Author Archives: Barb

The Conclusion of my Biggest Loser Meal Plan Experience

The Biggest Loser Meal Plan, from Bistro MD, was a good choice for us. We followed it for five weeks and I lost almost ten pounds and have kept it off in the three months since ending the plan. My husband didn’t do quite as well, but he didn’t follow it all three meals a day like I did.

Overall the food was pretty tasty, of course, there were  exceptions – most notably the waffles and the turkey dinners — I’m a tough critic, but would give the food  9 out of 10 stars. It’s good enough that you won’t feel like you’re on a diet or eating diet foods.

Preparation was as easy as touted – boil or microwave the meals, add a salad and we were all set.  We’re an older couple with late and sporadic work hours, so whenever we were ready — the meals would be ready in just a few minutes.

In spite of what I consider the high cost ($250) a week for both of us for the five day plan, including shipping, we were interested in staying with the program for another month or two. The deciding factor was the delivery day — since we had to stay with a Saturday delivery throughout the summer, we stopped the program.

Since we’ve finished with the plan, I’ve thought about calling and ordering a few more weeks worth of meals just to have in the freezer for those times when we don’t have the time or inclination to cook.  If you’re looking for an easy and quick meal plan program, try The Biggest Loser Meal Plan from Bistro MD.

You can see Barb’s entire journey, start to finish, with her Biggest Loser Meal Plan review right here.

Posted on October 8, 2023 by Barb

The Biggest Loser Meal Plan — Still Slowly Losing!

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve blogged about The Biggest Loser Meal plan — but I do have great excuses! Okay, I won’t bore you with my sad tales, except to say that I’ve more or less stayed with the plan since I last wrote. If we’re at home, we eat The Biggest Loser Meal Plan foods, if eating out I stick to small, sensible meals. I’m down another 2.5 lbs, so that makes six pounds in about a month. Less than I thought I would lose, but still six pounds lighter than I was in April.

The meals rotate on a four week schedule, so we’ve had a taste of everything. Some weeks were better than others, with all weeks very heavy on chicken. Out of ten lunch/dinners 5 – 6 were chicken.

Cooking the Meals
How hard can it be? Boil for 9- 12 minutes is the recommended method, but microwaving is also given as an option. Unfortunately, some of the foods can be a bit tricky to get just right. I’ve yet to have a good turkey dinner, the meat always turns out tough or dry. Surprisingly, cooking a steak in a plastic bag was delicious. My best results were cooking the meat portion of the meal in the microwave for 4 to 5 minutes, then separately cooking the vegetables for approximately 3 minutes, a bit of trial and error.

Winners and Losers
The majority of the meals continued to be both tasty and filling, but there were some real winners and a few clear losers. The past two weeks shaped up like this:

Winners

  • Apple Berry Nut Muffin (80 calories) — The muffins looked like small, hard rocks, but were delicious.
  • Omelet w/Veggie Sausage Patties (260 calories)
  • Blackened Chicken Breast (265 calories)
  • Sirloin Steak in a Sweet Paprika Sauce (406 calories)
  • Lasagna Rollatini (390 calories)
  • Chicken Marsala (420 calories)

Losers

  • Strawberry Danish (110 calories) — It was like eating air!
  • Turkey (310 calories) — Several different turkey meals, didn’t like any of them.
  • Tequila Shrimp (450 calories) — Winner of the Worst Meal Award!

Customer Service
The delivery problems were never resolved and apparently delivery dates cannot be changed even if you whine and beg. The food continued to arrive on Saturdays and since there will be times during the next month that I might not be around on the weekend, as per my last blog, I’ve canceled the plan. There are about ten days of meals in the freezer and after those are finished, a decision will be made on whether I’ll start the plan up again.

Bottom Line
The foods are delicious, much better than I thought a diet meal plan would taste. Sure there were a few losers, but only a few.

The plan seems to be geared towards the person who already “knows” about dieting. There is certainly no hand-holding — a good thing as far as I’m concerned. But I what I would like to see are suggestions on additional snacks/beverages that complement the plan. Orange juice in the morning? Fruit as a mid-morning snack? A green salad with dinner? Several sheets of instructions, descriptions and menus are included with delivery, one sheet with snack/meal suggestions would be a welcome addition.

Stay tuned for the next report after five weeks on The Biggest Loser Meal Plan.

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Barb

First Week’s Biggest Loser Loss = 3.5 Lbs

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.

Posted on May 6, 2023 by Barb

Finally Starting on the Biggest Loser Meals!

It seems like I’ve written a lot of posts before we’ve eaten a single meal, finally we started the plan on Monday morning! It looks like a week heavy on chicken — six out of ten meals.

It’s only two full days on the program, but so far so good. The food doesn’t taste like homemade, but it’s still tasty. I’m a little hungry, but not starving. And for me the best part is not thinking about the food.

