The Price of Losing 30 Pounds

Just because you want to lose weight, doesn’t mean your budget has to go along for the ride. More and more studies suggest Americans are continuing to get heavier, while our obsession with losing weight continues to feed a $30 billion industry. The tried-and-true diet and exercise approach proves to continually be the most effective for weight loss, but millions still seek the support and expertise that comes with a paid diet program. MSN took a look at Weight Watchers, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig and Zone Delivery and broke out the price you’ll pay to lose 30 pounds on each.

Weight Watchers

Registration $15-$20; Weekly Meetings $10-$15; Online $46.90 first month and $16.95 thereafter
Average loss of 1-2 pounds/week
20 weeks to lose 30 pounds
Investment: Meetings $214.80 to $299.80; Online $97.75

NutriSystem

$299.95/month with monthly auto-delivery
Average loss of 2 pounds/week
4 months to lose 30 pounds
Investment: $1,199.80

Jenny Craig

$399 or $359 upfront cost with 12-month Jenny Rewards plan
Average loss of 1-2 pounds/week
Investment: $399 or $359 (does not include cost of food, about $84 to $126/month)

The Zone Diet Meal Delivery

$44.99/day (+ shipping)
Average loss of 8-10 pounds/month
3-4 months to lose 30 pounds
Investment: $3,869 to $5,159

January 29th, 2009
by Brandi
Tags: budget, diets, Jenny craig, Nutrisystem, Weight watchers, zone delivery diet
Posted in Product Reviews 6 Comments »

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jim

Not including the cost of food for each plan in the "investment" statement results in this report being a mish-mash that cannot be meaningfully compared to each other. So this is basically worthless as a tool that was intended to report the cost of losing 30 pounds . posted Aug 17th, 2009 2:58 am

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6 Responses to “The Price of Losing 30 Pounds”

Sheri
Jan 29th, 2009
10:25 am

Wow! It is costly to do these groups isn’t it! I’ve been determined to do this weight loss journey on my own, without those groups. After all, I can’t afford those groups and the food too. BTW, one question. When I checked with Jenny Craig last year, the cost was about $85 per week, but you have per month for a similar amount. Is that right?

Mike
Jan 29th, 2009
12:54 pm

I lost more than 30lbs and it didn’t cost a thing. I started eating properly(actually saved money with less fast food) and started walking outside. In four months I have lost 32lbs and feel great.

rosie
Jan 29th, 2009
3:53 pm

I used Proactol to give me a helping hand to lose weight and it worked and the weight has stayed off. During my time taking Proactol I made a few changes to my diet and started to exercise.

chavy
Feb 4th, 2009
4:55 pm

you guys are doing lovely job i’m trying to get motivated like you guys:great job.

Ben
Feb 5th, 2009
10:15 am

The “price you’ll pay” comparison is a joke. How can you possibly compare the subscription costs of one plan to the subscription and full meal replacement costs of another plan? If you want a serious comparison, you need to create average meals on each of the diet group plans (WW / JC) and incorporate those costs into the monthly estimate. I know from experience that to create meals on WW it will cost hundreds per month for food alone. The comparison is useless without a serious analysis.

mary
Mar 20th, 2009
4:39 pm

Thanks for putting it all together making it easy to compare programs.