September 3, 2010

Glycemic Friendly Meal Delivery Programs

Exclusive: This is a Superb offer.  Actually, it's the best we've seen in over 3 years.

SPECIAL OFFER: 4 Weeks FREE.  This is pretty incredible.  Usually they offer 1-week free, but for a limited time GlycemicEdge users can get 4 WEEKS FREE.  All the benefits, none of the work! 

Better still, the daily price is essentially exactly the same as you would pay to prepare these yourself!

Nutrisystem - Mens and Womens GI Diet  (Special: 4-weeks Free

 

eDiets - Fresh Prepared Meal Delivery (Special Offer: 1-week Free)

Meal Delivery Program Benefits – the Real Story:

► Nutritionally balanced specifically for the Glycemic Index (out-of-the box)
► Auto-pilot Approach (easy)
► Hassle-free (no need to memorize glycemic load values or verify sugars)
► Affordable – see comments below (compared to buying & cooking yourself)

One of the most frequent comments we get on the glycemic index is how it can be difficult to understand (at first).  If you're a working adult, managing a family as a mom, or just don't have time but want the benefit of a diet and nutrition plan which emphasizes the benefits of the glycemic index, a meal delivery program is a great option. 

Nutrisystem:Basic Plan credentials

Nutrisystem has backed off some of the glycemic index named promotional elements, but their basic plan still uses the glycemic index and balances on carbs, sugars, and nutrition. 

Foods are packaged and freeze sealed, with portions being generally well balanced and tasty.
We liked the sheer volume of their menu – there are literally hundreds of choices available.

Users select breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks + desserts.
It was fun and easy to keep a variety of foods coming — and made planning lunch to bring to work or have on-hand easy and guilt-free.

Nutrisystem costs vary depending on if you're going with a 5 or 7-day plan, whether you're opting for snacks + desserts, or just the basics of the main meals.
We kept costs to around $15/day, which honestly is about the same as we paid buying and cooking the food ourself. 

eDiets: Fresh Meal Delivery

eDiets is the largest online diet provider in the world, and they've jumped in with both feet to the meal-delivery service a couple years ago.

Their foods are delicious.  These really are freshly prepared (we we're pleasantly surprised).

Ranked #1 by epicurious.com as the best tasting diet delivery program, I don't know if I'll really call these "gourmet" as they say but they are quite good.

The eDiets glycemic impact meals are really well done and professionally portioned.
Costs here are slightly higher (from $19.95/day), again right in the ball-park for what you would pay to buy & cook 3+ meals for yourself.  Seriously – we pinched pennies and did all the work ourselves and added up expenses, and doing-it-ourselves spent between $13 and $28 buying and doing all the preparation ourself/day. 

The Belly of the Meal Delivery Decision

For most of our readers, it comes down to time.  Does the benefit of time & convenience make this a good choice for you.
From a pure cost perspective, it really is comparable to what you'll be paying to do it yourself.

We think Nutrisystem is a solid choice.  They've got inexpensive plans.  They've been doing this for a LONG time. 
The process to order & receive your food is painless and laughably easy.
The foods are pre-packaged, frozen, and won't offer the level of pure freshness you can get with eDiets though.

The eDiets plan includes the glycemic index foods or foods from any of the other 20+ diet plans eDiets services.
That gives you a lot of additional flexibility.

Lastly, we still think for responsible nutrition and health you'll want to educate yourself on the benefits a low glycemic diet brings.
A meal delivery plan is like 'glycemic index compliance' on auto-pilot.  But it's not substitute to lifelong wellness – so educate yourself too.
Stay up to date with the latest glycemic index values and load by consulting our glycemic index chart information.

But it sure makes things easy…

Note: We looked at other meal delivery services (Medifast, and many others) but they are more general in nature and at best offer carb-friendly menu's but not low glycemic meal formulations.  If that changes, we'll add them to the review list here and try it again…

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Testing Interactive GI Diet Plans

It's been well over a year since we posted a detailed review of the flow & features interactive GI diet plans provide.  Online plans like the one featured by eDiets make it easier to jump start a weight loss plan by getting starter guides, interactive menu's, and more.  Costs are about $4/week.  If you're looking for convenience, you can also find glycemic index delivery plans.

Let's take a closer look at the sign-up process and features provided by eDiets.  They've also offered 25% off to Glycemic Edge readers if you're interested.