When I’ve been on diets that I’ve had to prepare and shop for the foods, I found I “thought” about it all day long. Then by the time I shopped and cooked it, I would think about it even more and get hungry. My portion sizes would vary and soon the “deck of cards” size meat portion would be the size of “two decks of cards”. With this meal plan I love that everything is prepared, in portion-control sizes and all I have to do is make a salad, heat and eat!

The company suggests heating the food pouches in boiling water, but a microwave can also be used. I didn’t see much difference in the taste of the food, but it’s easier to boil the pouches. Since I’m doing two meals at once, I haven’t quite figured out how much longer they need to be cooked. That will come with time.

The main meals of lunch and dinner have consisted of three pouches that are heated and then combined together.



Lunch pouches before cooking

Tip: Be sure to drain the juices out of the veggie pouches and some of the juices out of the meat, otherwise it can turn into a soggy mess.

MONDAY
Breakfast:
Breakfast was called a Chocolate Doughnut, not really how I would describe it, more like a chocolate pastry. Actually I’m not used to eating something this sweet for breakfast, so that took some getting used to and the portion was a bit small (especially compared to other meals). I think it could almost satisfy my chocolate cravings!

  • Calorie Count: 90
  • My personal score would be a 6 out of 10.

Lunch:

My first lunch was Chicken in a Thai curry sauce over white rice w/vegetables. I thought this was pretty good. It was both filling and tasty, can’t get much better than that.

  • Calorie Count: 430
  • Personal score 7 out of 10.



Chicken in Thai Curry Sauce

Dinner:

Dinner was a Chicken breast in Marsala sauce over low carb pasta. Since pasta is one of my downfalls, I was very happy to have it for the first day’s dinner. After having two fairly tasty meals, this was the first disappointment. The meal was filling, but the chicken was a little dry and tough.

  • Calorie count: 420
  • Personal score 5 out of 10


Chicken in Marsala Sauce

Snacks:
One thing that would be a nice to have is a list of snacks or extras that would be a good addition to the day’s plan. On Monday I also ate an apple, 1/2 tangerine, a green salad with diet dressing and a small handful of almonds. The meals were certainly less than I would normally eat, but were satisfying. I was a little hungry, but it was manageable.

TUESDAY

Breakfast:
A Blueberry Protein Waffle didn’t look very appetizing when it came out of the package, but the addition of the sugar-free syrup helped make it yummy.

  • Calorie Count: 185
  • Personal score 7 out of 10

Lunch:
Chicken in a Bourbon Sauce with mixed vegetables and broccoli was another filling lunch that was tasty. Although this is the third chicken meal in a row, two of them were pretty good with nice sized chunks of tender meat that were identifiable (as opposed to some of the frozen meals tried in the past).

  • Calorie Count: 265
  • Personal Score: 7 out of 10

Dinner:
Finally no chicken! This meal was a Beef Pot Roast with asparagus and mixed corn. If there is one thing I can do, it’s make a mean pot roast and this didn’t compare to homemade. But it was still good and filling. The veggies were both colorful and tasty.

  • Calorie Count: 530
  • Personal Score: 8 out of 10

Tuesday’s snacks consisted of another apple, green salad with diet dressing, a few bite-size tomatoes and a handful of almonds.

Looking Forward

Now it’s onto the hump day of the week, I’ll not be able to eat the prepared lunch on Wednesday, but will still try and keep the calorie and nutritional counts about the same. Also, I won’t bore everyone with posting our daily menu, but wanted everyone to get an idea of what the foods are like. I’ll check back in over the weekend with a report on how the entire week went.

Need more? Follow along with all of Barb’s posts, read the Biggest Loser Meal Plan review or order now from Bistro MD.

Posted on May 1, 2023 by Barb

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.

Posted on May 1, 2023 by Barb

Lose Weight, Get Rewarded with Fast Food

Somehow that just doesn’t quite sound right, but it’s true. Today’s Daily Oklahoman has a half-page advertisement from Taco Bell tying into the Mayor’s million pound challenge. Since we don’t really seem to be doing too well (average of 4.02 lbs lost over four months), Taco Bell is offering a little motivation. “When the milestone of 100,000 pounds is reached, we’ll give a FREE Fresco Taco to everyone in OKC!”

Taco Bell offers a Fresco menu with nine items under 9 grams of fat that is advertised on the home page of the OKC Million. If you sign up for the challenge, there’s a coupon to get a Fresco taco now. That would make two Fresco tacos, one now and one when Oklahoma loses 100,000 lbs.

I’ll leave it up to the experts to figure out whether nutritional values of the company’s Fresco menu is good or bad for dieters, but I think I better stay away for now. It’s just too hard to stop at just one!

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Barb

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.

Posted on April 24, 2023 by Barb

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!

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Barb