TODAY: Does Jenny Craig really work?

The TODAY show started a series called "TODAY Investigates Diet Programs" where they will take a look-see at the most popular diets using real people wanting to shed pounds. The first program to be probed is Jenny Craig.

TODAY put "Lisa" mom of twins on Jenny Craig for 3-months to see if she could reach her goal of dropping 20lbs. Lisa ate Jenny meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and supplemented those dishes with veggies, fruits, and whole grains. The total calorie count for the day was 1200. Lisa was also put on an exercise plan.

In the video, Matt Lauer has Lisa and nutritionist Heidi on set to discuss Lisa's results and Heidi's opinion of the Jenny Craig plan. It is worth it to watch the video just to see the looks that Lisa gives Heidi while she basically poo-poos the Jenny strategy...in a nice PC way.

Heidi doesn't outright say, "Hell no, I think this plan sucks." However, Heidi's body language and her answers speak volumes which Lisa's body language obviously disagrees with. I'm totally with Heidi on this one. Now, you can watch the video and see something completely different, but that's what I saw. And yes I have a bias because I don't like diet programs that require you to eat pre-packaged foods to drop weight. I also don't buy the "it's a nice way to jump start your own efforts" reasoning. My two cents, you can start eating real foods at the get-go for a more effective long term jump start.

The cost for the Jenny Craig program including the food that Lisa ate during those 3-months came to about $1735. That's about $578/month, and does not include the food to feed her two kids and husband. I thought that was pricey. Again, in the short term Lisa was successful, but what happens when she has to go back to eating non-Jenny foods again? Next up is Weight Watchers. Stay tuned.