Service Name / Rating:	Cost Per Month:	Diet Types:	Promotion:	Support Types:	Recipes & Meals:	Bottom Line:
Go to Site Read Full Review	$17.96/4 weeks	20+ DIY diet plans, including Atkins, Perricone, diabetes diet, and Fresh Prepared meal delivery plan	45% discount; free diet profile & fitness plan	Online meetings; phone and online support; access to nutrition and fitness experts	6,000+ recipes	Best overall DIY plan; designed for various lifestyles; excellent meal delivery service
Go to Site Read Full Review	$17.96/4 weeks	DIY diet with an emphasis on low GI foods	45% discount; free diet profile & fitness plan	Online meetings; phone and online support; access to nutrition and fitness experts	1,000+ recipes	Emphasis on low GI foods to help regulate blood sugar and increase energy
Go to Site Read Full Review	$348.00-$570.00/mo	Low-carb focused meal delivery diet	Lose 12 lb for $12 plus the cost of food	In-person consultations, phone support, online resources	80+ entrees and snacks	Comprehensive support designed to establish a healthier overall lifestyle
Go to Site Read Full Review	$22.00/mo (billed quarterly)	DIY diet with some prepared meals	20% discount; one week free	Online forums; tracking tools	1,000+ recipes and meals	Complete lifestyle change; good for regulating blood sugar, heart problems or diabetes
Go to Site Read Full Review	$29.95 sign-up fee + $13.56/mo for first 3 months	DIY diet with some prepared meals	35% discount on 3 month plan	Tracking tools; online forums; restaurant advice	1,500+ recipes and meals	Flexible, emphasizes healthy choices; one month free
Go to Site Read Full Review	$399.00-$558.60/mo. + $19.95 S&H/week	Freshly prepared meal delivery diet	Eighth week of meals free; free gift	Online meetings; phone and online support; access to nutrition and fitness experts	50+ meals and desserts	Fresh, healthy, portion-controlled, convenient meals
Go to Site Read Full Review	$299.50-$327.50/4 weeks	Low-carb focused meal delivery diet	50% discount on shipping + three bonus meals with four week order; exclusive $50 discount on purchases over $275	Online forums; tracking tools; access to nutrition and fitness experts	60+ meals	Rigorous diet plan designed for rapid, dramatic weight loss; exclusive $50 discount on purchases over $275 with promo code Mar31G
Go to Site Read Full Review	$16.00/4 weeks (billed quarterly)	Step by step DIY diet emphasizing good carbs, good fats, lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables	None	Online forums; tracking tools; access to nutrition experts	300+ recipes and snacks	Simple and accessible; emphasis on common sense and positivity
Go to Site Read Full Review	$300.00-$500.00/mo	Freshly prepared meal delivery diet; low fat, low fat vegetarian, or low carb plan options	One free meal; referral bonus; exclusive $25 discount on your first full meal plan purchase with promo code HH1109	Online forums; diet analysis; BMI calculator; access to nutrition experts	Varies by month	Fresh, healthy, portion-controlled, convenient meals; exclusive $25 discount on your first full meal plan purchase with promo code HH1109
Go to Site Read Full Review	$16.00/4 weeks (billed quarterly)	Customized DIY diet designed to fit your body type, preferences, and goals	None	Online forums; tracking tools; expert tips; FAQ; personal coaching for additional fee	860 recipes	Personality driven virtual trainer; emphasizes exercise over nutrition

