One Of The Coolest Free Diet Plans!
January 19th, 2009 | 
Author: I just stumbled across one of the coolest FREE DIET PLANS online - which I immediately signed up for. This one was advertised on the Discovery Channel the other day so I checked out the website. What I ended up finding was totally exciting!
Now, I haven’t ever looked for many free diet plans online, but after trying out that Skinny Switch Secret by Rob Nevins… I decided to see what else was out there.
The Skinny Switch Secret created by Rob Nevins was a program that I signed up for around mid December. Wished I would have looked for some free diet plans before I signed up to THAT one let me tell you.
The Skinny Switch Secret was not as together online as it appeared to be from the television ad. Their website was still actually a work in progress.
For one, there was no huge online community which was strongly advertised on the infomercial. When I got there in mid Dec. it was barely limping along, with mostly staff posts.
Many new people who came into the program were totally overwhelmed, as I was, with the huge amount of cooking that needed done. Not only that - the “printable shopping list” was kind of ridiculous. This thing was measured out by the teaspoon, etc - so that if you need a pinch of Thyme for instance - that pinch of thyme ended up on the shopping list.
Needless to say, YES - you could consolidate, and yes you could swap out different items - but what a hassle. It would have been great if the shopping list was consolidated so that if 3 recipes for that week included green onions, it didn’t come up as 3 different measurements - but instead said “buy a bunch of green onions.” See my point?
Any of your substitutions, “on the go meals” etc - could not be plotted into your program online.
For around $150.00 bucks, the idea was to eat five times per day - healthy foods, to keep your metabolism going. Great idea, I agreed with that. Also the recipes contained healthy foods, for the most part. Personally, I don’t care for the idea of using “aspartame” or other sweeteners, because of the toxicity of those. (As I smoke my last cigarette of the evening - who am I to talk). Hah!
On the TV Infomercial for the Skinny Switch Secret Diet, they said that no exercise was required, that you don’t go by “pounds” or what the scale says - you would go by “inches.” This also makes sense, when they explained on the website that muscle weighs more than fat. Well yes, in fact it does. But, of course I had NOT looked for any free diet plans as of that time, I went ahead and jumped right into the Skinny Switch Secret.
What I found was that there was a complete exercise program, and you were asked about “weighing” yourself often. You didn’t have a way to track your measurements that I found, only your original measurements were recorded. This meant that you couldn’t measure each week for example - and plot that into the website to see your progress. On the new Discovery Channel Body Challenge - you have that ability. (And you don’t even have to pay for it!)
On the Skinny Switch Secret diet, the grocery bill jumped up to “high.” Yes, it is more costly to buy healthier foods, but there really wasn’t any way of tracking your substitutions. I was substituting all kinds of stuff, which made the diet plan a complete mess. I had no idea what kind of calories, fat, carbs etc I was changing around by substituting, which made the plan essentially useless. Unless you followed the exact recipes, you really have no idea what was going on.
If I would have found out about some of the free diet plans I’ve found recently, before signing up to Skinny Switch Secret, I probably could have lost at least 5 pounds in the past month!
Another thing that bothered me about the Skinny Switch Secret program, was the amount of cooking. Now I like to cook, but thier idea of a “snack” was “crab stuffed mushrooms” for example! And five times per day you needed to cook. There was a menu for “to go” items where you could select what you wanted to eat out that would be included on the plan - but either way - it was a very large food bill.
I went ahead and cancelled the Skinny Switch Secret program, since I didn’t lose any wieght. We didn’t have the money to pay for all the gorceries, plus the cost of the diet plan. Since then, I have found a few free diet plans to check out. So glad I canceled the Skinny Switch Secret, because honestly - it was way more work that the one the Discovery Channel has going on right now.
With the Discovery Channel’s National Body Challenge You can substitute all kinds of things by editing your menu. Their website does all the conversions, matches that with your goals, and let me tell you - I think it’s WAY better than Rob Nevin’s program.
You MUST check it out if you are planning on losing some weight!
As far as free diet plans go, this one is way better than the Skinny Switch Secret which I was willing to pay $150.00+ for, and worked with for dam close to 30 days. I’ll be posting more info here on free diet plans as I find them, and also about my progress on my new diet
Thank you Discovery, for one of the best free diet plans I’ve found to date!
