Jenny Craig Weight Loss Plan

By: Susan Brady
Published: Thursday, 23 July 2009

You’ve seen all the celebrities touting the Jenny Craig Weight Loss Plan: Kirstie Alley, Valerie Bertinelli, Queen Latifah, even basketball star Baron Davis. What is the appeal of this program that attracts heavy hitters to espouse its virtues? Jenny Craig is both a diet and lifestyle program, intent on changing the way you eat, exercise, and live your life. The goal is to change the way you think and act, keeping in mind your overall body health.

The Jenny Craig Weight Loss Plan started out in Australia in 1983 and is now available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Guam. Currently owned by Nestle Corporation and based out of Carlsbad, California, the program is centered on three key components: Food, Body and Mind. The program teaches portion control and healthy eating, promotes physical activity personalized to each individual, and provides consultants to keep you motivated and to make key changes that will serve you for the rest of your life.

How does Jenny Craig work? This program takes an individual approach to weight loss, and is dependent on a one-on-one interaction with a Jenny Craig consultant, either in person or over the phone. After evaluating your needs, a personalized plan is presented, along with meal choices. Jenny Craig provides the food you need to lose the weight, along with supplemental items from the grocery store. Exercise suggestions are tailored to your lifestyle, current weight, and interests and weekly check-ins with your consultant help to keep you on track. This continues until you have reached your goal weight, at which time you should have made the necessary changes to your diet and life to maintain that goal. The Jenny Craig program does provide maintenance support and access to online support tools, so you are not left to your own devices, should you have any difficulties.

Probably the biggest expense and complaint amongst followers is the purchase of prepared foods offered by Jenny Craig. There are 17 breakfast choices, 21 lunch choices, 28 dinner choices, and 25 desserts and snacks. The cost is upwards of $100 per week plus grocery items like produce. While the food certainly looks tasty, you are paying for portion control, calorie control and the simple convenience of not having to cook. It can be a godsend to those with busy, crazy, hectic lives or who hate to plan, shop and cook meals.

As to whether the program works, in a 2007 clinical trial, supported by Jenny Craig, the Jenny Craig participants lost over five times as much weight as those who dieted on their own. (Rock CL, et al. Obesity. 2007; 15: 939-949.) This appears to be the only research touted on the Jenny Craig website as to the efficacy of the program, although there are numerous success stories published on the site.
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