NutriSystem – Not for Everybody, but Great for Most

If you’ve watched TV for any amount of time, you probably know that a lot of athletes love NutriSystem. From Dan Marino to John Kruk to Don Shula, retired athletes are lining up to promote NutriSystem to get rid of that permanent post-season weight they’ve put on over the past few years. Is Nutri-System really the solution to weight loss that grown men have been looking for?

Well, let’s break it down. What is NutriSystem? It’s a pre-packaged diet plan designed to help you lose weight by providing you with the meals you’ll eat for however long you’re on the program. Food comes delivered to your door, and your daily diet will consist of 3 meals plus snacks.

NutriSystem will average out to about $10 bucks a day, so that’s probably cheaper than what you’re paying now for food.

Why does NutriSystem work?

There are two underlying philosophies behind NutriSystem that allows it to work well for most people. Portion control and the glycemic index.

Portion Control – Regular-Size Me

Everybody knows Americans are fat. The rest of the world is getting fatter right along with us. Everything from viruses to genetics to financial income has been blamed. Truth is that there are a lot of things to blame. But in my humble opinion, portion control is one of the main causes of obesity.

Portions are out of control everywhere we go. Your average “Value Meal” at any fast food joint will run 500-1,000 calories. With the recommended daily value of calories being 2,000 for the average person, you can see why we’re on the brink of 3 out of 4 Americans being overweight.

The NutriSystem diet plan gives you controlled portions. All you have to do is add yogurts, salads, cheeses, or other low GI carbs, depending on the meal of the day. Even by adding your own food, your portions should remain controlled, yet sufficient.

By training you for even a month of portion controlled eating, you should pick up of the habit of staying in control of your diet. And that’s a fundamental fact of eating healthy, no matter what your diet consists of.

Glycemic index – Good Carbs and Bad Carbs

The Glycemic Index measures the quality of the carbohydrates you eat and their impact on your blood sugar levels. Foods low on the GI scale break down into insulin slowly and keep your blood sugar relatively level. Avoiding high GI foods, like simple sugars (candy, anything with a lot of high-fructose corn syrup), will keep you from experiencing routine insulin spikes.

Now if you’re a moderately educated athlete, you know the occasional insulin spike is good for you. If its right when you wake up, or right after a workout, then a properly timed insulin spike will bring glucose to your muscle cells and allow for greater uptake of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

The problem comes in when you have insulin spikes many times throughout the day by eating simple carbs and sugars. More fat is stored when it shouldn’t be, and some studies show that you can feel hungry even though you’ve just ate.

The NutriSystem plan gets rid of those unintentional insulin spikes by providing you with “good carbs,” or foods low on the GI scale. Some of you will ask, “but I thought carbs were bad for you?” Well, if you’ve ever been on the Atkins diet, you know that you need carbohydrates to function properly. NutriSystem has simply figured out which foods to provide you by basing them their glycemic index load. While it’s far from perfect, it’s better than 98% of diets you’ll read about.

Why try NutriSystem now?

NutriSystem isn’t a permanent diet plan. It just wouldn’t be practical to eat NutriSystem food for an extended period of time (like a year.) But if used as a tool to get you to “jump-start” getting into shape, there probably isn’t anything better out there for you.

Many people have reported success with NutriSystem, and that’s good because it’s not a diet that requires you to make any major sacrifices. It’s also great for those busy folks who just don’t have time to cook.

Right now, NutriSystem is running a pretty good deal by giving away 2 weeks of food free with your order. That should be enough reason to at least give it a try if you’re looking for a sure-fire way stick with a diet.

Have you tried Nutri-System? We’d like to hear you comments. Drop us a line below:

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Diet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.