Losing weight is a common goal for many.
Unfortunately, it’s one of the most difficult to achieve. While you may be tempted by the fad diets that help you lose weight fast, those aren’t sustainable.
Research shows that people who lose weight gradually have a much better chance of keeping it off [1]. Luckily, even modest weight loss can make a dramatic improvement to your health and wellness.
However, the key to losing weight comes with having a plan and sticking to it. Many people fall into the trap of yo-yo dieting only to regain the weight they worked so hard to lose. You want to find something that works for you consistently. Something that is practical long-term.
This is why it would be advantageous to look for a proven weight loss system that not only helps you lose weight but also helps you keep it off.
That’s exactly what Nutrisystem and Lean Cuisine do.
However, choosing between the two is easier said than done. By the end of this article, you should have a good idea of which one is right for you.
Nutrisystem vs Lean Cusine: How Do Their Menus Compare?
Contents
1. Nutrisystem Menu Overview
Nutrisystem delivers an expansive menu that’s full of variety and different flavors. Therefore, you should be able to find something that meshes well with your taste buds.
- Over 160 Menu Choices
One of the standout features of the Nutrisystem menu has to be its size. With Nutrisystem, you get to choose from over 160 tasty menu options.
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This is enough to satisfy even the pickiest eaters. One of the biggest problems a lot of people run into when they are dieting is not being able to have enough variety.
You can only eat chicken and broccoli so many times. Nutrisystem has developed a program that gives you the variety you need to keep you enjoying tasty and new food all of the time.
This can keep you from getting bored with your diet which keeps you consistent with it.
- Nutritionally Balanced
All of the food items you will find being offered by Nutrisystem are nutritionally balanced. They’ve all been designed by dietitians. Therefore, you know that you are getting excellent nutrition in each of the menu options available.
Having menu items that give you all of the nutrition you need is key. After all, if you are dieting, chances are you are working out too.
You need to not only get sufficient nutritional intake for optimal energy but also to keep your metabolism in full gear.
- Restaurant Favorites
One of the big criticisms of a lot of the diets available out there is not having tasty and desirable meals. Certain meals dominate the restaurant space and those are generally the meals you crave but cannot get with diet programs.
Nutrisystem has enough data on its customers to know how bad they wanted this. This allowed them to develop new menu items that they call “Restaurant Faves.” These are some of the more popular menu items that you likely miss out on when you are following a strict diet.
By getting healthy iterations of these meals, you will find it much easier to stick to your healthy eating habits. You won’t find yourself wanting to venture out to eat with your friends while ignoring your healthy eating commitments.
After all, you won’t have to. You will have near restaurant-quality meals in the comfort of your home.
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks
Nutrisystem delivers a complete weight loss meal program that you can use to help you achieve your weight loss goals and objectives.
They include everything from breakfast to lunch to dinner in your meal plan. You will even have snacks that you can eat to curb your hunger spikes throughout the day.
Having every meal convenient to prep and cook can keep you from making excuses. It allows you to let Nutrisystem handle all of the heavy lifting while you go on about your day and eat healthy with convenience.
- Fully Prepared: Just Heat and Eat
As mentioned, you are getting fully prepared meals from Nutrisystem. There is no worrying about prepping the food or cooking it. You will have everything fully prepped and ready to heat up and serve.
This makes optimizing your meal plan a breeze. After all, it’s already done for you.
All you need to do is consistently follow your meal plan and you’ll lose weight successfully.
2. Lean Cuisine Menu Overview
Lean Cuisine is a company that prides itself on providing tasty meals that are convenient and ready to serve. With a name like Lean Cuisine, you’ll be happy to know all of the meals offered are expertly prepared and nutritious.
The chefs that make the meals work alongside professional nutritionists to ensure they are crafting nutritious meals that are under 400 calories and 10 grams of fat.
That way, the customer can enjoy the tasty yet nutritious meals without any of the associated guilt attached.
- Nutritious Meals
All of the meals offered by Lean Cuisine are expertly curated to ensure they are meeting optimal standards. They are meant to tailor to those that live an active lifestyle and who have high nutrition standards.
Every Lean Cuisine meal delivers you the nutrition you need to achieve your diet and fitness goals.
- 5 Pages Of Meals To Choose From
If you are looking to incorporate Lean Cuisine meals into your daily routine, you’ll be happy to know you have over 5 pages of unique and tasty meals to choose from.