eDiets Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

eDiets.com offers a wide range of different diet and fitness plans, each with innovative motivational and support tools. eDiets will help you select the personalized plan that best fits your needs by taking you through a survey about your current health, weight loss goals, and other pertinent information. All eDiets.com plans combine recipes, expert support, general guidelines, and a fitness plan into one package. The eDiets.com plans are based on portion control and the selection of proper food choices. The plans are highly personalized and based on your own preferences. The weekly menus allow you to create instant shopping lists to take to the grocery store. If you are going out, eDiets.com helps you prepare by having the nutritional information for many restaurants stored in the system. eDiets.com offers both phone support and online support with their experts, as well as the online community for peer support. Also included in your membership is a subscription to a daily tip newsletter. Using your membership, you can keep track of your weight and other measurements to gage your progress, journal your weight loss, or track your food intake. The fitness portion of the diet is also highly customized to your individual needs, laying out a weekly program for you to follow that is complete with a virtual trainer to demonstrate. The eDiets.com consist of diet plans such as Fall's Best Diet, Glycemic Impact Diet, New Mediterranean Diet, Atkins Diet, Bill Phillips Eating for Life, Slim-Fast Optima Diet, The Blood Type Diet, Perricone Diet, eDiets.com Alternative to Jenny Craig, and Trim Kids. In addition, eDiets.com covers healthy lifestyle diets like the Wheat-Free Plan, Low-Fat Plan, Living with Diabetes Plan, Heart Smart Plan, the Low-Sodium Plan, High-Fiber Plan, Vegetarian Plan, and the Lactose-Free Plan. For an additional fee, subscribers can download eDiets Mobile, a special weight loss program for you PDA that gives you a variety of diets and exercises while away from your computer.

The eDiet.com program costs $17.96 every four weeks. This program automatically renews until you cancel. There is an early termination fee of $25.00 if you cancel before the third four week billing cycle.

Glycemic Impact Diet Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

The Glycemic Index is a ranking system that tells you how much a particular carbohydrate food item will affect your diet. Carbohydrates that break down rapidly have the highest GI, while slowly digested carbohydrates have the lowest GI. A low GI diet has been proven to be effective in regulating blood sugar, losing weight, and managing diabetes. The Glycemic Impact Diet is a healthy nutrition diet plan that balances unrefined complex carbohydrates (high GI foods) with lean protein and healthy fats (low GI foods) to help stabilize blood sugars, increase energy, lose weight, and feel fuller longer. With the Glycemic Impact Diet there is no need to count calories or keep track of points. The Glycemic Impact Diet provides 40% of calories from mostly low Glycemic impact carbohydrates. Another 30% of calories come from lean protein, including fish, chicken and occasionally lean beef and pork, with vegetarian options including soy protein; tofu and textured vegetable protein. The approximately 30% of remaining calories are from healthy fats including nuts, fatty fish, avocado and olive oil. A sample meal from this plan would include an egg and cheese burrito with honeydew melon for breakfast, a curried turkey salad with walnuts and flatbread for lunch, yogurt with raspberries and almonds for a snack, and foiled fish with couscous and balsamic tomatoes for dinner. Since this diet plan is part of the eDiet.com list of customizable plans you get the benefits of expert support, general guidelines for the Glycemic Impact Diet plan, and a fitness plan. Also included in your membership is a weekly newsletter which gives you daily tips for keeping the weight off. Using your membership, you can keep track of your weight and other measurements to gage your progress, journal your weight loss, or track your food intake. The fitness portion of the diet is also highly customized to your individual needs, laying out a weekly program for you to follow that is complete with a virtual trainer to demonstrate. Finally, the Glycemic Impact Diet will not harm your health like many of today's diets, but rather will actually reduce your risk from heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, colon and prostate cancer.

Jenny Craig Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

Jenny Craig differs from the other diet services reviewed on NextAdvisor.com by emphasizing personalized consultations and face to face support. While most other meal delivery diet programs focus primarily on the food itself, perhaps also offering various tools and resources to help you reach your diet goals, Jenny Craig places equal focus on food, body and mind.

First, you will meet privately with a consultant at one of over 650 local Jenny Craig centers for a discussion of your current lifestyle and weight loss goals, as well as an initial weigh-in. Your consultant will work with you to customize the most effective plan to help you reach your goals. If you prefer more privacy and convenience, you can choose the Jenny Direct program and speak to your consultant over the phone.

