Benefits and Disadvantages of a Prepackaged Meal Plan for Losing Weight

It can be next to impossible for a busy woman to lose weight. Trying to manage the demands of work, friends, and family leaves little time to spend planning and preparing healthy meals and most fast dining options are loaded with extra calories, fat, and sugar. However, new diet systems have recently started working to combat this phenomenon by offering pre-packaged meals that contain the necessary balance of calories, fat, protein, and other nutrients. These types of programs can make food choices a lot simpler for someone trying to lose weight, but are they worth it?

One popular diet system that offers such a program is NutriSystem D. This program is specially targeted at diabetics who are struggling to lose weight to improve their health and features a unique blend of nutrients that are low on the glycemic index scale. This program offers dieters a selection of pre-prepared meals that are non-perishable. Options include meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert and features items such as pizza, pasta, and chicken dishes. Although it is possible to eat three meals a day from this plan, this is, in reality, very expensive. Moreover, the meals are designed with the intention that dieters supplement with vegetables, fruit, and dairy products to ensure they receive the necessary nutrients.

Jenny Craig is another popular diet program that features frozen pre-packaged meals. These meals are approximately 60% carbohydrates, 20% protein and 20% fat. Like NutriSystem D, dieters have a wide range of meal options to choose from. In addition to the pre-packaged meals, Jenny Craig customers also have access to a 24-hour support line to help people handle to emotional stresses that may have also been contributing to their weight gain. However, Jenny Craig can be costly and participants in the program can expect to pay at least $100 a week for the meals.

Although prepackaged diets can take some of the work out of weight loss, they are not a perfect fix. The meals are often expensive, and many dieters do get tired of eating frozen food for every meal. Additionally, almost every program expects that participants will supplement their diet with healthy vegetable and fruits which still requires some effort on the part of the dieter.