These are meals that contain 400 or fewer calories. Therefore, they should fit right in with your respective weight-loss objectives.
To name a few, Lean Cuisine offers Chicken Parm, Chicken Fried Rice, Five Cheese Rigatoni, Glazed Chicken, and more.
You won’t find a shortage of options when it comes to the meals Lean Cuisine has which makes it a good option for anyone that wants to incorporate a lot of different meals into their diet.
Menu Variety: Is Nutrisystem or Lean Cuisine More Diverse?
Nutrisystem’s Menu Variety
You are going to have more menu variety with Nutrisystem. Nutrisystem prides itself on having the most diverse range of menu options. You’ll have plenty of different menu choices to the point where you wouldn’t necessarily need to repeat meals. You have over 160 unique menu options to choose from. This is a large amount and it should be enough to satisfy anyone.
Lean Cuisine’s Menu Variety
Lean Cuisine doesn’t have nearly as many options. However, that doesn’t mean their menu selection is bare.
It’s far from it.
Lean Cuisine offers a lot of different options with over 5 pages of meals under 400 calories alone. They are also constantly offering new products that you can try out.
However, when it comes to variety, Nutrisystem gets the edge in our opinion.
Plans and Foods for Special Diets Comparison
Nutrisystem’s Plans for Special Diets
- Diabetes
Nutrisystem has a lot of different things that make it the optimal choice for those with special dietary requirements. For instance, they offer an entire meal plan for type 2 diabetics.
This meal plan is geared toward diabetics and optimized to lower your A1C in the process.
Because Nutrisystem’s meals are curated by nutritionists and professionals in the field, they’ve created meals that help maintain stable blood sugar levels.
Because diabetics are very prone to fluctuations in blood sugar levels, you want to adhere to a high-protein and high fiber diet.
That’s what the diabetes meal plan offered by Nutrisystem delivers.
- Vegetarian
Nutrisystem also has other specialty plans like a plan optimized for vegetarians. Anyone who is a vegetarian likely knows how difficult it can be to find a meal plan that suits their needs.
Vegetarians will be happy to know that Nutrisystem came out with an optimized meal plan for vegetarians with plenty of vegetarian meals to choose from.
You have over 90 unique menu options that you can choose from. This is a significant number for specialty dieters that usually have very little variety to enjoy.
Lean Cuisine’s Options for Special Diets
- Gluten-Free
Lean Cuisine does a good job to cater to those with dietary restrictions. They have (9) different meals to choose from for those who are gluten-free.
- Carb Conscious
They have (12) different menu options to choose from for those who are looking to limit their intake of carbohydrates. If you don’t want to consume too many carbs, you’re going to want to incorporate meals into the mix that don’t overdo it.
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Lean Cuisine has a good variety to choose from if you are following a low-carb diet.
- High Protein
You will also have (21) different meal choices that offer high protein. Getting a sufficient intake of protein in your diet can play a big role in not only muscle building, but also in keeping your metabolism high.
- Meatless
You will have (15) different meals offered by Lean Cuisine that fall into the “Meatless” category. This can be a big deal for anyone who is looking to lessen their meat intake or eliminate it.
If you don’t want to eat too much meat, you’ll have plenty of variety to choose from when dieting using Lean Cuisine.
Food Taste and Quality Comparison
- How Does the Nutrisystem Food Taste?
Nutrisystem is a wildly popular weight loss and meal delivery program. You will find that some of their highest-rated dishes have 4 to 5-star reviews. Some of their best-rated dishes include Sausage Turkey Pepperoni Pizza and Beef Lo Mein.
A lot of the top reviews note how tasty their dishes are without the extra calories you might expect.
They also note that the serving size is rather generous for the calories too.
- How Does the Lean Cuisine Food Taste?
When you look to see what people are saying about Lean Cuisine, you’ll find that many love its convenience.
Lean Cuisine does a good job of presenting food with optimal convenience without sacrificing flavor.
Customers on the site rave about the excellent taste of dishes like Lean Cuisine’s Alfredo Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli.
Price Compare: Is Nutrisystem or Lean Cuisine More Affordable?