Each week, you will return to your local Jenny Craig center to meet with your consultant, who will help motivate you, overcome challenges and track your progress. You will also pick up your Jenny Cuisine meals at these meetings. You'll purchase a one week supply of meals at a time, with no ongoing obligation. If you choose the Jenny Direct option, you will have weekly phone support from your consultant, and your Jenny's Cuisine meals will be shipped to you via FedEx every two or four weeks, depending on your preference. If you do choose the Jenny Direct program, there will be a shipping fee. Initially, your diet will consist of three Jenny's Cuisine meals and one snack every day, plus your own groceries, such as fresh fruit and vegetables. You can customize your weekly menus based on your preferences.

Your consultant will help you develop a personalized, staged approach to physical fitness, as well, consisting of a combination of natural, everyday activities, playful activities and planned exercise. Your physical fitness plan will intensify as you work toward your weight loss goals, in order to help you burn more calories.

As you progress through the program, your consultant will help you learn to create your own menus and meals, and you will eventually begin to gradually integrate your own meals into your diet. Your consultant will also help you learn to make healthy choices at restaurants. By the time you have reached your goal weight, you'll have developed a better relationship with food and learned to plan and prepare your own balanced meals. You can then transition to maintenance support, which will help you sustain your new, healthier lifestyle. You will still have access to online support to help keep you on track.

If you are looking for a comprehensive support system to help you establish a healthier lifestyle overall, Jenny Craig may be perfect for you.

South Beach Diet Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

The South Beach Diet is a plan created by Dr. Arthur Agatston as a way of helping his cardiac patients get their diets under control and engage in a healthy lifestyle. The diet consists of three phases. Phase 1 is the diet's kick start, designed to get your body off bad carbs and geared towards weight loss. Phase 2 is when you reintroduce good carbs and continue to lose weight until you reach your goal. Phase 3 is where you turn the diet into a lifestyle, maintaining your weight and continuing to make responsible food choices. The South Beach Diet online portion includes a wealth of tools, including a recipe database, meal planner, shopping list generator, food guides, registered dietitians to answer your questions, answers from Dr Agatston, a 'Beach Buddies' program which gives you a dieting support partner, message boards, a private online journal, daily newsletter, calendar tool to help you plan your diet, and a weight tracker to help you track your progress. The online tools are simple to use, and provide a nice at-a-glance dashboard of your progress and helpful tips once you log in. The journal sorts your entries according to phase so you can track your food diary and progress at each stage. The South Beach Diet website also offers a 'Fitness Club' with tips, videos, and instruction -- but we were disappointed to learn that this came at an additional charge ($38.87 quarterly). This online offering would be more well-rounded if the meal planning portions were integrated into the exercise portions. Overall, the diet is a healthy approach to weight loss and eating in general, and provides a solid foundation for continued success.

WeightWatchers Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's Note: WeightWatchers is offering a 35% discount when you sign up for a three month plan. To take advantage of this promotion, simply click any WeightWatchers link on NextAdvisor.com.]