Harriette Thea
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=bc303170-d56f-4373-90d5-09dc2a771864)
Hi Hariette,
Was the switch skinny diet like the 40/30/30 diet; carbs, protein & fat? Also is the discovery body challenge diet similar to the switch skinny?
Hi Harriette,
I am so glad that you wrote this blog. It helped me so much in my decision on whether or not to try the Skinny Switch Secret. Well, you definitely helped me and I will not be trying the diet. I dont have $150.00 to burn.
I appreciate you giving us the information about the Discovery Channel’s free online diet plan. I am going to start that diet as well.
I will keep you up to date on my progress.
Thank you so much !!!!!
Thank you Harriette for your honesty! Your blog was very informative and I feel as a constant consumer of the diet/health products myself, that it was very helpful. Within the past year I tried the “kettlenetics” plan. I was sent a small barbell like object along with a instructional cd. The exercises were pretty basic and easy to follow, and I did like that it wasnt too intimidating by fancy moves hard to follow, but the diet was a shopping list and a few healthy recipes that I could have easily gotten from a grocery store magazine such as “Womans World” and I just found it monotonous. Keep up the good work on your post!
I found your blog via Google while searching for this topic and your post looks very interesting for me. Keep up the good work.
Contact your credit card company. You can have them cancel anything that you charge on your card.
I am glad you were able to cancel. I did so, within the 30 day money back guar period - and 3 formal written and in person call to the CS #, they STILL have not credited my account back. Fortunately, my cred card company is disputing and investigating and reversing the charges - but I think it really smells like a scam, simply because they are not delivering on the guarantee.
Free online diet plans are every were nowadays and most of them won’t benefit you much. Most of the free online diet plans give you useless information and if you followed them you would probably starve to death. Diets are not about starving yourself - you should eat 3 square sensible meals a day…..
Thank you for the information on the “Skinny Switch Secret”. I just watched the info-commercial. Of course I got excited about it, and then decided to be smart and do some online research. I found you comment to check out this websight and found your comments here very helpful. I work 50-60 hours a week, with 2 busy children in high-school, I do not have a lot of extra funds to spend on high-grocery bills + an expensive program. I too would be willing to spend the $150 but add to it the extra time on cooking (which i don’t have due to work) and the added shopping costs, i belive this program would not have worked for me. I will check out the Discovery Channel websight as you suggested and see if this might work in better for me as well. I appreciate your comments & your frank observation about the ‘Skinny Program’. Kind Regards, Kim
You just saved me $150. Thanks! I wanted to suggest another free website as well: sparkpeople.com it is a free online community with a wealth of information, eating plans, nutrition database and tons of support. Reading your review reminded me to stick with what I already have.
Let me know what you think!
Hi All,
Sorry for not getting back to the blog promptly here, had a lot of work to do and didn’t get a chance to add more yet.
Thank you for all of your comments, and let’s see if I can answer all of you right here, right now!
Shelby King - I haven’t seen the 40/30/30 diet yet - so not sure what that is. Skinny Switch Secret gives you the option of 2 “lean days” and then 1 “load up day” where you can swap one meal for anything you would like to eat. Or - for the “pro version” I think it’s 3 lean days, and 1 load up, instead of the 2 lean - then 1 load.
Say for instance, you want to have pizza for dinner - you would do that on what they call a “load up” day. And only for one meal. The rest of the time, you are going by their menu. It’s not that BAD really, but I didn’t lose any weight on it. You eat five times a day, and they base it more on calories, eating protein with each meal (to feed muscle) - so you would have an egg for breakfast on a slice of wheat bread, with some low fat cheese on top and a sliced tomato.
If you want to have carrot sticks as a snack instead of making something like “crab stuffed mushrooms” you would need to have some peanut butter as a protein with the carrots. Stuff like that.
The Discovery Body Challenge I liked so much more, because of the ability to substitute recipes right into your daily allowance. With Skinny Switch Secret, there was no way to do that as of this past Dec., Jan. If you substituted things, they did not show up in your daily caloric intake on the website. Honestly - what good is that? You can’t really track your calories if you can’t get the website to record your substitutions.
