I get a lot of emails asking about the specifics of Nutrisystem. People want to know how it works, if it works, whether the food tastes good or not, how hungry you will be on it, how quickly the weight comes off, and if the diet is worth the money. In the following article, I'll offer an overview of the Nutrisystem diet plan in an attempt to answer these questions.

How (And If) Nutrisystem Works: There are several things which I think make this diet work. They are: convenience, variety, education, and hunger control. What I mean by this is that there is not a lot of work for you to do on this diet. You don't have to count calories or figure anything out. Basically, you eat the foods that they send you and you add in a healthy side item like a piece of fruit or a carton of yogurt with each meal.

The food on this diet is also pretty good. There are not many diets where you can chose cookies, candy bars, cereals and pizza. This company is really committed to developing comfort type foods that are healthy and safe for you to eat when you are trying to lose weight. There are over 120 food choices and they have just come out with their "select" line which includes gourmet frozen foods. In terms of taste and variety, the food on Nutrisystem, at least in my opinion, ranks quite highly.

They also offer you a lot of education about weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. Counseling and coaching is available for free. All you need to do to take advantage of this is to make a food purchase. They really do a good job of offering the information and support that you need to succeed.

This company has been around for over 35 years and the diet was developed by weight loss specialists. You eat five times per day with this plan. There is actually a claim on the company's website which said that 4 out of 5 dieters surveyed indicated that they were "never hungry" on Nutrisystem. I can't make that claim because for me there was an adjustment period, but I do have to say that after a few days, I was fine and am quite used to the portion sizes and the frequent eating now.

The company claims that most people lose 2 pounds per week and up on this plan. I'm not sure about others, but I find this to be a pretty conservative estimate. I think it really all depends upon the carb content of the sides that you are adding in, since the foods provided by the company are a variable that doesn't change.

Also, the foods are high in proteins and fiber. This is done to make you feel full for much longer. And, this combination helps to put your body in ketosis, which is a metabolic state wherein your body burns fat instead of carbohydrates due to the higher amounts of protein that you are taking in. (This is why I think that your results depend in part on the carbohydrate content of the sides that you are adding.)

The Reasonable Cost Of Nutrisystem: For the last several years, Forbes magazine has ranked Nutrisystem as the lowest price popular diet program. Most of the plans on this diet run around $300 or so dollars per month before coupons. This works out to under $3 per meal. Also, they now have the new flex plan (where you take two days off per week) that only runs a little over $200 per month, which brings the cost way down, even though admittedly you are getting less food for your money.

Still, this is even before coupons and once you use them you will often find that you can pay less than you would pay if you were attempting to diet and buy groceries.