What is the Best Alternative to Nutrisystem for Weight Loss?

If you've been wondering what the best alternative to Nutrisystem is for losing weight, I'll let you in on a secret that may surprise you for its effectiveness.

First of all, let's be clear about something.

My main focus for this website is to share all my knowledge and experience in weight loss and healthy dieting with the emphasis on Nutrisystem as the best solution for busy people who want to diet as easily and conveniently as possible.

However, in my opinion, there is no commercial diet program anywhere that can create results as spectacularly as taking responsibility for your own body and taking the natural, healthy and holistic approach to getting back in shape.

So to answer the question posed by the title of this article, the best alternative to Nutrisystem in my opinion is to go healthy, sensible and use what you already have to not only lose weight but to regain the physical health and energy levels that you are meant to have.

better than nutrisystemI will explain this alternative method to you and if you want to try it, great. You can work wonders when you work on yourself.

If it seems like hard work, then don't waste your time looking for better commercial diets than the Nutrisystem diet because I don't believe there is one.

Given the very affordable Nutrisystem cost and the sheer convenience and time saving aspects, this really is a tough meal replacement home delivery diet to beat!

Step Back from Relying Only on Medical Advice

Before I get into this, I should point out that because it doesn't actually cost anything in dollar terms, you won't get a lot of doctors or medical professionals agree with this method. Why would I say that?

I'm being a little cynical here, because for starters, I don't believe most doctors are focused on healing. What doctors are taught in med school is about prescribing the right medications to treat the symptoms of whatever illnesses the patient comes to them about.

To my way of thinking, that's not healing anything. To truly heal a medical condition that can't be fixed through actual surgery, the root cause of the illness needs to be identified and addressed.

Here's the kicker: Most modern ailments that are not based on viral or bacterial (pathogen) attack are based in faulty diet and its main resulting overall condition, metabolic syndrome.

The solution to this is fix the root cause (the diet) and you fix the problem (metabolic syndrome). This solution is not a quick fix either. It takes time, just as it took time to get to the stage where your health has deteriorated so much you are now suffering the effects of metabolic syndrome.

What are these effects?

You may have heard of some of these:

I'll stop there. The list is much longer, but I think you get the idea.

I also know that it can be hard to accept that so many horrible medical conditions should have their base in what you eat. However, that's one of the really tough truths in life and the old saying, "You are what you eat," is right on the mark.

The good news is that there is a workable solution. It's something that anyone can do. It costs nothing apart from the strength to change some habits and embrace a healthier lifestyle.

If you are not prepared to do that, there is always a review of Nutrisystem, but in the end, I'm afraid you leave yourself at the mercy of the medical profession. Which, I hate to say it, makes the bulk of its money from you (and as many people as possible) being sick and needing their help!

Remember, I said you're not going to get much support from most doctors, for this one, very important reason. Like everyone, doctors like to be paid for doing their job and they don't get paid for healthy people walking around feeling great!

OK, that's enough of the cynicism and reality checks. Let's get to it.

Working on Your Body

The amazing, miraculous and cleverly engineered body of yours is designed to be healthy. If you believe in God, then you'll be very well aware that He created these bodies of ours with a certain level of perfection in mind. He certainly did not create them to be sick all the time and in constant pain!

best nutrisystem alternativeFrom a physiological standpoint, let's look at what the body is designed to do:

The human body is designed to grow from infant-hood to maturity using food as fuel to build the multitude of cells and body tissues to get it there. The body is designed to be exercised (worked) to cause it to build muscle groups necessary for it to move around easily, perform work and to defend itself when threatened.

The process that creates growth starts with the digestion of food, where a process happens that allows the body to extract nutrients from the food that is consumed, use energy to run the body, store any excess for later use and to eliminate what is not used. I'm quite sure I don't need to go into too much detail on how that all happens.

Tied to the processing of food for fuel are the many other bodily functions that happen largely without us needing to be aware of them.

These include the running of our immune system to protect us from pathogens and anything that could cause us harm from the inside, the running of our brain and major organs that keep the body running on auto-pilot (the autonomic nervous system) and the development of muscle tissue, the repair of damaged cells and tissues and the recycling of debris such as damaged or mal-formed proteins, storing of excess sugars (as fat), eliminating toxins (the liver), production of hormones and many others besides.

Suffice it to say, a lot of processing goes on inside the body every second of every day.

So how does what we are eating play its part in the cause and effect side of our health?

You've probably already heard the metaphor of the need for putting the right kind of fuel in an automobile to make it run smoothly and keep on running in top condition for longer. Putting the wrong kind of fuel in results in poor performance, shortened lifespan and possible internal damage to the engine or transmission.

