Anyone here have experience or info on using the services of those commercial weight loss services, such as 1-800-weightloss, or various others (several advertise heavily around here, esp on sports radio)?
Don't know them specifically, but I have family members who have ordered the meal service type diets (Fresh n Lean, etc). They work pretty well, and save the stress of counting calories etc. They're not cheap though.
Save your money and see a registered dietitian or registered dietitian nutritionist with experience in weight management and any other conditions you might have.
Weight Watchers works.
That is the top line sentence. However, after COVID I m not sure that they still do the meetings that worked so well, once you found a group that clicked with you. With that important remark, I will say that I stopped during COVID and have not been back to the online sort of set up.
My employer had a program that was part of our health plan that was called Simply Slim. It worked too. I think that the name has been changed though.
My Bride was not a good cook. We subscribed to Blue Apron. It is not a diet program! However, the meals have portion controlled and very healthy. We have lost weight, and not felt hungry. It has several meal plans, but only really cover dinner (the main meal) of the day.
I once tried Nutrasystem (I think that was it). I tried it more as a budget item rather than a diet plan. I was very disappointed. THe portions are not all that large, and worse, the meals still required that you go to the grocery store to buy things that are not included in the plan. (compered to Blue Apron that deliveres everything you need! If the recipe requires an egg, then the egg is in the box!)
Good luck!
I love WW. It's a great community. It's easy to follow and I have literally never set foot in a meeting despite having been a member for 20 years.
If you decide to sign up, pm me and I'll send you my screen name to follow me.
Weight Watchers works well for me. What I like is that they don't really have any forbidden foods, and they deal with cravings pretty well. (If you crave chocolate, for example, then figure in a small piece each day to satisfy that craving.) If you have a bad day, you just get right back on the program the next day. I like the flexibility that WW offers, too.
My husband has done NutriSystem a couple of times. It works wonders for him—the weight comes off fast—but the food is not terribly good (in my opinion—he's fine with it, though), and as clean mentioned, the portions are quite small. But he doesn't like counting points, so having something pre-packaged appeals to him.
I will add to the chorus who have used weight watchers successfully many years ago. I found the community of the weekly meetings helpful when I did it- but I found a group that was lead by a PhD candidate in Nutrition. So that group was just right for my science oriented brain. I know they have an app, and online version as well now. I can imagine the app being hugely helpful in determining the points value of a given food item. I participated before all that was available.
I also have a good friend who was very successful using Noom. Her statement was it's all about logging what you eat (so like WW that way). She did not find the psychology aspect very informative, but YMMV.
Thanks for all the input. Let me clarify... I am not interested in info wrt Weight Watchers or similar groups that sell foods, and base their weight-loss tactics on portion controls, specific foodstuffs, etc. I am concerned to know about groups like Awaken 180 Weight Loss, and similar groups, all pretty recent developments relative to things like Weight Watchers, who do not sell food (directly or through directed third-party vendors), but seem to have coaching/ psychology based approaches to weight loss. these firms are heavily advertising in my area, esp on sports radio stations (and overwhelmingly advertising to men), but the ads themselves are extremely cagey wrt exactly how their programs are supposed to work.
From discussions online, it looks like Awaken180 do sell food, or at least liquid meal replacements. Their website is very cagey about prices, but Reddit users suggest $1000+ per month.