Frequently Asked Questions

Founded in 1983 in Melbourne Australia, Jenny Craig, Inc. is one of the largest weight management service companies in the world. Jenny Craig offers a comprehensive weight management program that helps clients learn how to eat the foods they want, develop a healthy and enjoyable approach to eating, increase their energy level through simple activity, and build more balance into their lives for optimal weight loss and well-being.

The Jenny Craig Program has been designed by Accredited Practising Dietitians in Australia and Registered Dietitians in the US, in consultation with an expert Medical Advisory Board. The Medical Advisory Board's recommendations are based on the latest nutrition, exercise, and behavioural strategies for weight management and disease prevention. We're proud to offer our clients a comprehensive, scientifically proven way to achieve and maintain their desired weight.

View our Medical Advisory Board

Weight is often related to lifestyle. That's why the goal of the Jenny Craig Program is to help clients acquire:

• A Healthy Relationship with Food

  Along with balanced, kilojoule controlled and portion controlled food choices, the Program emphasises the importance of tuning into physical and emotional eating cues as well as focusing on the pleasure of eating via our menus and journal. Encouraging clients to be mindful about what they eat, is the first step toward making healthier, more satisfying choices.

• An Active Lifestyle

  The activity component of the Program was developed in consultation with the world-renowned Cooper Institute and encourages clients to gradually increase activity through a combination of natural, planned and "playful" physical activities. Jenny Craig offers exercise products such as a fitness DVD series, and other tools that encourage clients to engage in a variety of cardiorespiratory, resistance and stretching activities. Maintenance materials also address important variables such as lack of time, ongoing motivation and changing body image.

• A Balanced Approach to Living

  As weight issues are, in part, a reflection of thoughts and emotions clients bring to their weight loss efforts, the Program emphasises cognitive strategies to help clients develop a more balanced, positive mindset.

How long you stay on the Program depends on how much weight you have to lose. Jenny Craig has a Program option to fit your needs and support you until you reach your goal.

Whether you would like to lose a small amount of weight for a special occasion such as a wedding or reunion, or want to make more significant changes, Jenny Craig has Program options to meet your needs. The Jenny Craig Program has been designed to result in a weekly weight loss of up to half to one kilogram or 1% of your body weight. These results may vary based on an individual's personal weight history, body composition, frequency of physical activity, and motivation among other factors.

Our daily menus include delicious Jenny Craig's Cuisine as well as your own foods. You'll enjoy three Jenny Craig Cuisine meals and one Jenny Craig Cuisine snack every day, combined with your own fresh fruit, vegetables, reduced fat dairy products and heart healthy fats.

Your personal Consultant will help you determine your optimal kilojoule level based on your age, height, current weight, gender and your activity level. Our lowest kilojoule level is 5000 kilojoules per day, and we offer up to 8400 kiljoules or more, depending on your individual requirements.

We recommend you only weigh yourself once a week at a consistent time (preferably in the morning) to avoid any discouragement due to normal daily weight fluctuations. Clients participating in our Centre programs weigh at weekly consultations, while those on our Jenny Direct programs weigh at home.

At Jenny Craig our goal is to help you learn not only how to lose weight, but how to effectively maintain your weight loss as well. Weight is partially related to lifestyle. That's why the goal of the Jenny Craig Program is to help clients acquire the tools they need for continued success focusing on a healthy relationship with food, an active lifestyle and a balanced approach to living. In addition, clients with our Platinum Membership have access to a maintenance component which offers 12-months of ongoing support to help you maintain your new weight.

The Jenny Craig Program is not only a comprehensive and balanced approach to weight loss, it is also clinically proven to work! In a recent clinical trial, Jenny Craig participants lost over 5 times as much weight as those who dieted on their own.¹

¹Obesity 2007;15: 939-949 Rock CL et al

Click here to read the Randomized Trial of a Multifaceted Commercial Weight Loss Program.

Jenny Craig offers a comprehensive Food/Body/Mind Program. We deliver the Program in two ways – either at your nearest Centre, or at home with Jenny Direct. Whichever option you select, our trained Consultants will tailor the Program to meet your needs.

> Learn more about the Jenny Craig Program Options

Feel free to use our Centre Locator - by clicking on your state, you'll receive a list of the Centres nearest you. You can also call 1800 453 669 (Australia) or 0800 555 123 (New Zealand) to obtain the same information.

Our Jenny Direct Program allows you to participate on the Jenny Craig Program from the convenience of your own home. You enjoy weekly phone consultations with your trained Consultant, and order your Jenny Craig Cuisine to be delivered to your door.

Yes.

The cost of Jenny Craig depends on several things - which plan you choose, which Jenny Craig meals and snacks you select, and so on. We have a short term plan and longer term plans, so you can chose the option that is right for you!

