LA Weight Loss

A very popular choice that many individuals who are looking to lose weight make is going to one of the major weight loss centres and enrolling in their programs. Most of these centres such as Jenny Craig or LA Weight Loss will offer one-on-one counselling sessions where you will first go and fill out a questionnaire that will determine what diet plan you are put on and then keep going to weekly for both support and to make any changes you may need as you progress through.
Probably one of the most beneficial aspects of these centres is the interpersonal support you will get from speaking with your diet counsellor. Since you know she will be expecting you to follow the diet, this may help some individuals to maintain their eating habits and thus help further progress.
There are a whole host of drawbacks to these programs however.
First of all, while the support you get from the counsellor is great, often these counsellors are not educated in nutrition and are simply salespeople that have been trained by the company. Furthermore, most often they are working on a commission basis so there is a very high chance that they will be pushing you to buy into all their options. If you are someone who does not like to feel pressured when it comes to making purchases, this is likely not going to be a good situation for you.
The next major issue with these popular diet centres is that when you go on their program, you'll be instructed to eat their ready-made meals. This serves two functions. First, it helps to regulate calorie control. It is very easy to track exactly how many calories you are consuming when all you are eating is food that has been examined to meet specific calorie needs. Secondly, their foods often resembles that of higher calorie items, thus trying to give you the impression that you really aren't dieting at all.
Often these meals are not the most nutritionally sound and even worse yet, the portion sizes are so tiny since they do have to keep them within a specified calorie budget. This leaves you hungry and wanting more. It would likely be far better to accept the fact you can't have Penne Alfredo while dieting, and instead choose a meal that's full of vegetables and has more volume so you aren't hungry twenty minutes later.
The other issue with these pre-made meals is that they are not really going to do much in terms of helping you learn how to eat a normal, healthy diet once you are off the plan. Unless you intend on sticking with their program indefinitely and always buying their foods, you may run into troubles maintaining your weight loss once you go off their foods and start cooking on your own.
You can remedy this situation by trying to incorporate some of their foods, but also include some foods you prepare yourself into your diet as well. This will still allow you to hopefully continue losing weight, while teaching you how to prepare nutritious, calorie balanced meals on your own.
So if you are looking at all the diet options out there, don't discount the major diet centres, however realize that there are some drawbacks to them. They are a business after all and their intension is to make money. They are doing so by getting you hooked on their program and often, many people are slightly scared to stop for fear they will gain the weight back when returning to 'real world' food again.
If you do choose to go onto their program, make sure you take the steps necessary to ensure this does not happen to you.