What Is the Jenny Craig Diet?
The Jenny Craig diet is a weight loss program that involves meeting with a supportive consultant. You will meet with your personal consultant at your local Jenny Craig center or over the phone if you are doing the program from home. Your consultant will assess your eating habits, activity level, and motivation level, and customize the Jenny Craig weight loss program so it will work best for you. (1) When you are on the Jenny Craig diet, their meal plan features eating six times per day. Five will be prepared Jenny Craig meals, snacks, bars, or shakes, while one is your own snack. (2) A typical day might consist of oatmeal for breakfast, an energy bar for a mid-morning snack, a broccoli and cheese stuffed potato for lunch, a piece of fruit for an afternoon snack, chicken marsala for dinner, and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. The cost of food is about $20 per day. (Weekly, the average cost of food is $156.) (3) Part of the program is known as their “Fresh and Free Additions,” which are fresh fruits and vegetables that help you add volume to meals and snacks for few calories. (4) Along with eating the Jenny Craig foods to keep your calorie intake under control, exercise is strongly suggested, as is attending weekly meetings with your personal consultant to keep you on track. The program encourages developing an active lifestyle, and they provide videos to get you started in walking, balance, strength, cardio, and more. (5)
The Pros
Here are some of the pros of the Jenny Craig weight loss program:
There’s no calorie counting. With the Jenny Craig diet, your meal plan is completely taken care of and you don’t even have to cook, which can be a major benefit for people who don’t like to get bogged down with counting calories. “There is actually no thinking about meal preparation at all,” says Audrey Young, RDN, CDE, a nutritionist who practices in Peabody, Massachusetts.You get one-on-one support. “The other great thing about [the Jenny Craig diet] is that they have a ton of support,” says Young. “People are more successful when they take advantage of any support that is available.“It’s based on sound science. Young says that the Jenny Craig weight loss program is based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines for daily eating.
The Cons
But there are a few drawbacks to this diet:
There’s a lack of nutritional education. It’s true that many people can experience short-term weight loss while on programs like the Jenny Craig diet, but keeping the weight off becomes a major challenge, unless you continue to rely on the company’s services. Jenny Craig offers a maintenance program, in which you can work with their consultants to learn about how to decode nutrition labels, incorporate exercise into your routine, and build your own menu with your own food.The support staff is not nutrition-credentialed. While the support component of the Jenny Craig diet is one of its beneficial attributes, the support representatives are not necessarily trained health or nutrition professionals. “They are not counselors and they are not dietitians” who are registered, says Katherine Tallmadge, RD, a registered dietitian-nutritionist in Washington, DC, and author of Diet Simple: 192 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits and Inspirations.It’s expensive. “It can cost up to $100 a week for the prepackaged boxes, and you [have to] supplement that with your own fruits and vegetables,” Young says. It is much cheaper to buy prepackaged, low-calorie meals and snacks from the supermarket, and supplement them with lots of fruits and vegetables.
While the Jenny Craig diet may help you lose weight, you may be better off adopting a diet plan that can teach you healthy habits to keep your weight down for years to come. Of course, if having support makes a critical difference to you, it may be worth considering.
What Are the Benefits of the Jenny Craig Diet?
The food is preset. The people at Jenny Craig have done all the thinking for you. Because meals and snacks are prepackaged, you don’t have to worry about measuring out portions or overeating. “You only get so much food, which means you will probably only eat that much,” says Amy Goodson, RD, a sports nutritionist who is based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area in Texas.You get fruits and vegetables. It’s a plus that you get to add in fruits and vegetables to meals and snacks. Not only does it help make the dishes taste fresher, as Jenny Craig notes, it also helps you get more nutrients, says Goodson.
Are There Any Risks to Following Jenny Craig?
It may not be sustainable. “You have to think about things like will your family get tired of you eating this way? Will you miss eating out with friends?” says Goodson. Eating is a hugely social activity and dieting with prepackaged meals means you may have to bring said meals over to someone’s house, skip eating at a restaurant, or cook a meal for your family and not eat it, if you want to stay on the plan.Long-term success is shaky. As Tallmadge mentioned, after you go off the plan, you are essentially left to fend for yourself. “My biggest issue with commercial prepackaged plans are maintenance,” says Angela Lemond, RDN, co-owner of Lemond Nutrition in Plano and Rockwall, Texas, who explains that they can make keeping the weight off as hard as losing it.
One study on overweight dieters found those on Jenny Craig for 12 weeks lost about 12 pounds (lbs), outperforming Curves, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers (WW), and a control group in that measure, according to a review of the diet published in January 2019 by U.S. News & Word Report. (6) U.S. News also detailed a study from April 2015 published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine that also found Jenny Craig helped people lose more weight compared with popular diet plans like Nutrisystem — 4.9 percent more weight loss after a year compared to controls.
What Is Jenny Craig Rapid Results?