And as one client told us: "You know what would really cost a lot? Having a nutritionist, a personal exercise trainer, a chef, and a lifestyle coach! For me, Jenny Craig was the inexpensive way of getting the Program and coaching I needed."

At Jenny Craig our goal is to help you learn not only how to lose weight, but how to effectively maintain your weight loss as well. The maintenance component of our Platinum Membership helps transition you from Jenny Craig's Cuisine to planning your own menus. During maintenance consultations, you are guided through the Maintenance Support Materials to help you "master" the skills essential for continued success.

The Jenny Craig Program is available to adolescents 13-17 years old, who obtain their parent's written permission, and who do not have health conditions or medications which may exclude them from the Program. The Program includes weekly one-on-one consultations, weekly menus and Program materials.

Yes, Jenny Craig offers a selection of shelf-stable, microwavable options such as Pasta Napoletana or Dahl with Rice. Throw in our other portable items like Strawberry Oat Clusters, Satay Noodles and Choc Caramel Crisp and you have everything you need for a Program on-the-go. For your convenience, all of our travel-friendly foods are indicated on our Jenny Craig Cuisine List with an aeroplane icon. (Menu Brochure)

Additionally, with the Jenny Direct option, you can have your consultations over the phone and your food is delivered directly to you (plus the cost of delivery).

Absolutely. Breastfeeding mothers follow a modified kilojoule level based on the child's age and frequency of breastfeeding. In some cases, doctor approval is required.

Jenny Direct services Sydney, Melboune, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and most regional areas of NSW, VIC, SA & ACT. Click here to see if Jenny Direct delivers to you.

Please note we currently don't service regional QLD.

Basically anyone who prefers our weight loss program from the convenience and privacy of their own home! To find out where Jenny Direct is available please click here .

Jenny Direct, Jenny Craig's easy home delivery weight loss Program, offers the same great food, tools and personal support as Jenny Craig Centres, with the added convenience of having your delicious Jenny Craig Cuisine and Program materials delivered directly to your door (plus the cost of delivery). With Jenny Direct, you'll get:

• One-on-one Weekly Phone Support

  Each week, you'll speak privately with your skilled Consultant via phone to plan your weekly menu and activities, discuss strategies to overcome challenges along the way, and celebrate your successes. An integral part of the Jenny Craig Program, these weekly consultations play a major role in our clients' successes.
  

   

• Convenient Food Delivery - Straight to Your Door.

  You'll order your Jenny Craig's Cuisine from your Consultant which will be delivered to your home or office usually within 48 hours (wihtin standard metropolitan areas), in 1 - 4 week increments.
  

   

• A Fit for the Busy Lifestyles

  If you have a busy schedule, travel frequently, or live too far from a Centre, Jenny Direct delivers all the benefits of the Jenny Craig program in the convenience of your own home or office. Wherever your busy life takes you, Jenny Direct is there for you - when and how you need it!
  

   

Learn more about Jenny Direct

Yes.

Jenny Craig food items are delivered chilled in 1 - 4 week increments, usually within 48 hours. within standard metropolitan areas). Should your delivery address be unattended, we are able to leave your Jenny Craig Cuisine in a cool box discretely near your door.

To get you started on your weight loss journey with Jenny craig, please read your Welcome Pack. We also encourage you to look over the Success Made Simple Guide and Week 1 Menu before your first consultation, so you can maximise your time with your personal Consultant!

No. Your personal Consultant will advise you when it is best to order the next food during your weekly phone consultation.

Each week, you'll speak with your personal Consultant for a private consultation. Your consultant will help you monitor your weight loss progress; encourage you to set personal goals to build a healthy relationship with food, lead an active lifestyle and add balance to your life; provide skills and strategies to handle challenging situations such as dining out, traveling and unplanned changes; and also help you select satisfying and convenient weekly menus that fit into your lifestyle.

Jenny Craig menus model the three key factors for healthy eating: balance, variety and moderation. The delicious Jenny Craig Cuisine meals and snacks featured on the menus have been conveniently packaged into single portions just right for your weight loss needs. All Jenny Craig menus are:

• Based on the National Dietary Guidelines for Australia and New Zealand offering balance, variety and moderation.

• Low in saturated fat and cholesterol, and high in fibre.

• Chosen to meet your weight loss goals, with kilojoule levels ranging from 5000 to 8400 kilojoules or higher per day.

We offer a wide variety of delicious and nutritious breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack items. Because they're so easy to prepare in either a microwave or traditional oven, Jenny Craig Cuisine can fit into even the busiest lifestyles. All of our Jenny Craig foods are pre-packaged and pre-portioned. Our foods are frozen or shelf-stable (dry). Selections range from wholemeal pancakes and hearty beef pie, to chicken parmigiana and Choc Fudge Cookie.