Related to the human body, the fuel is the food we eat and liquids we consume for hydration and refreshment. The body needs to be fed with the right foods and liquids for optimum performance, longevity and the avoidance of internal damage.

The problem is most of us are putting in the wrong fuel and wondering why our bodies are not performing so well, suffering illnesses and even some damage that requires surgery to fix.

What is Good Fuel for the Body?

So what is the good things we should be eating and what are the bad things we should be avoiding?

Also, what are the best eating habits we can adopt and what are the bad habits we should eliminate?

Good fuel is generally fresh, natural food that has not been tampered with by meddling companies trying to make money off our need to eat to live!

Deep down inside, you already know what those foods are, I'm sure. For example, fresh produce grown organically without pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, artificial fertilizers and any of the other toxic chemicals that intensive farming methods advocate.

If you are vegetarian of vegan, that's where it stops pretty much. For those still eating meat and/or fish, the choices are greater but so are the potential dangers.

Intensively reared and farmed meat (live animals to begin with) are routinely exposed to many pathogens that cause illness due to their being forced to live in cramped conditions in large, covered enclosures. They are fed unnatural food, given a collection of growth promoting hormones so they grow faster and bigger and are given a cocktail of anti-biotics to deal with the pathogens.

The traditional picture of happy cows grazing in open grassy fields is not common these days. The vast majority of livestock rarely if ever see the blue sky or green grass. Why? Because it's cheaper to rear livestock in this way and farmers need to make a profit to stay in business.

A few farmers have bucked this awful trend and have turned over their land to organic crop growing and allowing their livestock to live as normal a life as possible. However, this is more expensive to do and that drives up the price of the produce and meat, which is why you pay a premium for good quality, grass-fed meat and organic fruit and vegetables.

The sad part is we are extremely limited to being able to buy the very food that our bodies thrive on the best. It is expensive and not easy to get hold of.

The next best thing is of course to grow your own vegetables and keep your own livestock, but that only works if you have enough land to grow thing on. If you live in an apartment as so many people do, you won't be able to do this apart from maybe growing a few things in containers on your balcony.

I'm telling you, if that's you, then go for it anyway. Buy some containers, some growing medium and some seeds and grow whatever you can. Every little counts toward your improved health.

What is Bad Fuel for the Body?

I think you already know the answer to what is bad for the body, but here goes anyway:

All processed foods, foods containing refined grains, added sugars or sweeteners, preservatives, colorings, flavorings and any other artificial additives. Drinks containing sweeteners, natural or artificial. Candy, cakes, pastries, cookies, biscuits, ice cream… in fact anything that isn't completely natural.

I hate to say it, but that includes just about everything on the supermarket shelves. What you see when you look down the aisles of the supermarket are not rows and rows of foods, you're seeing rows and rows of "products."

Products are not food!

What is the Miracle Method to Health?

Now I'm going to get even more radical and take you right out of your comfort zone altogether. This may not be what you want to hear, but you're going to hear it anyway!

Do you want to have a healthy body that weights what it is supposed to weigh, that looks good and feels good?

Yes? Good. Read on:

Another thing our miraculous bodies are designed to do in order to survive is to be able to prepare for times when food may be scarce. Our ancestors would eat like champions when they managed to kill a wild animal to feed the tribe, but when it was all gone and there was no more food for a while, did they starve?

No they did not!

The body stores fuel for later use. It's called fat!

When there is no food to eat, the body just reverts to using its store of fat for energy and the body keeps going quite happily and we do not starve! This can go on for several days on end without our bodies suffering unduly, because that's the way they are designed.

Your body and my body are designed this way.

In fact, a part of that very design is a built-in process that takes advantage of the times when there is no food to do something truly miraculous. It activates a process called autophagy.

What is Autophagy?

So what is autophagy and why is it important enough for me to even be writing about it for you to read?

Well, actually, it is not just very important. It is vital for prolonged healthfulness.

Autophagy is the body's process that takes all unwanted or unused matter within the body and recycles it into new amino acids, which are the building blocks of new proteins the body will use for continued growth and rejuvenation.

Here's how it works.

In simple terms, our bodies have two main modes.

  1. Digestion
  2. Healing and Repair

When it is busy with one mode, it is not doing the other. In other words, while we are busy digesting food, we are not busy working on healing or repairing damaged tissue or cells. The healing mode only kicks in after digestion has ceased.

