Nutrisystems Diet

NutriSystem Nourish Diet plan is a "send you the food" diet plan. Its sales in 2006 totaled $435 million through September, so it is a major factor in the $800 million home delivery diet food market. It attained the No. 1 spot on Forbes magazine's Best 200 Small Companies in America. Competitors are Jenny Craig, who started as a NutriSystem employee, and "Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating". NutriSystem had approximately 800,000 customers in 2006.

The NutriSystem Diet is based on the Glycemic Index of Carbohydrates. Foods with a low glycemic index raise your blood glucose levels slower and over a longer period of time than foods with a high glycemic index. Combined with a low fat diet, exercise, and frequent smaller portioned meals, the glycemic index diet is supposed to reduce hunger (due to a constant blood glucose). There is some support for weight loss and health benefits of low glycemic-index diets in controlled scientific studies, however, some other studies have suggested there is no long-term benefit to these diets.

"Americans, aided by the restaurant industry, have lost all sense of what normal portioning is," according to the company's chief nutritionist, Jay Satz. A goal of the program is that the education about portion size will shift to the person's consumption of other food when the program ends. The diet consists of 3 meals plus snacks which cost about $10 per day. You order the food up front and receive a shipment in the mail. None of the food needs refrigeration. You must supply around 65% of the total food for the diet on your own, in the form of low or no-fat yogurt, salads, low fat cheese, bread, the low GI carbs, etc. The food that you are shipped is the basic base meal for each meal. Customers can customize their orders to include their favorite foods.

In 2005 the core group of customers were women in their 20's through 50's. In 2006, the company increased its marketing to men. Mike Golic, Dan Marino, Don Shula, and John Kruk are among those who have endorsed this product.

The company started out in 1972 selling a liquid protein diet, which it abandoned in 1978 due to the growth of competition. It then started selling food which was packaged and preserved with the latest techniques in portion controlled packages, to take the decisions out of dining. The company went bankrupt in the early 1990's and closed down its weight-loss centers, where customers weighed in and got their meals. It reemerged in 1999 as an internet advertiser, and a publicly traded company, with the meals shipped to consumers. CEO Michael Hagen shifted advertising to TV, using satisfied customers in ads. Clients can call, email or chat online with the weight loss counselors for advice or support. The average customer stays on the program 10 weeks and loses 20 pounds. Many regain the weight lost, and many come back for more delivered diet meals. NutriSystem's 2007 market value was approximately 2 billion dollars.