WeightWatchers has two basic plans to choose from. The 'Flex Plan' is the classic WeightWatchers points system of assigning points to foods that you eat, and the 'Core Plan' consists of foods that fill you up but are lower in calories. The Flex Plan does involve a form of calorie counting, with a daily allowance of points and a weekly allowance of extra points, but the online tool makes it easy because it will do the counting for you as long as you remember to record your meals. Extra points are given for exercise and nursing moms. (WeightWatchers is one of the only plans with a special program for nursing moms.) The Core Plan is for people who feel they need more food and who would rather have a list of foods instead of tracking or counting. You can switch between the plans at any time, but they recommend you do it at weigh-in instead of mid-week for tracking purposes. With both plans, WeightWatchers helps you to establish healthy goals for weight loss including helping you to determine a healthy range for your final weight goals. Weigh-ins are done weekly on the day of your choice. WeightWatchers offers the a wide array of exercise options for all fitness levels, including online exercise videos, tips, and workouts. The sign-up process was relatively quick, and the user interface is simple and easy to understand. The core of the WeightWatchers online plan is the password-protected area where you can track your points values, find recipes, get meal ideas, track your weight, switch your meal plan, read motivational success stories, and watch videos. The online portion has several interactive tools to assist you with your diet: a food search, a recipe builder, a points tracker, and an activity search. The food tracker lets you save common meals and tracks your daily points intake. The activity tracker lets you determine the points allowance for your exercise activities and automatically factors that into your daily points allowance. The recipe builder where you input the ingredients and it calculates the points totals for your meal; recipes can then be saved for later use. The food search lets you find the points values for a variety of foods. The activity search allows you to see how different activities will affect your points totals. Overall, the program is very well-rounded, promoting sustainable weight loss and a healthy lifestyle, and the online tools are very effective in helping you track and manage your goals.

Fresh Prepared Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

Fresh Prepared, a food delivery plan from eDiets, is designed for those well-intentioned individuals who want to eat healthy and nutritious meals, but who simply don't have the time to plan and prepare an elaborate breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. Fresh Prepared offers customers a choice of two different plans. The seven day complete program includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack or dessert every day, and is recommended for those who are serious about weight loss and prefer as much structure and convenience as possible. The five day 'weekends free' program, which only provides meals on weekdays, is more flexible and is intended for weight maintenance.

Rather than emphasizing a particular diet with restrictions and rules, Fresh Prepared focuses on supplying nutritious, gourmet meals in sensible portion sizes. Just sign in to your account and custom design your menu for the week. The meals you select will be freshly prepared to order, packed in Stay Fresh refrigerated coolers and delivered to you via FedEx. All you have to do is heat and eat your chef-prepared, personalized meals. Epicurious.com named Fresh Prepared as its top pick among diet delivery services, highlighting the many tasty meal options. When you sign up for Fresh Prepared, you also get access to the many other resources at eDiets.com, including support and motivation at community message boards, live support from registered dietitians and certified fitness trainers, a personalized fitness plan and health and fitness news, tips and motivating challenges.

If you are a picky eater or have specific dietary needs due to allergies or diabetes, this plan may not be right for you. But this program is ideal for people who prefer healthy, sensible, well-proportioned meals rather than a strict diet. Many consumers will appreciate the ease and convenience of having every meal freshly prepared and delivered to their door. For $19.95 a day, Fresh Prepared serves a fresh, chef-prepared, great tasting breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack or dessert to your front door, plus a variety of other resources designed to help you eat well, exercise effectively and lose weight.

Medifast Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's Note: Medifast is offering a $50 discount on purchases of $275 and more to NextAdvisor.com readers. To take advantage of this exclusive $50 discount on Medifast, simply enter the promo code Mar31G when prompted during checkout.]

Medifast offers a meal delivery program that is considerably more rigorous than most of the other programs reviewed by NextAdvisor.com. Medifast is focused on helping those who are obese or seriously overweight improve their health. All Medifast meal packages are based on their 5 & 1 plan, which means that you eat five prepackaged Medifast meals and one 'lean and green meal,' which should consist of lean meat plus salad or vegetables. Your 'lean and green meal' adds some flexibility to this diet plan, since you can prepare it yourself or eat at a restaurant. The five Medifast meals are not actually full meals comparable to those offered by other meal delivery services. Meal options include shakes and other beverages, soups, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, puddings and bars. Many of these items come in powder packets that you mix with water and microwave or refrigerate. Meals are formulated with low-fat protein and fiber and fortified with vitamins and nutrients. Dieters using the Medifast 5 & 1 plan eat once every two to three hours, for a total of six small meals each day. The Medifast 5 & 1 plan promotes rapid weight loss by restricting dieters' daily calorie intake to between 800 and 1000. For this reason, customers who already have an exercise program in place are advised to cut their routine in half for the first couple of weeks, and customers who do not already exercise should wait two to three weeks before beginning an exercise program. Once you have reached your weight loss goals with the 5 & 1 plan, the Medifast Transition, Maintenance and Exercise plans are designed to help you maintain your weight loss.

