Diet Reviews: eDiets.com

Program Overview
eDiets.com is a pretty amazing and comprehensive program with a proven track record. It offers something for everyone at an incredibly reasonable price. You'll have access to just about everything you need in terms of nutritional information, fitness programs, motivation, meal plans and even a pre-prepared food program if you're the kind of person who doesn't have time to prepare your own food. eDiets.com has won several awards for diet and nutrition sites and they claim to have over 2 million members - that's a lot of people who trust eDiets.com for healthy weight loss information. One of the most intriguing aspects of the program is the support network they have created from their membership and professionals. Their site is very easy to use, and gives you so many options that you could try something new every week.


How It Works
You get to choose from over 20 different diet plans including the Mediterranean Diet, a Glycemic Index play, the Bill Phillips Eating for Life Plan, and their own eDiets.com Weight Loss Plan. They also have a huge selection of plans for people with special dietary considerations such as vegetarian diets, heart healthy plans, lactose intolerance, etc. After looking over the different plans, you can either select the one you're most interested in, or you can create an eDiets Profile and get advice on which plan best suits your needs. They determine this based on your responses to a series of questions in their system. From there, you can always change plans if you aren't comfortable with yours, and there is a pretty large member community that you can tap into for support, questions or advice.

There is also a database of over 6,000 recipes for you to take advantage of. There are also cooking videos on how to prepare your meals as well as shopping lists and an interactive tool to help you create your own meal plans.

The fitness section of the site is also very comprehensive with options for home or gym-based workout programs. They use a 3-D video library system to demonstrate a huge variety of exercises so you'll have the ability to learn a lot of different exercise options. You can create your own fitness profile and get free advice on how to get started.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the program is the eDiets Meal Delivery Plan. You have to pay extra for this (obviously), but they will send pre-made food right to your door via Fed-Ex that is supposed to taste fantastic. I have not actually tasted the food myself, but it has won high praise from many people, and they claim it is very tasty. The key to the meal delivery plan is that your meals are already cooked for you in pre-determined portion sizes so you don't have to think about how much you're eating. For many people, that is an amazing thing.

There are plenty of other cool extras in eDiets.com including fitness assessment tools, blogs and podcasts with an endless amount of information, online meetings, newsletters and a very robust support staff that you can access just about any time if you have questions about how to best utilize the site.


Exercise
The eDiets.com fitness section is actually pretty good. There are plenty of options to choose from whether you like to workout at home or at a gym. They have videos of many exercises that allow you to find a way to get it done just about anywhere. You have access to personal trainers and a pretty vast support network.

You can create your own fitness profile and have eDiets create a program for you. This is a good option for anyone who struggles with getting started or what to do. They have a variety of fitness assessment tools available and you can actually track your progress with their system. About the only thing they don't do for you is the actual work. Unfortunately, you still have to do that on your own no matter how much you pay.


Cost
In my opinion, eDiets.com is very reasonable for what you get. The cost is only $17.96 per month. Assuming you take advantage of the support groups, use the meal plans and recipes and get some fitness advice, this is DIRT CHEAP as far as I'm concerned.

Pros
- Variety of meal plans available
- Tons of recipes, cooking advice and meal planning assistance
- Good fitness component
- Excellent community feel with plenty of support
- Excellent list of diets to choose from and support on how to choose
- Great price
- Good customer support

Cons
- There is so much available that you can get lost if you let yourself
- They claim to have a lot of motivational support, but most of it comes from other members
- Does not address the psychological or emotional issues involved in weight loss except through members sharing their experiences on message boards
- Ongoing, monthly billing


Recommendation
Like anything else, eDiets.com is only worth it if you use it, but that's up to you. If you're looking for a good deal and an easy-to-use site, look no further - this is a quality program that I can definitely recommend. If you like having a lot of options and education, this is a great program for you. If you get overwhelmed by too much information, you can stick to one plan and look no further. I give eDiets.com two thumbs up for overall affordability, ease of use and an incredibly wide variety of plans and information.