5 Reasons to Do Nutrisystem with a Friend or Spouse

If you choose Nutrisystem to get you to your weight loss goals, consider bringing a partner along for the weight loss journey. When you do Nutrisystem with your spouse, partner or best friend, it can strengthen your relationship and help you both have more weight loss success.

Bonus: Nutrisystem’s Refer A Friend program rewards you for bringing a buddy in on the weight loss action! Click here to learn more >)

Here are five reasons why you need to do Nutrisystem with a friend:

1. Losing weight together will give you an instant support system.

Weight loss is all about making changes—in what you eat, how much you eat, how much you move, and more. Change is hard, but when you have support, it’s easier: In a six-month study, 66 percent of people with a social support system were able to lose weight and keep it off, compared to just 25 percent of those without social support.

When your support system is someone you see every day, it’s even easier. You’ll always be checking in on each other, trading tips on what worked, and have someone that can listen about what didn’t.

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2. And that can keep you both on track.

For long-term weight loss success, the changes you make have to become consistent: It’s not just eating a smart lunch once, but doing so on most days that will result in real success. And when you make healthy changes with someone you’re close to, you’re more likely to stay on track: In a study from Indiana University, 43 percent of couples who exercised separately quit their gym memberships at a rate of within a year. Those who worked out together, though, stuck with it: Only 6.3 percent of them stopped going to the gym.

3. You’ll have better results than if you did it alone.

All that consistency means more success. In a British study of more than 3,700 couples, researchers found that when both partners make a healthy change together, they have better results than when only one makes the change

Both men and women had almost twice as much success losing weight in the study when they did it with their partner—according to the researchers, “having a consistently healthy partner also predicted positive change, but … the odds [of success] were significantly higher in individuals with a newly healthy partner.” So if your spouse or friend only has a few pounds to lose, ask them to come along anyway. It will help increase your results.

4. You’ll bond.

A study of 1,000 American couples found that one theme among happy marriages was hobbies in common. The study concluded that having three shared hobbies or interests helped make couples stronger.

It isn’t skydiving or marathon running, but eating healthy is a hobby and interest you can share and bond over. As you change your daily eating, you can bond over which foods are your favorites, try snacks that have helped your partner beat back a craving, or just try a new dish together. That could help your relationship, too. A study from 2000 found that novel and exciting experiences that last as little as seven minutes help improve relationship quality akin to the “honeymoon period” of a relationship.

5. You could have more fun together!

Novel experiences won’t always be about a diet food. As you continue on your weight loss journey, you could find that you want to go outside together. Many of our Nutrisystem success stories take up biking, hiking or just spend more time playing with their kids or grandkids. Doing those things together mean more hobbies in common, which could mean more marital bliss. And if it’s something competitive, doing it together could mean you both excel: In a study from the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, exercisers who biked with a partner improved their performance by 87 percent compared to those who cycled solo. So make room for more smiles in your relationship—and more trophies on the mantel!

Ready to get your friend in on the Nutrisystem fun? Click here to get your referral discount >