How Much Credit Should I Give to Nutrisystem?

It's been almost one month since I resumed Nutrisystem. I've set a new low, almost 5 pounds inside my 50-lb. weight range since the 1980's and about 10 pounds away from my 2004 low-carb diet low. Make no mistake; I'm unambiguously obese, and even losing the rest of the 45 pounds in the range would probably leave another 45 pounds to get within a healthy range. If a healthy loss rate is 1.5 lbs/week, it would require more than a year to achieve that objective, and plateaus are a fact of life for every dieter. It took me literally months over the past year to break my last plateau. It still demoralizes me to remember how almost effortlessly I lost weight on my initial low-carb diet--almost 3.5 lbs/week until a horrible plateau. It does seem I've regained a more persistent loss track since finally cracking through the prior plateau.

I will say that I haven't lost the heavily promoted 11-13 pound first month loss, and to be honest I've occasionally strayed from the diet because the food is limited, for example, an occasional serving of pork rinds, popcorn, or canned soup. But we are talking maybe an occasional 200-300 calories, not like I'm binging on carbs or open buffet.

So do I credit Nutrisystem for my weight loss over the past month? Yes and no. Yes, I've been mostly eating their food, but I had been losing before resuming Nutrisystem, and it's not like I was eating that much more on my prior DIY diet. What's particularly good about Nutrisystem is its simplicity and variety. In particular, they offer nice comfort food twists like pizza and various pastas. Granted, no one will confuse them with takeout pizza or Olive Garden. And (at least in my specialty diet) I have a surprisingly high number of non-meat meals. (E.g., the pizza toppings are mostly packets of pizza sauce and cheese.) Not one egg-based breakfast. I'll admit my DIY diet was more generous with meat and eggs.

I'll probably stick with Nutrisystem for a few more months because I think a change of diet can benefit weight loss, and I do recall dropping up to 40 lbs. in the first few months my last go-round. (I eventually gained in all back, but that was post-Nutrisystem.