JC - Jenny Craig? or Just Crazy...

Here recently I met someone who has been struggling with their weight for years. She's tried everything: from weight watchers, to the south beach diet. None of these methods made her see results... that is, until she joined Jenny Craig. This boggled me so I decided to do a little research or what Jenny Craig offered and see how, if at all, it is different from any other "diet". I went to http://jennycraig.com/. The biggest thing for me in any health plan is safety. It is NOT safe to drop 10 pounds in a week! Good and effective weight loss, to me, is about 2 pounds a week. I feel that any more than that could do more harm than good to your body. On Jenny Craig's website they say the following: "At Jenny Craig, we put your personal well-being first. That's why the Jenny Craig Medical Advisory Board has been guiding the ongoing development of our program since 1989. Their invaluable expertise on nutrition and exercise ensures that our Food, Body and Mind approach takes your health as seriously as your satisfaction." Another thing I noticed was that Jenny Craig answers a lot of important myth questions. For example, many people try and eat as little fat as they can, thinking that it will improve the body's function and help lose weight. But in reality, Jenny Craig says, "Fat serves many important functions, such as storing energy, transporting certain vitamins and providing flavor and texture to foods. When it comes to weight loss, calories are the bottom line." Another myth is that people seem to think that you can turn fat into muscle. However, "fat and muscle are distinct tissues. The only way to positively change your body composition is to lose fat by burning calories and gain muscle by engaging in resistance activity." My big thing about all this is that people weigh too heavily on weight loss weight loss weight loss! Sometimes your mind, just like your body, needs a break after exercising it for so long. In a recent clinical trial, Jenny Craig participants lost over 5 times as much weight as those who dieted on their own.* (*Rock CL, et al. Obesity. 2007; 15: 939-949.) Jenny Craig? or Just Crazy? You decide.