Your Diet's at the Door
Can delivery diets really help you lose weight?
May 26, 2007 — -- In the quest to lose weight without really trying -- which, though few people like to admit it, is how most want to lose weight -- more and more Americans are turning to home delivery diet plans, where pre-packaged meals are prepared and delivered to the house every day.
There's no cooking; no calorie counting. Though costs of delivery diets run high, consumers are shelling out for them.
"Just last year it's gone up 33 percent, and they say it's going to be $1 billion this year," Tanya Steel, editor in chief of Epicurious.com, said about the sales of delivery diet plans.
Fresh ingredients can drive up the cost of plans to as much as $50 a day. The services may not be the most economically viable, especially for those with families who have to buy food for the rest of the household. But Steel said for people on the go, the cost may not add up to much more than a daily diet of take-out and Starbucks.
"If you take into account that you're buying breakfast on the go and coffee and then you're probably buying lunch at work, and then you're probably buying something at a fast food store or going to the supermarket, it probably evens out," she said.
What makes the diet plans worth the cost? For most consumers, it's all about convenience.
"A lot of people these days don't know how to cook, frankly. And they don't know how to cook the right stuff. So this takes all the thought and preparation out," said Dr. David Katz, a nutritionist and Yale University professor. "Portion control is the second best thing about the pre-packaged meals. They provide a little bit of built in discipline here."
Some of the most popular plans include The Zone, eDiet, Pure Foods, Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem. Katz said while there's no perfect plan for everyone, consumers should look for the following when picking one:
