The Jenny Craig Diet is an extremely well-known program as it has had a massive marketing strategy that has included celebrity presences in television commercials for many years. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the odds are that you’ve seen at least one of those ads.
What is the Jenny Craig Diet?
The diet itself involves purchasing prepackaged foods that allow you to stick to a low-calorie eating plan. The Jenny Craig Diet also provides its followers with additional support either in person with a consultant, or over the phone if that is the dieter’s preference.
The official website offers dieters a spectrum of additional online tools designed to help them equip themselves with what they need to achieve their goals. Beyond the meals, this program also includes an exercise plan, as both diet and exercise are vital components of healthy weight loss.
Program Food vs. Preparing Your Own
Despite the fact that there is a heavy focus on foods, and you are meant to eat the program’s own food, there isn’t actually any banned food within this program. The diet also doesn’t require you to take any cleansing or detoxing products, nor are any of the foods on its menu packed with hyped ingredients that come with inflated fat melting promises.
Instead, the idea is to take the strain off yourself by being able to eat the Jenny Craig Diet foods that will automatically allow you to keep within the required calorie limit. There are about 70 packaged foods from which you can choose. This selection means that even the fussiest eater should be able to find quite a few selections that they will enjoy.
Getting Started on the Jenny Craig Diet
The dieter is meant to start off pretty much exclusively on Jenny Craig foods which will allow the dieter to eat around 1,200 calories per day, depending on the dieter’s height and starting weight. Aside from the meals dieters are also encouraged to eat reduced fat dairy products as well as fresh fruits and vegetables.
Over time, the dieter is meant to learn to eat the right portions of low fat, highly hydrating foods that are rich in protein and fiber. This way, they can wean themselves off the Jenny Craig foods and start making their own meals. As dieters can eat pretty much as many non-starchy veggies as they want, hunger is easily avoided.
The occasional alcoholic beverage is allowed on this diet, and nothing is outright banned, but portion control, calorie count and a focus on vegetables is central to this plan.
Does Research Support This Type of Dieting?
In a small study, it was suggested that followers of this program lose an average of 10 percent of their original body weight during their first year of Jenny Craig.
This diet often suits dieters who would rather not cook and who are willing to pay premium prices to have pre-prepared foods sent to them. It isn’t until about halfway through the program that dieters start to prepare their own meals. Once the target weight is achieved, there is a month-long transition time in which the dieter begins making all his or her own meals.
As of the writing of this article, there wasn’t any long-term research available to indicate whether the results some dieters achieve through the Jenny Craig Diet are typically maintained. It is difficult to believe that dieters who had been buying the brand’s food would maintain their lost pounds once they start preparing their own foods or purchasing them elsewhere. That said it is unclear as to whether those who don’t rely on the packaged meals keep up their efforts once they reach their goal weights.
