Nutrisystem has many options available, but comes in two main forms for men or women. The core plan includes 28 days non-frozen items, while the select plan includes 10 days of frozen items, and 18 days of non-frozen items. Plans include one breakfast, lunch, dinner, protein shake, and snack each day, except the men get one extra snack for a higher monthly rate. There are also a few other options, such as a silver plan that includes supplements, diabetic, and vegetarian plans.
When you order your plan, you have the option to let them setup a meal plan for you, or select all of the items yourself. You should note that on the frozen plan, they charge an extra $23 to customize the food, and since I would strongly recommend customizing the plan, you can count that in to the upgrade charge. Prices for the plans seem to vary a lot with different deals going on, so I won't worry about quoting them here. I'd talk to them in person so you can make sure you're getting the best deal before you sign up.
You receive the food in one shipment on the core plan, or two shipments if you're on the select plan, with the frozen items coming a few days after the non-frozen. The non-frozen foods are similar to the packages you would find on a supermarket shelf that don't need to be refrigerated, but so far it seems they are higher quality that you would expect from similar items, both the packaging and quality of ingredients. This doesn't always mean they taste better, but it does seem like Nutrisystem tries to use good ingredients without as many chemicals, except where absolutely necessary.
The frozen items are, again, similar to what you'll find in the store, but once again the ingredients seem higher quality and fresher. I highly recommend the frozen meal plan to add in some variety. As good of a job as they have done with the non-frozen items, they still aren't the same as the fresher food you'll find in the select plan.
Nutrisystem's system isn't just about the food they provide. There are also guides that come in the package, as well as online. These guides give you tips and advice about how to maintain the system. They also give grocery lists with items you can eat in addition to their food, and how much of each you can have. A large part of doing Nutrisystem is upping your intake of fruits and vegetables, to make up for the smaller portion sizes, and it really seems to work.
My favorite tool from Nutrisystem so far, is the smartphone app. My wife and I both use it to plan out our meals for the day every morning, and it's a huge help to keep control of our eating. Most meals are assigned extra items that they call SmartCarbs or PowerFuels. The app has an easy to use menu system to see what those items are, so you can plan ahead what you're having with each meal. It also tells you the calories of each item, and adds your calories for the day. On top of that, it has a large list of the allowed grocery items, with their serving sizes and calorie counts, and easily allows you to add items to your plan.
Once you are in the system, you can use their online tools to plan out your next order well in advance of the order date. You can also push back the order if you won't be there for the delivery time. It's very easy to use, and works great. Basically, anything you could do over the phone, you could do online easier. My only gripe is that on the second order, it said it would go through on a specific date, but actually went through the day before, so I wasn't able to make some last minute changes I would have liked to. I'll remember that next time, though, and make changes in advance.
Which reminds me. Give all the food a chance. Maybe even two chances. Especially at the beginning. If there's something you don't like in the first week, you might like it later on. This happened to me. I ordered several of a certain item, believing I would really like them. I had one for breakfast on day one, and didn't seem to like it all that much, so I changed my next order to not include any, and didn't have another one until the day before the order was supposed to go through. That time I really liked it, and decided to change my order to add some of the item. Unfortunately, that was when I realized it had gone through a day early, so this month I'm stuck without what turned out to be one of my favorite breakfast items. Your tastes may change as you go through this plan, both mine and my wife's have, so plan for that.
