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First Week’s Biggest Loser Loss = 3.5 Lbs

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It’s been one week since I started The Biggest Loser Diet. I’m a bit hungry, but 3.5 lbs lighter. As hungry as I was at times, I was hoping for a little more loss, but I’m satisfied!

Looking back over the week, it wasn’t hard to stick to the plan. As with any meals on a specific plan, there are winners and losers, but I was overall pleased with the food and adding a little sea salt or coarse pepper helped pep up several of the meals. The hardest part for me was making sure I stayed with safe and nutritious snacks. It would be great if The Biggest Loser plan sent along additional information on the best snacks that would work with meals supplied.

During the week, I stayed strictly on the diet, just adding one or two pieces of fruit, a green salad (with a tsp of light dressing) and eating a few almonds if I was really hungry. When we were off the the plan on the weekend I basically stayed low-cal when we went out to eat. Gotta love Applebee’s Weight Watchers menu! I had the Steak & Portobellos, then splurged with Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake for dessert — total calorie count was 550.

Breakfasts
As a rule, the breakfasts were not my favorite meal of the plans. I don’t care for the Honey Oat Waffles or the “cinammon roll”. I did like the Quaker Oats oatmeal that was enhanced with a special sweetener and blueberries (supplied by TBL).

Lunches
Lunch meals were usually the same size and close in calorie counts to the dinners, the exception was the Vegetable Soup that logged in at 140 calories, but it was also my favorite food of the week.

Lunch Menu

Calories

My Score

Chicken in Thai Curry 430 7
Chicken in Bourbon Sauce 265 7
Savory Vegetable Soup 140 9
Blackened Chicken Breast 265 8
Tilapia in a Hollandaise Sauce 355 7

Dinners
As shown in a previous blog post, the dinners and lunch foods all came in separate bags for the veggies and meats, that were combined after being cooked. This helped keep flavors separate and vegetables crisp and colorful. The dinners ranged from okay to pretty good, with the tasteless grilled turkey breast and squash puree at the bottom of my list. I felt generous giving it a four!

Dinner Menu

Calories

My Score

Chicken in Marsala Sauce 420 5
Beef Pot Roast 530 8
Bali Chicken 385 7
Herbed Cod Fillet 300 *
Grilled Turkey Breast 310 4

Cooking
I didn’t see much difference between boiling the bags of food or microwaving, although one time a boiled bag apparently had not been sealed properly and it made quite a mess. When cooking two meals, I’ll probably continue with boiling in a big pot, but when I’m making a single lunch meal — I’ll stick to the microwave.

Exercise
Along with dieting, I also did a few more sessions of exercise (power walking) than I normally do. Probably not as much as I should do, but that will increase this week if we don’t have too much severe weather.

Customer Service Problems Continue
My customer service problems apparently were not resolved. After being promised delivery WOULD NOT occur on the weekend, you guessed it. Boxes of food did not arrive until Saturday and although the foods were still frozen solid, the dry ice had all evaporated. If I quit using The Biggest Loser and switch to another meal plan, it will because the delivery day problem cannot be resolved.

I also had a friend who called about starting the plan, got cut off while actually setting up her order and had problems getting re-connected, so she decided to wait a few weeks before trying again. Certainly not a good thing.

Today it’s onto Week 2! I’ll keep you in the loop as to how it’s going.



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Two Minor Problems, Quickly Resolved

While waiting for the first Biggest Loser Meals shipment a few problems surfaced. Before ordering, I asked about combining the shipping to save $24.95, also since the delivery is perishable, I needed to know when food would be delivered. Our area is scheduled for Wednesday shipping/Friday delivery.

When the first shipment was sent out I received the credit card charges and shipping information via email. That’s when I found out the shipments weren’t combined and shipping didn’t occur until Thursday with a Saturday delivery. Although we don’t go out of town often, several weekend trips are on the schedule and no one would be available to take care of the perishable food. This is especially worrisome living in Oklahoma where the temperatures can soar over 100 degrees in the summer.

After a discussion with the customer service department the problems were resolved. Shipping will be combined and from now on orders will definitely be shipped on Wednesday for Saturday delivery.

Now it was a wait for the food.

Two big boxes arrived on Saturday and it was impressive how they were packed. Food was still hard-frozen, with dry ice in a styrofoam case. I can see why the shipping cost is $24.95. Also, now that I’ve seen how the boxes are packed, I’m not sure two weekly orders would actually fit into one box.

Also included in the box was the weekly menu, information on the way the food is cooked, cooking/serving instructions and a discount enticement for friends who want to try the program.


The box of food

It’s a LOT of food! Five days worth of meals for one person, lined up with breakfasts on the left, lunches in the middle and dinners on the right. Each meal is in a plastic pouch, inside that pouch are several pouches containing the different ingredients.

Next the most important thing, how does the food taste?

Does Barb have you sold? Read the Biggest Loser Meal Plan review or order the plan from Bistro MD now.



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Which Meal-Based Diet Plan to Try?

