What do professional football and NutriSystem have in common? The weight loss giant has helped a small army of NFL players and coaches lose weight. From Dan Marino to Don Shula, Steve Beuerlein and now Mike Golic, these rough and tumble athletes are putting a new spin on diets for men. 
The most recent success story is Mike Golic. Golic, who is co-host of ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike in the morning and a former defensive line player, topped the scales at 300 pounds just a few years ago. Even at 6 feet, 5 inches tall, the realization that he was 45 pounds over his NFL weight of 265 stopped him in his tracks. He thought about this family and decided to change.
“Ultimately, I needed to lose weight because I’m a real family guy. I have three kids and a beautiful wife, and I just love spending time with them and being involved with their lives. I want to be around them, and the way things were going, it wasn’t going to happen.”
Golic lost 51 pounds on the NutriSystem for Men plan, a calorie and portion-controlled diet that delivers ready-to-eat meals to your home. NutriSystem, like other meal-delivery weight loss programs, takes the calorie-counting and meal preparation out of your hands. The program tailored for men contains more calories, more fiber and more overall nutrients than NutriSystem programs for women.
While many meal-delivery plans and diets in general are criticized for leaving you with hunger pangs and food cravings, Golic, who literally has an appetite of a football player, stuck with the program because it allowed him to eat real food that satisfied his cravings for “guy food.” And that is just what the NutriSystem for Men program claims to do: provide men with decadent eats like home-style beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, thick crust pizza, brownies and scrambled eggs with cheese and still allow them to lose weight.
While the longevity of diet programs like NutriSystem is limited, they can jump-start a weight loss program. Moreover, with guys like Golic and Marino having success with them, we now have proof that diet food does not have to be lettuce cups and mini cans of water-packed tuna fish.
I did Nutrisystem for 5 weeks a couple of years ago, and it worked great. I lost 15 pounds in 5 weeks, and had been unable to get the weight off with any other diet and exercise prior to that.
So far so good. Just completed 7 weeks and I am down 21lbs. Half way to my goal. The food is good and just like they say, I feel like I am eating way too much. Not hungry all the time either. The key for me is no chips and hardly any drinking.