Besides exercise, the main basis behind any diet is reducing your caloric intake. In effect, you need to use more calories than you consume in order to lose weight. Any quality diet program out there will advocate this.
Both Weight Watchers and NutriSystem have their own ways of reducing your caloric intake. These diets are, though, alike in wanting you to reduce your portion sizes but there are major differences.
Take Weight Watchers Online for example, they advocate using their new PointsPlus system. This is where you use a specific amount of points – based on age, sex, activity level, etc. – and create your own meals. Their online tools also allow you to enter a meat and veggie and varying recipes will be displayed for those foods. They heavily rely on prompting you to eat healthy protein and fiber-rich foods to stave off hunger. These types of foods will have lower “point values” and, therefore, you’ll be able to eat more of them.
The new Weight Watchers system also allows for unlimited quantities of non-starchy fresh fruits and vegetables. These have a zeropoint value. Their strategy behind this is to encourage more consumption of these highly nutritious foods that are very filling and are a mong the lowest in calories. The foundation behind their new PointsPlus program, though, still remains the same as in the past. These include comprehensive support, behavior modification, exercise, and healthy, slow weight loss.
NutriSystem, on the other hand, relies heavily on pre-packaged foods that they send to you every month. On this plan, you don’t have to worry about hunting for specific foods, counting calories or even measuring portions because they’ve done this for you.
The monthly allotment of foods that you receive are not only low in calories but are designed specifically to help your body burn fat faster. How good are these meals, though? NutriSystem reviews on this subject are mixed but they have new offerings that are being reviewed as better tasting than they were before. Previously, the biggest complaint was that the shelf-stable meals they sent were just too salty. With their new chef-inspired menu, though, there’s a lot more variety offered in addition to their shelf-stable meals.
NutriSystem has two menu types to choose from, these are the Select Menu and their Regular Menu. You are only allowed to get about a week’s worth of the Select items with your monthly supply of food. This Select menu addition is a little bit more expensive than just their Regular Menu.
One of the most important things in a diet is the food. What you consume is extremely important because what you are looking for is using more calories than you eat. Therefore, you need foods that will fit the bill and taste good as well.