That’s the big question. The three plans, The Biggest Loser, Jenny Craig, and NutriSystem, all had pros and cons, as well as a fairly wide price range. Unfortunately, their web sites don’t always tell the whole story, so in each case I called the company directly to find out more.

biggest loser diet bistro md

The Biggest Loser Meal Plan

  • Price: $99. for five days, plus $24.95 shipping
  • Calorie Count: 1000 - 1400, low carb, low fat, high protein, diabetic friendly
  • Shipping: Weekly
  • Food: Frozen in a vacuum-sealed package
  • Meal Plans: Only one plan is available, menus are on a four-week rotation
  • Commitment: Food is delivered on a weekly basis and can be canceled at any time

Impressions:
The web site is not very informative, although when checking the Bistro MD web site, I found a lot more information available. The Biggest Loser Meal Plan is part of Bistro MD, but the meals/menus vary slightly. The weekly menu plans are shown on the web site, but I never found the nutritional values.

It was also difficult to get through to a customer service representative to ask questions, I’m assuming that’s because the newness of this plan and the finale of the television show has overwhelmed their system a bit. One of my questions was on the shipping, I asked if shipping can be combined since there are two of us taking part. I was told yes, so that will take the cost down a bit.

jenny craig

Jenny Craig

  • Price: $14. - $19. a day, depending on the food picked, plus membership fees
  • Calorie Count: Depends on the foods picked. Meal plan is approved by the Diabetic Association
  • Food: Combination of frozen and non-frozen foods, approximately a 70 to 30% ratio.
  • Meal Plans: Apparently there are different menus and choices to pick from, I wasn’t too clear on how one decides on a menu.
  • Commitment: After the initial special offer of ten weeks for $20., a year’s membership is purchased for $359., you can go off and on the diet during this time.

Impressions:
If a community will help you lose weight and stay on track, Jenny Craig appears to have that covered. Their web site has forums, buddies, blogs and recipes. Once on the plan, a dieter is assigned a consultant to check in with weekly on the phone or the web. The photos and nutritional counts of the various meals looks great. In fact, I got a little hungry just checking out the web site.

When calling it’s a bit of a hard sell, but I still couldn’t get the bottom line on costs. I was told several times that the year membership fee includes discounts on the food and will wind up paying for itself.

nutrisystem

NutriSystem

  • Price: From $263. to $342. a month depending on the how many months and discounts are available.
  • Calorie Count: The various menus have different calorie counts
  • Shipping: Every 28 days
  • Food: Vacuum sealed, shelf-stable
  • Meal Plans: This diet plan had numerous options to choose from, men/women/senior/diabetic/vegetarian
  • Commitment: No contract, but food is shipped in monthly quantities

Impressions:
NutriSystem appears to be the most affordable, and had numerous plans for different diet needs. Their web site has basic information, including the menu foods (along with photos and nutritional counts) success stories, etc. It appears the real substance of the web site is in the members-only section with online classes, chat rooms and counseling. Membership is free, but I choose not to join.

There are substantial discounts on the meal plans and shipping if more than one member in the family takes part.

The Bottom Line:
Even though the price is highest and I don’t care for the one-size-fits-all approach, I decided to try out The Biggest Loser Meal Plan. I like the idea that it’s a five day plan and we won’t mess-up the plan when we go out on the weekend. I also liked the frozen food approach instead of shelf-stable foods. When reading various comments and reviews of the Bistro MD plan (same company), the overwhelming consensus was the food was great. Obviously, if the food doesn’t taste good, the diet’s not going to work for us. It was also a plus that ordering for two, helped the final price come down a bit with the combined shipping.

Right now we’re waiting for the first shipment, as well as a return call from customer service on a billing problem.

I’ll let you know how that goes in a few days.

Follow along with Barb as she shops for meal delivery diets and begins using Biggest Loser Meal Plan.



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Those pesky 10 pounds. . . .

Three years ago this month I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. I was a prime candidate — overweight, diabetes runs in my family (my mother died of complications) and as far as I’m concerned, exercise is two four-letter words. After all the tests I went through to get to the final diabetes diagnosis, it was actually a relief to hear that it was a disease that could be managed with lifestyle changes. And yes, my lifestyle has changed.

I lost over 30 lbs, exercise by walking three - four times a week and have drastically changed my eating habits.

But over the last year a few of those pounds started creeping back on, not bad, but enough to make me decide it’s time to kick it up a level. So when earlier this month my blood work tests all came back with a “great” from the doctor, I decided to get to work on those five pounds, plus a few more that should come off, before this weight creep starts affecting my blood sugar levels.

Knowing our life style, a meal based diet appears to be the best choice. Now to figure out what one would work best for us. My husband decided he could lose a few pounds too, so we’ll be tackling the weight loss together! The three diet plan finalists were Jenny Craig, NutriSystem and The Biggest Loser. All three plans had pros and cons, it took some time and a few phone calls to figure out the best balance.

Stay tuned for what I picked and how I came to my decision!