The sign-up process is painless.  The usual Q&A involving your age, height, and weight.  eDiets also asks some good questions about the type of foods you like and can live with (lifestyle), as well as targets and time frames (goals).  These are good as they offer well over 20 nutrition plans to choose from – we'll select their glycemic impact plan of course for our discussion…

The profile page allows you to drill down into more detailed information about the plan, how it works, and how you'll be using it.  They also discuss support points and have details on fitness plans.  Surprisingly, eDiets doesn't show any glycemic index food values or glycemic index chart information (GlycemicEdge.com does fortunately!).  They do however provide glycemic friendly foods, menu's, and shopping lists — so you get the result without having to watch the label.  This is good for many, keeps it easy – but we'd like to see a more thorough education on "why" and "how" the foods we're selected and how they interact.

Once you've selected your plan and enrolled, you're free to explore.  They have a wealth of sections to assist you – including News, Diet, Shopping lists, progress meters, Tools, Behavior trackers, Fitness planners, Recipes, and a community section for support and forums for those also starting out on the plan.

The fitness planner is an interesting feature.  It's nice to have, has actual demo's and instructions – focused on cardio and light resistances.  None of this is customized to the GI diet, it's the same across all their plans. The meal planner is where you really get down to business.  Here is where the speed of an online GI diet plan assist helps – allowing you to plan and print daily meals for up to weeks at a time.  Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner – all GI friendly foods.

Tracking your progress is also easy – with detailed progress and weight loss charts that demonstrate where you are compared to initial goals, your calculated body mass index (BMI), and your complete history since starting.  Think of it as a virtual check in.  We wish they showed more detail, such as what an average plan would be, or an easier trendline to compare if the exercise level increased so you could predict future results.

Browsing their recipe guide and printable shopping lists are the 2 features we like most.  It makes choosing the right foods, without having to lookup GI food scores on your own, a bit easier.

Overall – despite a few areas we would like to see improved – getting help with an interactive glycemic index diet plan makes sense for a lot of people.  This will work best if you combine it with some research and nutrition planning from sites like Glycemic Edge. If you want to give eDiets a try – be sure to use their 25% off coupon offer available here.

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eDiets Test Drive

Starting the glycemic index diet is a lot easier with some structured help to get going on the right track.  Interactive (online) plans are the cheapest way to get started – and the provider that consistently ranks #1 from our readers is eDiets – preferred by 55% of readers of GlycemicEdge.com.

We get a lot of emails from those wondering how the eDiets program works.  They offer a free profile analysis featuring their Glycemic Impact diet plan – but what can you expect when you sign up?  We tested it last week…

Part 1: Signing up for their Free GI Diet Profile Analysis

Pretty easy and clean process.  Includes realistic goal setting and timeframes for when you want to hit your weight loss goal.  Also includes BMI (body mass index) calculations.

Part 2: Inside eDiets: Progress Charts (your Diet Dashboard)

We love this.  It puts all your key data into one place – including starting health points, goals, daily calorie guides, BMI levels (original, current, and goal BMI).  Visual display of your weight loss by date.  eDiets also provides a sliding bar and customized interactive health plans for exercise to accelerate your daily/weekly weight loss goals.

Part 3: Shopping Lists and Glycemic Index Specifics

This is where the real planning and help begins.  Plans and guides specific to the Glycemic Index plan – our favorite is their interactive shopping list.  It’s printable (makes it easy to hit the grocery store with low GI approved foods), plus eDiets has pre-planned low GI Meal Plans that are pre-approved to be GI friendly.

The shopping list includes categories for meat, frozen foods, produce, canned, dry goods, fruits/juices, and more (like candy – yes, candy….)

Part 4: Glycemic Index Interactive Plans and ‘jumpstart’ guides to get started

Overall, we continue to be really impressed by eDiets interactive plans.  They’re cheap (about $4/week – a real bargain compared to most of their competitors) and make a huge difference — especially if you’re just getting started or thinking about getting started on a low GI diet but need help to see how it works and pick the right foods on an ongoing basis. We would like to see even more recipes and videos is one of our few gripes.

Also – eDiets (like NutriSystem, MediFast, and others) now offers a delivery plan that includes the Glycemic Index.  So whether you go the online plan (do it yourself shopping) or delivery (autopilot – everything is done for you) it’s a great choice to get started.  Click here to get a free GI diet profile to test it out yourself.

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eDiets Coupon

Glycemic Impact Diet Meal Plan

This plan is a GOOD Match if:

  • You crave sugar and sweets
  • You have low energy

Might NOT be a good fit if:

  • You prefer to only eat 1-2x/day
  • Want fast food choices


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