Home Delivered Food Programs May Shrink Your Belly and Your Wallet
Save Dollars and Flavor with Your Own Diet Plan
The basic part of these popular diet programs is portion control. Diet programs sell packaged entrees, snacks and desserts. The members supplement these foods with store-bought fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy products. Most home delivery programs boast about taste and nutrition. The diet programs offer websites to track your progress and get diet and exercise tips and some offer advice from trained consultants and comments from other dieters.
Most diet programs require you to pay a program fee in addition to the cost of foods delivered. Some offer only delivered products and others have a walk-in center which allows you to purchase on the spot. Most have online and phone support at no additional cost.
Expect to pay up to $300 for four weeks on most programs, plus the amount spent on fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy products. Some companies offer only foods that do not require refrigeration or a freezer and others offer a mixture of frozen and shelf-stable foods.
Taste tests show that the frozen variety foods offer better taste than the shelf-stable foods with entrees tasting from fair to good and desserts and snacks unimpressive.
If you are having difficulty with meal planning, portion control or have limited time to prepare meals one of these programs may appeal to you. If you prefer more choices in your diet plan I recommend using your own version of prepared meals. Your local supermarket offers multiple choices of brands and a wide variety of frozen entrees and desserts. Most are delicious and nutritious. The package has the nutrition and calorie amounts on the label allowing you to select daily entrees and all you need to do is supplement with frozen entrees and add fresh fruit and vegetables to your taste.
Check online for a height/weight chart of food pyramid to help you select the number of calories or portions needed to achieve a healthy weight loss.
By preparing your own diet menu's you will have a larger variety of foods to choose from and you will save the cost of program fees.
Source: Consumer Reports, February 2011
Published by Judy Kaelin
Retired with fifteen years experience in the Administrative Offices of a school district. She is interested in writing articles based on personal experience and research of health issues. She has an intere... View profile
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- Most diet programs require you to pay a program fee in addition to the cost of foods delivered.