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Not that I am totally happy with NS but I think things are running as smooth as possible at the moment.

Here it is, 4 weeks, 28 plan days, after my start. Total loss 5.2 pounds.

I am happy with that, had some bumps in the road here and there, but I am in the groove now. I got below my short term target of 200#, not in many years, still shooting for 175#. I refined what I needed to shop for in terms of the non-NS items, and after talking /chatting with NS a few times, I think I have a path forward after my second month. I can manage the flex meals style of eating, my insulin requirements have been reduced to very small amounts.

NS still needs to improve their customer service for phone and chat line long hold times. Some of the food items could be better, but whatever they are, and whatever I did on the plan, I still lost weight.

I am going to say this is "resolved" at this time. I may issue another update later.

Update after 3 weeks (21 days) of my plan: I have been going back and forth with the NS food and the Flex meals, consisting of carbs and proteins with quantities from their lists. So after 3 weeks, average loss (yes, there is a weight loss) is about 1 lb/wk.

Of course that is not going to sound like the commercials, but even NS will tell you that average loss is 1 to 2 lbs per week. So total loss so far is -3.2 lbs on digital scale. That is better than the 1 lb per month I was doing on my own before NS. I ran into a problem with having too much food around, namely they send you a box that has over 40 snacks (bars, bags of chips, cookies, etc.).

That is a fatal flaw for me, I never used to keep much food in the house, preferring to go out almost every day to get my daily meals and veggies and fruits. So guess what, I pigged out and ate all the snacks! over 2 days! I just substitute the flex items, it is easier that way.

Even then I lost some weight, so is my case so different from other folks?

I am about to get my second box of food, maybe I should get a safety deposit box, lol for the snacks. Seriously though, I need to ask NS if they have some method to keep all that stuff in my house without me raiding it.

So i see from reading a lot of NS consumer reviews that many are experiencing problems with canceling their plan. Several categories are: 1) canceling after one month and getting charged auto-delivery fee, 2) canceling after 2 months worth of shipments and still getting their CC charged, maybe having more food sent to them, 3) long wait times to get through on cancellation phone line, 4) nasty treatment by the "save at all costs" reps who try to talk you out of canceling. Best to be forewarned, so some of the solutions are: 1) canceling or freezing your CC before it can be charged, 2) calling early in the 2nd month to prevent 3rd month from being charged/shipped, 3) be ready to complain to BBB and/or PA Attorney General consumer complaint line.

After 7 full plan days, which includes NS meals plus what they call Flex Meals, my digital scale captured a weight loss of 0.8 lbs. Now that may not match with NS massive numbers on their commercials, but for a diabetic, any weight loss is better than none.

Diabetic plan has more calories than the standard plan, and does not include the Freshstart week. Actually during the week it was looking like I would lose more than that but on that particular day I had some bounceback for some reason. But, I tell myself, I am not here to prove NS program "works", and it is not my job to meet or exceed what others may experience. My body is still adjusting to what the plan entails, I am mainly dissatisfied with what I consider to be an obscene amount of sodium in their foods.

Federal guidelines are not what I am used to, so maybe for me it is water retention, who knows. I also have seen where some of the NS food ideas simply do not exist, like low salt or 1% fat cottage cheese-no such thing.

Many of the food quantities are nigh impossible to live with, in terms of food purchases and storage, like one slice of bread or 2 oz of chicken breast. Also, to supplement NS plan with extras one has to buy is very expensive, even though I try to save where I can, staying away from expensive proteins and veggies.

adding a comment after a few days with my plan: the first box arrived in good shape, I checked the contents with the packing list, and all was fine. I found my first dinner, selected at random,to be already leaking from its package, contacted the counseling line, and a replacement is coming in the mail.

That had to be from the shipping point, not sure how long it was like that. The box had a bunch of bubble pods to take up space in the box, partially due to the decrease in number of meals being shipped, since the last time I was on NS. Most of the food was decent, I am used to the portion sizes and the water (64 oz). Also, no problem with exercise, I usually ride a bicycle 15-20 hrs per week.

One has to augment NS food with other items to buy. I will track the cost of that during April, trying to keep with the lower cost veggies and proteins. The Leaf recipe book, although attractive looking, is near impossible to adhere to. Many of the items would be impossible to find and pay for, so that whole book is a non-factor for me.

No way should one senior guy be paying $1000/month for food and spending all his time shopping and preparing. Maybe it is meant for those that already have fully stocked pantries and freezers with all sorts of stuff from their pre-NS days. The damage control NS monitors may jump on me about that. Other than that, I experienced very long wait times on the phone and chat line on Saturday evening, but Sunday was much smoother.

I find the chat line better to use, the phone system will drive you dizzy with all the menus and sub-menus, and repetitious messages and ads. NS has really evolved into a marketing company rather than a diet and nutrition company, IMO. From a diabetic point of view, my total insulin required/day is reasonable, allowing me to stretch my supply longer. Only drawback to the diet concept is the amount of sodium ingested, unfortunately sodium is usually added to foods when taste is otherwise lacking.

Having high BP, I normally restrict sodium to way less than the federal guideline which NS follows.

NS would offer me some low sodium items but really I am reluctant to take on extra costs for that. NS will charge you for for every option and change you want to make.

as of the end of 2018, they had $691M in revenue, and spent $203M in marketing to get that, so that is why you see all the commercials and all their product offerings