I have been provided with a Nutrisystem plan in exchange for sharing my honest experience and results on my blog. All opinions are my own.
Ryan has been on Nutrisystem for quite a while now. When we first started Nutrisystem Ryan was eating Nutrisystem meals for 3 entres a day all month long. After we joined, Nutrisystem introduced Flex Meals. However, Ryan stayed on the plan he started with until recently. So, Flex Meals are new to us but not as new to Nutrisystem as a whole.
Anyway, what are Nutrisystem flex meals?
Nutrisystem Flex Meals are spots in your monthly Nutrisystem schedule where for one lunch and one dinner each week (or four of each per month) you make a meal using food from the grocery store instead of Nutrisystem. To help make sure that you are eating well for your flex-meals, Nutrisystem guides you through the process of how to choose healthy foods that are in the right calorie range.
While it will vary depending on your plan, in Ryan’s case if he eats a flex lunch it needs to be made up of 2 powerfuels and 2 smartcarbs. When he eats a flex dinner, it needs to be made up from 1 smartcarb and 2 powerfuels.
Smartcarb servings range from 80-120 calories and have at least 1 gram of fiber. They are made from foods that score low in the gylcemic index. Most SmartCarbs are fruits or whole grain products.
Powerfuels are also 80-120 calories per serving, and these are made up of protein or healthy fats. To qualify as a powerfuel they must have at least 5 grams of protein. The most popular Powerfuels include lean meats, eggs, dairy products and nuts.
So for Ryan a flex dinner needs to include one SmartCarbs and two powerfuels. So his entire flex lunch should be between 320 to 480 calories, and it should have at least 2 grams of fiber and at least 10 grams of protein. Planning flex-meals is a great way to learn more about nutrition labels and to start exploring what grocery store foods are high vs low in calorie and which ones are good sources of fiber and protein.
We buy bread that is under 100 calories for 2 slices, and has 5g of protein and 4g of fiber in every 2 pieces. So two slices of our bread qualifies as a smartcarb OR as a powerfuel. The sliced ham that we buy has a serving size of 2 oz which is 90 calories and 10 grams of protein, so it qualifies as a powerfuel. Sliced sandwich cheese that we buy is 80 calories and 4 protein per slice, so it qualifies as a powerfuel. So for a flex-meal Ryan could make a sandwich using two slices of our bread (as a smartcarb), 2oz of lunch ham (powerfuel), and a slice of cheese (powerfuel).
Veggies are unlimited on Nutrisystem (they recommend 4 servings a day) so he can also add lettuce or most other veggies onto his sandich “free of charge”.
Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.
I think Flex Meals are a great way to start learning how to eat in the real world, without all the prepackaged foods for you. For me, a whole lot of fiber is needed to keep me satisfied. That usually means lots of low cal veggies and that works for me.
Nurtisystem Flexmeals sounds like a great way to learn how to eventually make meals on your own, without being on a plan. I think this is great! I honestly find the whole process of counting calories a little overwheming and confusing, but it definitely seems as if they help a lot with this! 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
Hi Rich. In a nutshell, Nutrisystem is a way to count calories without having to count calories. The meals come in set calorie amounts. Flex meals are one step closer to counting calories on your own, because they include a protein source and a healthy-carb source within a set calorie range (about 100 calories each). Weight loss just requires that you eat less calories than your body needs to get through the day. You can use a TDEE calculator to get a rough idea of how many calories your body uses to just ‘exist’ each day, and then you want to eat about 500 calories less than that amount per day, (or about -3500 per week) in order to lose about 1 pound per week which is the most common goal for weight loss as it’s viewed as a very healthy amount to lose per week. You could technically lose weight by just eating flex meals because they are calorie-based, but they just focus on protein and carbs and you should be eating veggies and so on as well. So I personally wouldn’t recommend it – but it als just seems to me that if you have the self-control to count calories and pay attention to your protein, fiber, carb, etc intake that you could just count calories using a program like myfitnesspal and that would be more straightforward.
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Rich
Kathryn A Hernton
Gaye Newton
Thanks for the introduction into the nutrisystem flex meals,i now have an understanding of how this system works.