Overview

The Jenny Craig program was designed with help from a medical advisory panel and a team of registered dietitians. The goals of this program are to help clients develop a healthy relationship with food, live active lifestyles, and find balance in their life. On this diet you start by eating mostly Jenny Craig cuisine, supplemented with some healthful foods of your own, but the end goal is to have you plan and prepare your own meals.

How Is This Diet Supposed to Work?

The Jenny Craig diet helps you lose weight by limiting your calorie intake, as well as increasing physical activity and maintaining motivation. When you are eating mainly prepackaged Jenny Craig foods, you don’t have to worry about portion sizes and your calorie intake is controlled. But once you start switching to “regular” food, you will need to know how to control your calorie intake on your own.

What’s Involved?

The Jenny Craig program begins with a 28-day diet plan that consists of eating mainly prepackaged Jenny Craig meals that are supplemented with your fresh groceries consisting of: fruit, vegetables, whole grains, heart-healthy fats, and nonfat dairy products. Daily meal plans, starting at around 1,200 calories, include three meals plus one snack and an evening dessert. After a certain point on this program, you begin to prepare some of your own meals, using recipes provided by Jenny Craig.

The program also includes a weekly in-person or over-the-phone counseling session. This is to provide you with support to stay on the plan and educate you about healthy weight habits, such as practicing portion control and getting regular exercise, as well as to help you maintain your mindset on losing weight.

What Does the Research Say?

While there are no studies looking specifically at the Jenny Craig program, the diet itself is based on sound nutrition. Meal plans are designed by registered dietitians and adhere to the US Department of Agriculture's nutrition guidelines.

Are There Any Concerns With This Diet?

The cost of food on this program is expensive if you also have a family to feed. But if you are just buying for yourself, then it may make sense when you factor in how much you would normally spend on groceries or eating out.

Another concern is that Jenny Craig’s weight loss consultants don’t have formal training in nutrition or behavior modification. Therefore, although they claim to be experts, they may not have a lot of knowledge in these areas.

But the main concern with this program is that the diet, which consists mostly of prepackaged meals, quickly gets boring and can be hard to stick with. And while one of the goals of the program is to get clients to prepare their own healthful food, part of the appeal of the program in the first place is that you don’t have to do this. Thus, many people see Jenny Craig as an easy way to lose weight and approach it with laziness, but do not really think about the long-term maintenance of this weight loss. To their credit, the program has added motivational tips and personalized counseling for this very reason.

Bottom Line

Overall, Jenny Craig is a healthful weight loss program that may be right for you if you don’t mind living on prepackaged food for a while. This program is especially good if you tend to do better with the motivation and guidance of a counselor—versus being self-motivated enough to follow a plan on your own. The success of this diet in the long run depends on how well you transition to planning and preparing your own healthful food, and how well you maintain your newly developed habits such engaging in regular exercise.