By following the Jenny Craig menus, you'll be practicing habits like portion control that are essential for healthy weight loss and successful weight management. As you learn strategies to manage social and emotional eating, you'll begin planning your own menus. The ultimate goal of the Program is to transition you from Jenny Craig menus to planning your own menus, so that you can learn to shop, cook and socialise with foods.

We currently offer structured planned menus for clients who enjoy having pre-planned weekly menus. Our Personalised Menu option allows clients to handpick the individual Jenny Craig meals and snacks they want to eat so that they can literally design their own weekly menus based on their favourite foods. You can also switch menus from one week to the next, depending on what works best for you.

The Jenny Craig Program includes all foods in moderation. The menu includes fruits, vegetables, grains and low fat dairy - all of which are part of your daily Jenny Craig weight loss plan.

No. While advertising and the media have focused a lot of attention on low-carbohydrate diets and products, when it comes to successful, long-term weight loss, kilojoules are the key, not carbohydrates. By focusing on kilojoules, you don't need to avoid entire food groups, buy special low-carbohydrate products or give up the foods you love.

Recent research has disproved the claim that weight loss is faster and greater on a low-carbohydrate diet. One clinical trial showed that while subjects lost weight faster initially on a low-carbohydrate diet, the amount of weight loss after one year was similar to the group that followed the traditional low-fat approach to weight loss. Restrictive diets, such as low-carbohydrate diets, can be difficult to follow for very long, in fact mny people who have tried low-carbohydrate diets have given them up. For more information read our article about low-carbohydrate diets.

Any food not listed in capital letter and bold-faced type on your menu is an item that can easily be swapped for something else. Just use Jenny's Grocery List in your Success Made Simple Guide or Journal!

We have vegetarian planned weeks as well as vegetarian meals and snacks, that can be incorporated into a personalised menu plan. The vegetarian options, however, are not vegan and may contain dairy, egg or animal-derived enzymes such as gelatin.

Currently, none of our Jenny Craig Cuisine is Kosher certified.

Yes. If you are a heavy coffee, cola or tea drinker, you may want to consider cutting back - especially if it interferes with your milk or water intake. If you choose to decrease your caffeine intake, do so gradually - cutting your intake in half each week, to avoid caffeine-withdrawal related symptoms.

If you regularly cook for yourself or others, you'll find our Healthy Living for Life Cookbook a great resource for preparing quick and healthy meals.

Yes, our planned and personalised menus give you the flexibility of being able to eat at a restaurant and the confidence to make healthy choices. Our Weight Loss Manuals offer sections devoted to dining-out strategies. You also have the option of eating your Jenny Craig meal and enjoying your added food servings at the restaurant. Jenny Craig also offers a 'Dining Out Guide' and your consultant will be glad to help you plan sensible eating strategies for these occasions! Just ask your consultant for details, so you can decide on the best solution for you.

Although we recommend limiting your consumption of alcohol, your Consultant can work with you to design strategies that suit your needs. We can help personalise your menu to include your favorite foods and beverages in moderation!

Experts say it's very difficult to get all the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients you need on a reduced kilojoule menu. To help ensure that you receive the balanced nutrition you need during weight loss, your Jenny Craig Consultant will offer you our Jenny Craig supplement throughout your program.

To help ensure that each day's menu is nutritionally balanced, we encourage you to take the Jenny Craig multi-vitamin and mineral supplement. We encourage you to take this with water before breakfast, so it's easy to remember each day.

Yes! We have our Planned menus available, as well as the personalised menu planning brochure, which includes the full range of Jenny Craig meals and snacks available to individualise your menu. Clients will be able to create and print their menus out before their weekly meeting with their Consultant. This gives them more time to make the choices they like and frees up more time during their consultation to get weight loss strategies, information and motivation from their Consultant!

In Australia and New Zealand, the Dietetic Associations offer this information on their websites. In Australia log onto www.daa.asn.au - go to ‘Find an APD'. In New Zealand log onto www.dietitians.org.nz - go to ‘Find a Dietitian'.

Each week, you'll speak with your personal Consultant for a 20-minute, private consultation. He or she will help you monitor your weight loss progress; encourage you to set personal goals to build a healthy relationship with food, lead an active lifestyle and add balance to your life; provide strategies to handle challenging situations such as dining out, traveling and unplanned changes; and also help you select satisfying and convenient weekly menus that fit into your lifestyle.

