“Get On It” in 2012 with Nutrisystem SUCCESS
Posted By: Meghan Nichols, R.D.Project Manager, Research and Development at Nutrisystem
It’s been an exciting and innovative year for us at Nutrisystem which has led to the launch of our new Success program. You’ve heard us describe Success as our “Most Complete Program Ever” – but what does this mean, and how exactly have we improved the program’s effectiveness and the overall Nutrisystem experience? Below, I’ve provided a brief explanation of 4 key program enhancements:
- Simplified Meal Plan – The most important aspect of a diet is that it’s simple to use. If you can’t use it, you can’t benefit from it. To follow our previous program, it was required that you supplement your Nutrisystem meals with 13-16 servings of additional grocery foods each day. These grocery foods were divided into 7 different categories over 5 pages which listed 277 different foods in 33 different serving sizes. We knew we had an opportunity to decrease the complexity of this aspect of our program which could lead to better adherence (and therefore Success!) and a better overall learning experience (vs. memorizing food lists). Thus was borne our new meal plan which has consolidated these required supplemental grocery foods into 3 simple categories – Smart Carbs (nutrient dense carbohydrate containing foods), Power Fuels (healthy proteins and fats) and Unlimited Vegetables (no more counting out cherry tomatoes). You’ll see this new structure only requires 4-5 different grocery food additions each day (plus at least 4 servings of veggies) from 3 different categories in 5 standardized serving sizes. Best of all, it’s all on 1 quick reference page.
(Need another reason to be convinced this is a program you can use? Try our new chef’s table foods – frozen entrees created by our Celebrity Chef’s Council that quickly steam in the microwave– this is delicious eating here people, not diet food – YUM!)
- Optimized Nutrition Profile – An interesting fact, when you lose weight, you’re not just losing fat, you’re losing lean muscle mass too! Research has shown that following a low glycemic and high protein diet can help you keep more of that muscle during weight loss. The redesign of the meal plan, plus the inclusion of our daily protein shakes, has helped us boost up the amount of protein in the Success program to provide you this added benefit. Additionally, protein offers help in managing hunger. This protein shake is not a meal replacement (I like food; I wouldn’t want to drink my breakfast either). It’s basically a punched up glass of milk – delivering almost double the amount of protein as a glass of skim milk – designed to offer a convenient way for you to achieve healthy targets for protein and calcium intake.
- Focus on Fitness – It’s no secret, eating well is only half of the equation when it comes to long term weight control; we also have to move more. Easier said than done right? Exercising can seem time consuming, and more like a chore than fun. It was with these challenges in mind that we created My Daily 3 which is designed to make getting the 30 minutes of physical activity per day recommended by the experts easy and achievable. Just carve out three 10 minute increments each day to do something a little extra (i.e. walk to the supermarket, hike the stairs at work, take a bike ride around the block after dinner). Getting in the habit of being more physically active now, will not only improve your health and success while you’re losing weight, but will really be key to helping you keep it off!
- A True Partnership for Lasting Success – Our program offers a learn-by-doing approach, ingraining healthy habits through daily practice. However, we realized we could do a better job in providing you support as you become more self-sufficient in applying these practices to your daily life and rely less on our prepared foods. Previously, you were either “on-program” or “off-program”. With Nutrisystem Success you have access to flexible Transition and Maintenance Programs, which allow you decide how little or how much structure and support you need during each phase of your transformation towards the new you!
Has the Nutrisystem® program always been good? Absolutely! However, from your feedback and our investment in clinical research (5 new studies were accepted to US medical conferences last year and more are on the way) we’ve learned a few things about what we can do better to support our members in achieving their health and weight goals. It’s this mission and this knowledge that drove the strategy of our new program, and I hope you’ll agree, there’s no better name for it than SUCCESS!
