Fat loss diets with prepackaged food are popular because of their simplicity. With meals being provided for you, there's no more guess work. Jenny Craig is the most popular diet in this category. The plan seems easy, simply eat the food and lose weight right? Don't get too excited from those commercials featuring Queen Latifhah, Kristie Allie and Valerie Bertinelli. While these celebrities talk about the pros of fat loss diets like Jenny Craig, they rarely mention the cons...namely cost!

Judging from what most dieters have to say about fat loss diets like Jenny Craig, it's almost tantamount to going into a used car dealership. Leigh, a young woman who tried the program, said she would not recommend fat loss diets similar to Jenny Craig "I found the sales staff to be absolutely RELENTLESS with the up sells." Although she was already shelling out over $500 a month for food, the Counselors (more likes Salespeople) would try to bombard her with extra items like vitamins, exercise tapes, etc.

Leigh says it was impossible to buy just what she needed and nothing more. "You MUST order ALL the food or they give you a song and dance about not losing as much weight and not being prepared." So much for an easy diet plan! Leigh says fat loss diets are already stressful enough, now she had the added stress of guarding her wallet! "The sessions were nothing more than an opportunity to pressure you into buying more stuff. It took more energy with every visit to get just what I wanted to order. It was ridiculous!"

The last straw came when she started finding extra charges on her food orders. $10-$15 per visit. Leigh decided to bypass dealing with the counselors and just order from Jenny direct, this way her food could come to her home. Imagine her reaction when the first food order arrived with six bottles of vitamins, another food order mistake. This time the cost was a whopping $52 extra! Leigh ended up quitting the program. After 4 months of calls to Jenny Craig's customer service department and the better business bureau, she still hasn't gotten her money back.

For some dieters, the cost of fat loss diets with prepackaged meals are just too much. "What if you have a family?" Says Julia, a single mother of three, who decided not to go on Jenny Craig. "I already spend $400 a month on groceries for me and the kids. Now I have to spend an extra $500 on top of that for Jenny Craig food? That's money I could put in savings!"

Even if you can afford the Jenny Craig program, there's another problem with these type of fat loss diets... What happens when you stop eating the food? Angela, another dieter, actually lost 40 pounds. Unfortunately she says "The minute I started eating regular foods again, my weigh started creeping back. I would not recommend this diet to anyone. Eating a balanced diet with healthy real food is much more sensible."