A diet that does not require effort in choosing its ingredients, or counting its calories. Your meal gets you hot at your doorstep at breakfast, lunch and dinner times, with full psychological support that helps you keep going, and a number of details and tools that will turn an annoying weight loss plan into an easy, effortless process.

That's what the famous "Jenny Craig" diet promises in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America, and its marketers say it guarantees a loss of about 7 kilograms in the first four weeks.

Jenny Craig's diet

To understand this diet, it is necessary to get to know Jenny Craig herself, a woman who began her career in the sixties of the last century, and was then a married woman who was overweight after giving birth to her second child, and tried a lot to lose weight to no avail, as she did not seem able to continue in a particular system.

In the early sixties, she worked in a gym, then opened her own gym, but noticed that exercise alone did not lead to long-term weight loss. So, in 1983, she wanted to create something complete that combined an easy continuous diet, exercise, and psychological support that ensures continuity, so she and her late husband Craig opened the first Jenny Craig weight loss center, in Melbourne, Australia.

The idea was a success with the opening of 100 branches in Australia, then in New Zealand, and then the United States, which now has about 600 branches.

The Jenny Craig diet is a plan that is tailored to each participant, according to his height, weight, personal preferences of foods and the specificity of his condition, and is based on the basics of the most important of which are: a specific and pre-prepared diet, recommending moderate exercise, and psychological support to help participants continue to lose weight.

What distinguished Jenny Craig's diet was that its followers did not need to cook (Pixels)

Diet Ingredients

Pre-prepared meals include a range of delicious dishes, where the key word lies in the amount of calories, adjusting salts, fats and carbohydrates. Some studies say that the Jenny Craig diet provides the body with enough fiber, potassium and calcium, and relies on a certain amount of salt of no more than two thousand milligrams per day.

However, this diet is not suitable for vegetarians, as most meals contain meat of all kinds, and are not without sweets and sweetened drinks, as well as dishes such as:

  • Tender lamb, in herbal tomato sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, and peas.
  • Chicken soup, sweet corn.
  • Multi-grain crackers flavored with cheese.
  • Oatmeal cookies in the oven for breakfast.
  • Fried chicken katsu with curry sauce, japanese style, served with brown rice marinated with seaweed, carrots and beans.
  • Pumpkin, kali and risotto meal.

In addition to pre-prepared meals, participants can eat fresh fruits and vegetables and low-fat dairy, with the possibility of eating any amount of non-starchy foods such as tomatoes, broccoli and peppers, for example. Jenny Craig's menus contain 100 different types of pre-packaged foods, so the subscriber gets about 1200,<> calories per day.

The diet ensures that its customers lose an average of 10% of their weight in the first year with full commitment. As time passes and the desired weight is reached, the trainee is given a recipe booklet to prepare at home.

The Jenny Craig diet was ranked second in the United States of America as the best diet in 2023 (Pixels)

What is the secret behind her fame?

Jenny Craig's diet became famous because of the remarkable impact it left on the bodies of Hollywood stars, as some actresses lost tens of kilograms and their shapes changed radically, and when asked about the reason, they said: "Jenny Craig", and some of them even became ambassadors for this diet.

Among the most famous of these American actresses Valerie Bertinelli, who lost more than 22 kilograms of weight, and the change was very remarkable for the woman, who weighed 78 kilograms, and then became with the diet 56 kilograms. The same was true with prominent faces such as Christy Elli, Sarah Rowe who lost more than 20 kilos, and Rebel Wilson who turned spectacularly.

Is it a beneficial or harmful system?

The Jenny Craig diet won the second place in the United States of America as the best diet in 2023, and some believe that this or any other diet based on restricting food intake, and judging people by their appearance, is a harmful evil thing that must be confronted and opposed.

Critics say the real drawback is the minimum cost of the $100 per week, plus regaining weight once you stop it.

On the other hand, advocates believe that the diet of Jenny Craig is a balanced diet, based on dietary recommendations for adults, and that what really distinguishes this system is that its followers did not need to cook food or think about what they would eat, as the company takes care of everything, and sends packaged food to subscribers wherever they are, while ensuring psychological support systems.