A four week supply of Medifast meals costs $299.50, plus shipping and handling, which varies depending on your location and the weight of the package. A two week supply is $154.50. Customers ordering the four week package receive 50% off the cost of shipping, plus 3 extra meals and a shaker jar, used for mixing powdered meals with water. These meal packages are not customizable, but individual meals and snacks are available for purchase from the Medifast website. Medifast also offers a meal package specifically designed for those with type 2 diabetes, which is available for the same prices. Enhanced packages are available, which include Super Omega-3, a nutritional supplement that promises to boost your weight-loss program, for an additional $28. The Momentum packages, which cost $169.50 for a 28 day supply or $353.50 for a 60 day supply, include flavor infusers meant to be added to water, as well as liquid Medifast meals. These products contain caffeine and green tea antioxidant EGCG, and promise to help dieters burn calories more efficiently, break through a weight loss plateau and maintain a new, healthier weight. They are designed to complement the Medifast 5 & 1 plan, with the liquid meals replacing normal Medifast meals and the flavor infusers used in addition to the normal 6 meals per day. Customers are advised to consume up to three Momentum products daily.

Medifast is an intense diet plan designed to promote rapid, significant weight loss and improved health. Because this plan works, in part, by drastically reducing calorie intake, people with unique caloric requirements or health conditions should check with their doctors before beginning the Medifast 5 & 1 diet.

Joy's LIFE Diet Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

Joy Bauer, the resident nutrition and health expert for the Today Show, has been providing nutrition advice for over 15 years. She has also created Joy Bauer Nutrition, one of the largest nutrition counseling practices in the United States. Joy's LIFE Diet distills her extensive knowledge into a simple, easy to follow plan.

Joy's LIFE Diet includes all the basic tools that one would expect to find in any online diet program, such as weight, measurement, and goal trackers, a food log, a custom meal planner, and a shopping list generator. There are also calorie and activity calculators, and a database of nutrition information, as well as hundreds of recipes, including vegetarian and kosher options. Members also have access to a nutritionist whenever you need advice or encouragement, as well as a supportive online community, where you can share news on your progress with other members, and with Joy herself, who maintains her own blog.

What makes Bauer's program unique is its simplicity and the emphasis on positivity and common sense. While each member has a personalized profile and custom fitness plan, all members follow the same basic program consisting of four steps. The first step, "Release," is a seven day introductory period, during which you'll focus on discarding unhealthy habits and negative attitudes. There is a 1300 calorie limit per day and a minimum of 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per day during this first week. The second step, "Relearn," focuses on the creation of new, positive patterns, particularly with regard to dietary choices. During this phase of Joy's LIFE Diet, you'll be able to integrate healthy snack options into your diet. You'll continue doing low-impact cardiovascular activity, but during this second step, you'll add a series of seven stretches that relieve soreness and stiffness. The third step, "Reshape," adds resistance training to your existing fitness routine, to build strength and burn calories. Joy Bauer designed the exercise aspect of her program to be simple but effective, without requiring any expensive equipment. The fourth step, "Reveal," is a celebration that occurs once you have reached your diet goals. It also focuses on transitioning into a maintenance phase.

Joy's LIFE Diet costs $4.00 per week, and members are charged once every 13 weeks. After a nonrefundable initial five week minimum commitment of $20.00, members can cancel at any time and receive a refund for the unused portion of the subscription.

This program is practical and straightforward, making it relatively easy for anyone to follow. With Joy's LIFE Diet, you'll learn to make healthy choices and develop a positive attitude toward nutrition and exercise.