Autophagy is a part of the healing and repair phase. If you think of it as the body's cleanup mechanism, you'll have a pretty good picture of what its function is. It gets hold of damaged or mal-formed proteins, dead cells, even invading pathogens and breaks them down into simple amino acids that are then repurposed into new proteins.

Are you seeing the miracle happening here?

It is the proliferation of misfolded (mal-formed) proteins that are responsible for a lot of damage in our bodies. This can be from the formation of plaques in the blood vessels and major organs like the brain to the formation of bad cells that even can lead to the formation of cancerous cells.

By removing these damaged proteins, we are effectively cleansing the body from the inside. Autophagy also takes out pathogens because they are not necessary for the well-being of the body and their physical components are broken down into usable elements in the body.

Are you seeing the potential here?

Consider this: when you take out damaged cells, that means less likelihood of cancer growth. Take out pathogens and less likelihood of developing illnesses associated with those pathogens.

Do this on a regular basis and you will be setting up a continuous rejuvenation cycle that literally renews the parts of the body that have become aged and damaged or broken down!

How Does this Help Me Lose Weight?

Now to the part you've been waiting for. I wanted to throw in some handy "other" health benefits first just in case you might be interested and see the potential for, dare I say it, extended life-span and improved health for the duration of those extra years of life.

The weight loss aspect of all this comes from getting into the habit of providing the body with periods of extended healing and repair mode by not eating as often as you have been. When you reduce your food intake each day, you will also be reducing the amount of excess fuel it's been getting and turning into stored fat.

When you do that, you force the body to burn that stored fat for fuel in the form of ketone bodies (ketones). The body can run quite happily (some say actually better) on ketones as fuel.

There are some organs in the body that still require glucose as their main fuel source. No problem. The body can also process ketone bodies into glucose for those parts that need it.

Burning stored fat for fuel depletes the fat store resulting in less fat and less excess weight.

There is your weight loss!

What is this process even called?

It's called "Intermittent Fasting." And it flat out works where all diets or dieting programs including my preferred solution, Nutrisystem, will ultimately fail.

The reason is that all diets and diet programs allow you to keep eating throughout the day. That keeps your body in a constant state of digestion mode and it never gets the chance to revert to healing and repair mode.

Is This Method Difficult?

At first, yes, it can feel difficult. But like changing any habit, it can be achieved gradually over time. I said at the beginning this is NOT a quick solution. It takes time.

You have one very powerful assisting process that you can and will make very good use of. That process is called, sleep!

To extend the period of not eating in any 24 hour period, placing the overnight sleeping phase right there in the middle of it can help enormously. That's because you're not conscious of not eating while you are asleep!

Here's my own strategy and timetable:

My own intermittent fasting time frame is to have around 4-6 hours each day when I eat, with the rest only drinking water, herbal tea or black unsweetened coffee first thing in the morning.

My typical day goes like this:

See what I did?

The only really tough part people that have copied my method have found is the morning gap in waking and eating. To begin with, they felt hungry almost as soon as they got out of bed.

Here is where some willpower and determination come into play. It's how I got started on this method. I forced myself to endure the hunger for as long as I could then ate something.

At first, I could get to about 9am then had to eat. The initial glass of water upon rising really helped keep hunger at bay there. Each day I would push the eating time back 10 minutes until I could go until 10am, then eventually 11am.

By pushing it until 12 noon and stopping eating by 4pm, I'm experiencing 20 hours of intermittent fasting. Of that 20 hours, the first 12-14 hours are taken up by the body using up all the spare glucose. Then it switches to burning ketones.

After about 16-18 hours fasting, autophagy kicks in and so I get 2-4 hours of this.

If you're wondering if I push that envelope out even further sometimes, the answer is that I sure do! If I'm in the mood for it, I can skip eating altogether in the day and get a full 24 hour fast, stretching to 44 hours if I eat a breakfast at noon the next day.

That's a lot of autophagy, healing and repairing, after which I feel amazing!

One last thing. Don't sweat on how many pounds you'll lose each day. Compared to the health benefits from intermittent fasting, the weight loss is secondary as it just happens anyway.

You'll begin to notice your clothes getting looser after two weeks or more and it won't be too long after that you'll be looking for some new, smaller size clothes to wear!

What I'm saying here is that it is not necessarily the weight loss that you're aiming at here, it is better health. The weight will naturally drop as a good side-effect of this new habitual way of eating.

That's the best alternative to eating a diet like Nutrisystem or any of the other commercially available alternatives. Best because it costs nothing and the benefits are many. So many!

Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2020

Written by: Natalie Tuffnal