It turns out that nearly everyone I know has tried the Cabbage Soup or the Master Cleanse diets, and lasted for just a few days before remembering they actually like food. Since these have been around forever, I wasn't surprised that almost everyone I know has tried (and failed) at them!
Still, I wanted to know about healthy plans people have tried. Mostly, I was curious about the price of programs since that information never seems easy to find.
I asked a friend who is currently on Jenny Craig to lose 12 pounds how she likes it--she pays almost $150 per week for Jenny food plus spends another $30+ on fruits/veggies/milk at the grocery store to supplement the plan. That's around $720 a month for food for one person for one month. There is also a small sign up fee, but she had a coupon so that was waived. She said the food tastes good though and she's seeing good results of about 1/2 pound-1 pound per week.
THEN I saw the price: it was on sale for $29.99 per day, regularly $44.99 per day. For those without a calculator handy, that $900 for 1 month on sale, and $1350 regular price for 4 weeks. A thousand dollars for food for 1 person? That's more than the check I write every month for a roof over my head. No thanks.
(I'd like to point out, in that same mailing came a delicious offer from NON-diet organization, Omaha Steaks, for a MERE $39.99 filet mignon/sirloin/steak burger/chicken breast/potato offer. ;)
Another friend tried Nutrisystem. The food isn't refrigerated and comes in some sort of vacuum-sealed package to keep it from spoiling. (I'm picturing the kind of stuff astronauts eat ;) I asked her how it tasted and she described it as (and I quote), "The worst-tasting food I've ever put in my mouth." Ooh, brutal. She tried it for 4 days and sent back the 30 day supply and got her money back. The price was just over $200 a month to lose under 10 pounds (double to lose more), but since she couldn't eat it, $200 wasn't a savings. Maybe she's just more of a fresh food kind of girl, so I'm sure there are people out there who would like this program and definitely like the price.
Another friend told me she tried $500+/month Seattle Sutton's program. This is a plan where you pick up the fresh/semi-fresh food twice a week and it's made the day you pick it up. She said everything sort of smelled the same--like it was either all stored together or maybe had a preservative on it or something, and that the portions were very tiny, like a 1 inch square of cornbread; we're guessing (no confirmation about this at all) because they're not using anything lowfat, and are rationing out regular high calorie items to make them nutritionally sound and equal 1200 calories. She's petite and was only losing a few pounds for a wedding but said she was hungry all the time so stopped after 3 weeks. I talked to a 2nd friend who tried this plan and she confirmed the same thing. She lasted only 2 weeks.
The people that I've talked to who have tried Weight Watchers have all done it online, where they sign up for $50 for 3 months and then follow the instructions and mostly prepare their own food. Everyone I talked to said they like the program and see good results, and although it's not all cooking, there is a lot of it, so if you're not someone who likes to cook (*raises hand*) this probably wouldn't be a favorite program. Still $50 seems very reasonable.
Other than people making up their own programs, counting calories, counting fat grams, etc, these are the only programs people I know have tried. What I'm realizing the more I talk to people about it, is that diet programs are expensive, and let's face it, dieting is hard. Then again, being overweight is also hard, and maintaining weight and fitness is hard too. So really, I guess you just need to choose what kind of hard you want to deal with.
For me, I'm just going to try to keep this in mind -----------> 
<-----And try to forget things like this exist. ;)