Diet-to-go Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's Note: Diet-to-go is offering a $25 discount on your first full meal plan purchase. To take advantage of this exclusive $25 discount on Diet-to-go, simply enter the promo code HH1109 when prompted during checkout.]

Diet-to-go provides a three meal per day plan for those seeking low fat, low carb, or vegetarian diets. You can choose from a full plan (all three meals delivered, seven days a week), lunch and dinner (two meals delivered, seven days a week), or an action plan (two meals per day, five days per week). They also offer between-meal snacks on their website. The meal plan is created by a counselor when you start the plan, based on your nutritional needs and preferences. Diet-to-go has physical locations in Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and San Francisco for pick-up, but you can have your meals shipped to you anywhere in the US. (Demonstrations and food sampling are also available at the pick-up locations.) The meals follow the guidelines from the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association and the American Dietetic Association. Their website has an 'Ask the Dietitian' feature where you can e-mail your questions to their resident dietitian for answers. They also offer various tools like a BMI calculator (to tell you your current body mass index) and a diet analysis (to help you decide which Diet-to-go plan is best for you). For support, the website offers a community bulletin board which can be accessed by anyone, regardless if they are on the plan or not. In addition to the delivered meals, Diet-to-go sells a variety of prepackaged snacks through the website. Diet-to-go seems to lack in an exercise component as well as strong support in weight loss, but it does offer convenient, fresh and healthy foods as compared to prepackaged foods plans. It is important to read the fine print on this diet (as well as any meal delivery plan), as the plan will auto-bill your credit card for the duration of your diet contract.

Jillian Michaels Review: Diet ProgramGo to Site | Back to Chart

Jillian Michaels is best known as a trainer and life coach on NBC's The Biggest Loser, but has also created a brand that includes her website and online program as well as books, DVDs, video games and a radio talk show. Her online diet program differs from the other programs reviewed on NextAdvisor.com by placing a greater emphasis on exercise as opposed to nutrition.

Michaels' program does offer many tools that are similar to those offered by other online diet services. There are trackers to record your weight and measurements, calculators to help you set goals, and a meal planner, shopping list and food log. Meal plans are created based on one of three metabolic types. Upon sign up, members create a personal profile, which includes self-identifying as either a slow oxidizer, balanced oxidizer or fast oxidizer. There is an optional quiz to help direct this self-assessment, but it is simplistic and limiting. (For example, users must select one of three body types: short and stocky, average, or tall and thin.) The meal plan tool is similarly rigid and unrealistic. There is no option to create an entire meal plan around a specific dietary requirement, so vegetarian, diabetic or lactose intolerant users are unlikely to find this feature useful.

In many ways, this program functions as an online replacement for a personal trainer. There is a daily fitness plan, similar to the meal planner tool, which focuses primarily on circuit training. Like the meal planner tool, the daily fitness plan is somewhat rigid, requiring members to choose one of three workout schedules, all of which require you to exercise five days a week. Members must select Sunday and Wednesday, Monday and Friday, or Tuesday and Saturday as rest days. There is an exercise index that lists the various movements, the muscles involved, how to perform the exercise, as well as tips, progressions and variations. Michaels' workout plan devotes one day per week solely to cardio, and she provides advice on how to make your cardio workout as effective as possible. There are also suggested playlists to listen to while you exercise, and fitness advice videos.

Members have access to advice from experts, message boards and peer support, and a database of Jillian's responses to frequently asked questions. Personal diet and fitness coaching via email is available for an additional fee of $5 per week. The base program is $4 per week, and members are charged once every 13 weeks. After an initial nonrefundable five week minimum commitment of $20, members can cancel at any time and receive a refund for the unused remainder of the subscription.

Jillian Michaels' fitness and nutrition program relies strongly on one woman's personality and image, rather than basic diet and exercise fundamentals that will apply to the majority of dieters. Some may be put off by the inflexibility of this program, while others are likely to find it uniquely motivating.