We tried one of the most popular diet plans to see what the food is really like - and what we found was shocking
Nutrisystem is a diet plan that provides customers with pre-packaged food by the day or by the week. It costs $9.64 per day, or $269.99 for a 4-week plan. We got one week's worth of food — 28 items — to see how it works.
Dietitians at Nutrisystem designed the program to contain small portions, balanced nutrition, and frequent meals. The program encourages customers to eat every 2-3 hours. We discovered that the portions are shockingly tiny.
We began by tasting a few of the breakfast items — all of which needed to be microwaved for preparation. Here are the items we tried:
Turkey, ham, and cheese omelet:
Microwaving an omelet is dubious at best. After taking the first bite, we only taste salt. Nutrisystem claims that the sodium content of its items are below the USDA's recommended daily serving.
Turkey sausage and egg muffin:
This is definitely no Egg McMuffin. It's bland, and the taste of the whole grain English muffin overwhelms the meal, leaving a bad aftertaste.
Thick-sliced French toast:
Honestly, we can only describe this item as soggy bread. Not even maple syrup can save it — which is not on the recommended grocery guide.
Cinnamon roll:
Not bad, not exactly Cinnabon. It's a cinnamon roll, how complicated can it get?
Now onto lunch.
Meatball parmesan melt:
Nutrisystem's take on the meatball sub is average at best, especially considering it was heated up in a microwave. It could be worse ...
Hamburger:
A measly bun with a patty that fits in the palm of your hand. No cheese, no onions, no condiments — although veggie add-ons are technically allowed. Microwaved for one minute and ready to disappoint.
Broccoli and cheese melt:
The packaging says this contains one serving of broccoli, but we could only taste extremely salty cheese and a faint bitterness. A paltry amount of broccoli and a heaping amount of salt.
Pepperoni pizza melt:
This was by far the best meal we tried. Probably because it's comparable to a Hot Pocket — but it's also flavorful. The whole wheat wrap isn't overpowering thanks to the herb seasoning.
The dinner options have more variety. No more melts, but pizzas, pastas and meat:
Broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken:
Not exactly Le Cordon Bleu. The chicken is juicy, but bland. And unlike the broccoli and cheese melt, this has way more broccoli and less cheese.
Chicken parmesan:
If you could take a McDonald's Chicken McNugget and put watery marinara sauce on it and surround it with spaghetti — this is it.
Ravioli formaggio:
With only four raviolis, you know you're on a diet. Yet with 600 mg of sodium, it's questionable how nutritious this diet plan is. Albeit, the sauce isn't bad.
Chicken, bacon, and ranch pizza:
Microwaving a pizza doesn't exactly give the best results. Since it is frozen then reheated, the whole wheat crust hardens, resembling cardboard. There is also an insufficient amount of bacon on it. More bacon please!
Snack time. Or dessert? Most of the items provided in the week's worth of food were dessert items:
Orange creme bar:
Very sweet and very messy.
Chocolate cupcake:
We had high hopes for this one, but it is a flop. The chocolate has an awkward bitter taste that doesn't suit a cupcake well.
Red velvet whoopie pie:
This looks nothing like its advertisement. The cake has a gelatinous texture and the cream tastes artificial ... even though it claims not to have artificial preservatives.
Chocolate brownie sundae:
Luckily this just tastes like good, cheap ice cream. This would be hard to botch.
While Nutrisystem is convenient by mailing pre-prepared items, it's important to note that people who are allergic to soy, wheat, peanuts, and lactose won't be able to participate.
Realistically, the Nutrisystem program can be done...
...but the tiny portions and lack of flavor might be unsatisfying for customers. Most of the foods are salty and it would be discouraging to eat microwavable food for almost every meal of the day for four weeks.
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