200 to get her over the hump, but it didn't work. She stayed on the program for another month and in late April stopped buying the JC food. She has not put the weight back on, is buying diet dinners at the store, watching what she eats and eats with her family again. So her totals are 30 pounds in 7 full months -- at approx. $100 a week.....
Recommended:
No
Approximate Monthly Cost (US$) 400
Food Variety Restrictions A somewhat varied menu
Restrictiveness of Portions Few small portions
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Epinions.com ID:
spodgorski
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Susan P.
Location: San Diego Area, CA
Reviews written: 54
Trusted by: 53 members
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