Nutrisystem Pricing Options
The important thing to keep in mind is the comprehensive nature of Nutrisystem’s program. It’s intended to be a full-blown weight loss program with a full meal plan, delivery, and even extras to encourage tracking and motivation. Because of this, it can be very difficult to compare them directly. However, they also sell A La Carte meals that you can purchase without signing up for their meal delivery service.
- Cost for Meal Delivery: Starts at $9.99 per day and goes up to $13.21 per day for the standard plans.
- Cost For A La Carte: If you want to buy meals directly from Nutrisystem A La Carte, you can expect to pay anywhere from $3.60 to $7 per meal. It’s generally a better idea and cheaper to go with a plan.
- Pricing current at time of publication – see current pricing here
Lean Cuisine Pricing Options
You will be purchasing Lean Cuisine from a local grocery store or online. Therefore, the price will differ based on where you are buying it. However, you can expect to pay anywhere from $2.70-$5 for an individual meal.
Because you can find deals at your local grocery store and because you can easily buy meals individually, Lean Cuisine gets the edge for being cheaper and more accessible for those that don’t want to sign up for a delivery program.
Weight Loss Comparison
How Nutrisystem Helps Your Reach Your Weight Loss Goals
As mentioned, Nutrisystem has created an entire meal delivery and weight loss program. Not only do you have meals expertly curated by nutritionists to ensure you are getting the right nutrients in each meal, but you have access to a variety of other tools that will help you succeed with your weight loss objectives.
- Access To Fully Prepared Meals
With Nutrisystem, you have access to meals that are fully prepared and ready to eat in minutes.
- – Access to the NuMi App
You get access to Nutrisystem’s NuMi app which is designed to help you track and monitor your progress. It will also encourage you to push forward with motivational tools.
- Coaching Available
You will have access to Nutrisytem coaching that is available each day of the week. This can be great for those who need an extra push and a little more motivation than they can provide themselves.
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Having a coach will help hold you accountable for your actions or lack thereof when it comes to your weight loss journey.
How Lean Cuisine Helps with Weight Loss
- Tasty and Healthy Food
Lean Cuisine isn’t designed to be a full-blown diet program. It’s meant to help you incorporate healthier meals into a busy and active lifestyle.
If you find that you are having a difficult time losing weight because you don’t have the time or knowledge to curate meals yourself, Lean Cuisine can solve a lot of your problems.
- Calorie Controlled Meals
They have created and optimized a lot of ready-to-eat meals that you can incorporate into your diet. These meals are either 300 to 400 or fewer calories.
Summary: Is Lean Cuisine or Nutrisystem the Best Choice for You?
Reasons You Should Choose Nutrisystem…
- You want a complete weight loss system.
If you want more than meals to help with your weight loss efforts, you will want to opt for Nutrisystem by default. It’s the most comprehensive weight loss and meal delivery solution in the marketplace.
With Nutrisystem, you are getting a lot of expertly curated meals that are both nutritious and tasty delivered right to your door.
You will have access to tracking tools and progress reports that can help guide you along the path toward your weight loss goals.
Also, you will have access to personal coaching that can help you when you are feeling stuck.
- You like more variety
While Lean Cuisine has a lot of meals to choose from, it pales in comparison to the 160+ meals offered by Nutrisystem. Nutrisystem has a lot more meal variety and in many categories.
You will find breakfast, lunch, and dinner dishes. You will also find a lot of snacks that can help you along the way.
– You don’t mind paying more. There is no denying that Nutrisystem is more expensive. However, Nutrisystem delivers a comprehensive weight loss solution.
As long as you are willing to pay for it, you’ll find it more than makes up for the added cost in the value you get from it.
Reasons You Might Choose Lean Cuisine…
- You don’t want to sign up for a comprehensive weight-loss and meal delivery program.
You simply want something that is going to provide your healthy meals with convenience. Lean Cuisine does a good job of providing fully nutritionally balanced meals that you can eat within minutes of heating up.
- You don’t need extra motivation.
If you are someone that can motivate yourself, you won’t need extra motivational tools like personal coaching and more. Lean Cuisine is a brand that makes healthy and convenient meals. They don’t offer personal coaching or any of the extras you might get with other brands.
- You want to buy your meals from the grocery store.
Not everyone wants their meals delivered. If you are someone that does most of your food shopping at a grocery store, you’ll be happy to know Lean Cuisine can be found in the frozen foods section.
This can make getting more Lean Cuisine meals and trying new meals much easier than having to order them online.
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