Jenny Craig Rapid Results is a plan that claims its members can lose up to 16 lbs in the first four weeks, with average results being 11.6 lbs. (7) It takes a cue from intermittent fasting, where followers eat for a 12-hour window (for instance, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and fast for a period overnight. You will still eat six times a day, but you’ll consume more calories in the morning and taper off as the day goes on. The idea is to “optimize your metabolism” and take “advantage of your body’s natural fat-burning ability, so you lose weight faster,” the website says. Look for promotions, too. For instance, they may charge a reduced enrollment fee ($49) on a Premium plan that can be refunded to you if you hit your goal weight. (2) As for the cost of food, you are supplied with five meals or snacks daily. The Jenny Craig website advertises this as about $20 per day. (3) In the fine print, they note that the average person pays $156 per week for food. Add up the cost of food plus your monthly membership fee to know how much your personalized plan will cost.
RaspberriesBlueberriesStrawberriesApplesPearsCucumbersSpinachLettuceCeleryCarrotsTomatoesBroccoliPeppersGreen beans
A 3-Day Sample Menu on Jenny Craig
The below is a sample of how you might put together the meals and snacks offered in the One Week Menu Kit. (8)
Day 1
Breakfast Cinnamon Rolls Snack Caramel Peanut Delight Essential Nutrition Bar Lunch Tuna Dill Salad Kit Snack Ranch Snaps Dinner Classic Cheeseburger Snack or Dessert Bowl of berries
Day 2
Breakfast Egg and Vegetable Sunrise Scramble Snack Orange Lunch Loaded Baked Potato Snack Cocoa and Nut Bar Dinner Beef Merlot Snack or Dessert Chocolate Lava Cake
Day 3
Breakfast Egg, Cheese, and Turkey Sausage Burrito Snack Sliced veggies Lunch Chicken Street Tacos Snack Cheese Curls Dinner Meatloaf and Vegetable Medley Snack or Dessert Lemon Cake
Apple Cinnamon OatmealApple CrispAsian-Style Beef With VegetablesBaja-Style Chicken QuesadillaBalsamic Vinaigrette DressingCranberry Almond BarscottiBeef MerlotBlue Corn Tortilla ChipsBlueberry and Oats SquareBlueberry Pancakes and SausageBreakfast SyrupBroccoli and Cheese Stuffed PotatoButternut Squash RavioliCaramel Peanut Delight Essential Nutrition BarsCheddar Cheese CrispsCheddar Cheese OmeletCheese CurlsCheese RavioliCheesy Beef Enchilada BowlCheesy BroccoliCheesy Egg and Bacon SkilletCheesy Egg and Sausage ScrambleCheesy Potatoes and ChickenChicken BurritoChicken Cranberry Salad KitChicken Fettuccine AlfredoChicken MarsalaChicken Pot PieChicken Ranch MeltChicken Street TacosChicken Tortilla SoupChocolate Dream ShakeChocolate Lava CakeChocolate Walnut BrownieChocolate MuffinChunky Vegetable Medley Soup AdditionCinnamon RollsCinnamon Coffee CakeClassic Chicken CarbonaraClassic CheeseburgerClassic Lasagna with Meat SauceCocoa and Nut BarClassic WafflesClassic Salisbury SteakCountry Sausage Gravy ScrambleCreamy Penne with VegetablesCranberry Almond CerealCreamy Herb DressingEgg and Vegetable Sunrise ScrambleEgg, Cheese, and Turkey Sausage BurritoCreamy Tomato Vegetable Soup AdditionFiesta Chicken and RiceGarden Vegetable FrittataFish and ChipsGrilled Chicken Teriyaki BowlGreen Beans with Garlic and Olive OilHam and Swiss BaguetteGrilled Chicken SandwichIced Lemon Essential Nutrition BarsItalian Style Wedding SoupHearty Beef and PotatoesIced Oatmeal CookieHomestyle Beef Pot RoastLemon CakeLemon CookiesLoaded Baked PotatoKettle CornMaple French ToastMultigrain Hoops CerealMargherita PizzaNew York Sesame BagelMeatloaf and Vegetable MedleyPork Carnitas Burrito BowlPeanut Butter CookiesPecan Glazed ChickenPumpkin LoafPhilly Cheesesteak SandwichPepperoni PizzaRamen Noodle Bowl with Chicken and VeggiesRanch SnapsRomano Pasta with ChickenSouthwest-Style Chicken Fajita BowlS’mores BarRanchero SkilletSpaghetti with MeatballsThree Cheese Macaroni with Broccoli and CarrotsSunshine SandwichTuna Dill Salad KitWhite Bean Chicken ChiliTurkey and Wild RiceVanilla Cream ShakeTriple Chocolate CheesecakeVanilla Buttercream CupcakeWhite Cheddar PopcornTurkey BurgerTurkey Bacon and Egg White SandwichHomestyle Turkey and Mashed Potatoes
Here are some before-and-after snapshots of real people who found success on Jenny Craig:
