Their plan is simple and comprehensive. It involves a little work from the dieter, but it is not overwhelming. The plan utilizes nutrition, psychology and support systems that together help the dieter achieve his goal.
They have a few plans. Here is the most popular one which is called the point system.

What do you eat? Basically everything. Each food gets points assigned to it based on the carbohydrate contents, fat content and fiber content. You get a small paper calculator and with a sliding center you can check the amount of points the food you are about to eat, gets.

You are also assigned, based on your weight and the amount of pounds (or Kg) you want to lose, the number of points you should eat each day.

It’s up to the dieter to decide what and how much he eats as long as he does not exceed the points allowed. So if you crave chocolate you can eat it, but know that you have to eat zero or low points food for the rest of the day.
This is a psychological break through. You do not have to deny yourself the food you like the most. You can eat everything – in small portions.

The second part of this program is to write everything down. We often feel we don’t eat much and yet the weight keeps going up. Writing down everything you eat makes you aware of what you put in your mouth and you might discover the “nothing” you ate is actually quite a lot. It is an excellent way to control your food instead of it controlling you.

The third part of this program is the weekly weigh-ins. You are asked not to weigh yourself every day. Our weight fluctuates because of different reasons; water retention, meal just consumed, constipation. This daily ritual is unnerving and disappointing at times. What you are asked to do instead is to come to their centers once a week and they will weigh you. No cheating, no leaning forward or back. The same scale once a week. Your weight is written down in a little booklet you keep, and you can watch the pound go away.

Following the weigh-ins there are support meetings run by their counselors. In those meetings you get together with people in the same situation as you and you share complaints and advice. The counselor follows a program which explains the basis of nutrition and teaches you ways to shave points off your diet by using substitutes and sharing recipes.

The best thing about this plan is that it is sustainable for a long period of time. Since you are the judge of what you eat and don’t deny yourself the foods you crave, you can continue on the plan for a long time. The goal is to lose no more than 2-3 pounds a week (about 1 kg.). It becomes a way of life and a way to control your weight forever.

Which vitamins to take is another question. And the more you’ll ask the more answers you’ll get. Here is some order in the confusion and the recommended daily allowance by the food and drug administration.

Vitamin A – Helps in bone growth and in vision, appetite and taste. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is 800 mcg.
Vitamin B1 – Helps regulate the nerve system, heart, digestion and muscles. RDA – 1.2 mg.
Vitamin B2 – Helps in the breaking of fat, protein and carbohydrates. Helps in the building of nails, hair and skin. RDA – 1.3 mg.
Vitamin B6 – Helps in the absorption of proteins and carbs. RDA – 1.3 mg.
Vitamin B12 – Boosts energy, helps in the production of red blood cells. RDA – 2.4 mcg.
Vitamin C – Immune booster, helps in healing of wounds, preventing scurvy. RDA 90mg.
Vitamin D – Enables the absorption of calcium . RDA – 5 mcg. a day.
Vitamin E – An antioxidant, fights infections, lubricates, has an important part in the building of nails and hair. RDA 15 mg.
Folic Acid – Helps in the production of red blood cells. Women lacking in folic acid might give birth to babies with neurological problems.
Vitamin K – promotes strong bones, helps in blood clotting. RDA 100 mcg.
Coenzyme Q10 – The body makes it and our cells use it, but we don’t make enough. The coenzyme is important in converting food to energy. RDA 100 mg.

Those are the basic vitamins (today we know also of B3, B5, B7 etc.) we should all take the recommended dosage. There is a difference between men and women. This list is the average to be used as a guideline.

Most of those vitamins have been grouped together in multi-vitamins to make it easy to take. Some people say those recommendations are too low. From time to time there comes a doctor who recommends loading the body with a certain vitamin to prevent diseases (used to be B12, then C. Now it’s vitamin D.) Try to get as much vitamins as you can from proper nutrition and use supplements to make up the gap.

With so many diets on the market and gyms in every corner, the question that keeps coming up is, why? Why is this generation so overweight when we have all those new exercise techniques and sport research to maximize the exercise effectiveness?
The simple answer is nutrition. People just do not know how to eat right.

Eating right doesn’t mean skipping meals. It does not mean avoiding certain foods all together. A Balanced nutrition means you should have a little of every food group; proteins, carbohydrates and fat. Balanced nutrition has to include all three, plenty of water, and vitamins and minerals. But on that a bit later.

The objective of a correct nutrition is to supply and maintain the body with the elements it needs for healthy normal function. Thus, if you avoid completely one of those ingredients you are not getting the nutrition you need.

Many articles have been written about the Atkins diet for example. Dr. Atkins believed that the fat content in our food is not the reason why we are overweight. In his opinion the culprit is the carbohydrates. Under his guidelines you could eat all the fat and proteins you like, but eliminate the carbs almost completely.

People did lose weight on his diet, but did they become healthier? No, they became slimmer and sicker. The huge amounts of animal protein they were consuming contributed to a dangerous rise in cholesterol levels, which is an unwanted outcome.

Nutrition is not about weight but about health. A balance diet has to include a lot of vegetables and fruit, which do contain carbs. A balanced nutrition has to supplement all the body systems and keep them in optimal working order.

Since most vegetables and fruit in our modern, hurried world are not grown organically or without pesticides, herbicides or hormones, fruit and vegetables do not contain the amount of vitamins they used to. Our society lives on processed foods that are easy to eat, and fast to digest but they do not supply the body with the vitamins it needs.

Recent research in the United States showed that most people, especially children, have a deficiency in Vitamin D. It might be caused by an unbalanced nutrition or it might be caused by not enough time in the sun. Now that we have discovered how harmful the sun is to our skin, we cover ourselves with clothes and sun blocks. We stay indoors during daylight hours in offices and closed spaces where the air is forced in by machines but the sun doesn’t shine. Now the doctors recommend loading ourselves with huge amounts of Vitamin D to make up for the loss.

This would have been avoided had we kept a balanced nutrition that includes fresh produce, meat, fish, grains and some outdoor activity. Good nutrition is the most important element to a healthy, happy and active life.

The solution – they will make the food for you according to healthy, low fat, low carbohydrate guidelines, and will deliver the prepackaged food to your home. It takes the guessing, measuring, counting and preparing of the food out of the equation. All you have to do is eat their food, supplement it with fresh fruit and vegetables and lose the weight.

Both diet plans are almost the same and they guarantee that you will lose the weight if you follow their regiment.

It works well if you do as they say and don’t “sin” by snacking on additional foods. The problem arises when you realize what you getting and how much it costs.
The portions are very small. They say this is the right amount you should be eating, but your stomach, used to much more food in a single day, might tell you otherwise. Theoretically you should be able to keep away hunger by adding vegetables but when you are at home, by your refrigerator, what is there to stop you?

Maybe the price. It costs about two hundred of dollars a week to have three meals a day delivered. If you are a busy person who doesn’t have time, or doesn’t like to cook, this is a perfect solution. Just pop the package in the microwave and you have a balanced meal that is good for you, and will make you lose the pounds. So you won’t get bored both companies have big enough menus you can choose from, diversify the meal and eat only the things you like.

The question is how long are you willing to eat foods out of a container? No restaurants while on the diet, no eating dinner with friends. You have to stick to what they give you or the moment you go off the plan the pounds come back very quickly. You have not learned anything new and haven’t changed the way you eat.

So, as a quick fix, it works well. For the long run and for eating healthy for the rest of your life (like the other diets suggest) it doesn’t work at all. You need to work out on Balanced Meal instead !