The best way to find out if the Jenny Craig Program is right for you is to visit a Centre for a free informational consultation. During your visit, a Jenny Craig Program Director will:

• Ask questions to learn what you're looking for in a weight management program.

• Help you to identify a healthy weight loss goal.

• Provide you with all the Program information you need to make a decision.

This consultation is obligation-free. No matter what you decide, you'll leave the Centre feeling even more motivated to take action towards a healthier lifestyle!

A pivotal part of the Jenny Craig Program, the weekly consultations play a major role in our clients' successes. Not only do we want to support you along your weight loss journey, we want to ensure that you're experiencing a healthy rate of weight loss. In addition, our Customer Care department is staffed with trained, caring Jenny Craig representatives six days a week, from Monday through until Saturday. If you need some advice or extra support, feel free to call 1800 453 669 (Australia) or 0800 555 123 (New Zealand) and someone there will be delighted to help you.

A pivotal part of the Jenny Craig Program, the weekly consultations play a major role in our clients' successes. Not only do we want to support you along your weight loss journey, we want to ensure that you're experiencing a healthy rate of weight loss.

Consider your Consultant your "partner in weight loss." During your weekly consultations, your Consultant will review your progress, address any challenges you may have, help with menu and activity planning and offer weight loss tips and techniques.

Jenny Craig prides itself on hiring health-oriented and customer-focused individuals who genuinely enjoy working with people. Once hired, all Consultants attend a comprehensive training course and are certified by a Jenny Craig Trainer. Consultants also receive ongoing continuing education in areas relating to nutrition, motivation and stress management. When clients have special needs or requests, Consultants call on our Accredited Practising Dietitians for help.

On Jenny Craig, you'll gradually increase your activity through a combination of natural, planned and playful physical activities, learning how to incorporate more activity into your everyday routine.

• Natural activities include everyday tasks such as washing dishes or light cleaning - even shopping! You'll learn to identify opportunities for activity that you might not be aware of, like walking around during your child's football game or vacuuming during the TV commercials.

• Planned activities make sure your exercise regimen is well-rounded, incorporating cardio, resistance, and stretching. Examples include weightlifting, walking, yoga, kickboxing or aerobic dance.

• Playful activities give permission for you to take the time to be active without taking quality time away from family and friends. Instead of going to a movie with friends, try dancing, cycling or joining your kids for tag or basketball.

Adapted from: Blair, Dunn, Marcus, Carpenter and Jaret. Active Living Every Day: 20 Steps to Lifelong Vitality, Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2001.

Research has shown that an active lifestyle is a critical factor in successful weight loss. While it's true that physical activity supports consistent weight loss, its role is even more critical in long-term weight loss. In research conducted by the National Weight Control Registry in the US, of 4500 individuals who have lost at least 13 kilograms and kept it off for one year, it was found that such individuals, on average, are physically active for 60 minutes a day. During your consultations, your Jenny Craig Consultant will work with you to identify barriers to physical activity - and help you develop plans to overcome those barriers and stay motivated to follow through. Keep in mind it's not a strenuous exercise regimen, but an active lifestyle that makes the difference between weight maintainers and weight re-gainers!

Jenny Craig's exercise component was developed in consultation with the world-renowned Cooper Institute and encourages clients to gradually increase activity through a combination of natural, planned and playful physical activities¹. Your Jenny Craig Consultant will work with you to develop a personalised, staged approach that starts where you are right now and builds from there.

In research conducted by the National Weight Control Registry in the US, of 4500 individuals who have lost at least 13 kilograms and kept it off for one year, it was found that such individuals, on average, are physically active for 60 minutes a day. The good news is, the "exercise" is a combination of walking, resistance, and "natural" activity. The bottom line: it's not a strenuous exercise regimen, but an active lifestyle that makes the difference between maintainers and weight re-gainers. At Jenny Craig, you'll learn strategies for building an active lifestyle to enhance your own success.

If you're already doing a great job being regularly active, your Jenny Craig Consultant will work with you to develop a personalised, staged approach that might include adding some new activities. The best activity plan for weight loss includes cardio, resistance and stretching. If you've focused primarily on moderate-intensity activities like walking or cycling, why not boost your metabolism with some resistance training? If you're already doing both, you might focus on the mind and body benefits of stretching activities like yoga. Your Consultant will assess what stage you are in when you begin the Program. As you progress, we will re-check your stage and continue to tailor your activities.

While losing weight on the Program is certainly not a prerequisite for becoming an employee, many staff members have experienced success as clients on the Program. Their personal experiences give them an even greater insight into offering clients timely suggestions and encouragement.

Contact the Centre nearest you by calling 1300-4-JENNY. The Centre Director will let you know the best way to pursue employment opportunities in the area. To view current job openings, please visit our Job Opportunities page.