Also the Discovery Body Challenge allows you to record your progress, whereas Skinny Switch Secret did not. There was nowhere to put your measurements, or weight every week - and have that track how you’ve done over time.
I’m assuming the website was new, and that they were not planning on all of those things coming up. They will probably add those functionalities to the website eventually. But heck, if Discovery can do it for people and it’s a free diet program, you WOULD THINK that Skinny Switch Secret could do the same.
Lite Weight - You are very welcome! Glad I could help. Ole Rob Nevins had me pulled in too. I just happened to run across the Discovery Body Challenge while watching the Discovery channel, and thought Hmmmm… wonder what it’s like. Can you imagine my surprise at finding something so much better than a $150.00 buck program? (And I didn’t take any upsells, either!)
Melissa Pope - Thank you! You know what we have decided to do for exercise around here? Tae Kwon Do. Not only will it be great for workouts, I’ll actually be learning how to kick some butt! I’ll be a lean, mean, fighting machine in no time!
Janet - YES! I know the feeling. The first time I called to cancel Skinny Switch Secret, everything seemed to go well over the phone. My husband got the credit card statement, and guess what. They billed us for Dec. and Jan. So we’ve been billed twice, even though I DID cancel within the 30 day time period. I called again as soon as we got the statement, and was told that my refund is coming. (yeah.) I got the ladies name who supposedly canceled the account this time, so we shall see.
I actually got routed through about 3 different phone numbers, making it a complete pain in the tail to even TALK to the right dept. where as the first time when I called the number from the membership site they didn’t seem to have a problem canceling me.
But, second time around I took names - and all that info is written on the credit card statement right by the number that is listed on the statement.
Isn’t it wonderful when you can’t cancel things - they just KEEP BILLING you. They shouldn’t make me mad, because there are no reviews on the Skinny Switch Secret - I looked. I can surely add one though. Wanna join me?
Kim - Oh Kim, you would never be able to keep up with the cooking part, even if you love to cook. Now just before I left, they HAD entered in a lot of new recipes, some easier to cook, some frozen dinners, soups, etc - (to be fair) - but still. It’s REALLY a lot to keep up with for a busy family like yours. We have a high enough grocery bill over here as it is, and when you start adding all the different ingredients, heck even good canned soup, frozen “diet type” meals and all that are expensive now days! Fruit - like strawberries, and blue berries out of season. You know… it’s not cheap.
What is really nice about the Discovery Body Challenge, is that you can swap things around that you already have and buy - to make those fit into the meal plan. AND it will record the calories for you. Not to mention they have a wealth of recipes on there that you can try. It really IS much better than the Skinny Switch Secret. Hope you like it too!
Sherri N - Thanks so much for the new link! I will be sure to check it out. I need all the help I can get! Sometimes the free places are going to be better than the ones you pay for. Sometimes NOT though too - so it just depends on the person. My mom did pretty well on that Weight Watchers diet a while back, but the problem with that was - she quit buying their pre-packaged meals and gained all the weight back.
I think you have to have some kind of plan that will allow you to incorporate it into your daily life, without having to buy specific foods. And I also think it’s a lot about “mindset” too. Just like quitting smoking, you have to be committed, and set your mind up to succeed!
Thanks everyone - hope I have been able to answer your questions. Heck, since my comment line is so small, I might just have to add this as a blog post so others can learn too.
Harriette
Call your credit card company. You can have them cancel it for you. That is why it is smart to always use a credit card instead of cash or check.
Harriette, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You may not even realize what a service you did for so many people. I watched the skinnyswitchsecret infomercial this morning, but paused at the $154.00 price tag. I went away from my computer, but then came back and googled it to see what others were saying and came upon your feedback. Thank you for saving me more money on a diet plan that just wouldn’t be right for me. With 4 kids, a lot of cooking for picky eaters would not be the ideal plan for me. You are a life (and money) saver. Blessings to you! Hilary
There is another diet plan out there called http://www.sparkpeople.com
It is a good one too!
Thanks for the info. Google is my friend! And thats how I found you and your suggestions. In these hard economic times, 150.00 will make you or break you.
Thanks!