Nutrisystem: When $55 in savings costs $180 a month!

As far as advertising goes, weight loss commercials don't exactly have a stellar reputation, but the latest batch of commercials from Nutrisystem really takes the cake. In the spots, Nutrisystem claims that the actual cost of the meal replacement program is $55 less than the average American spends on groceries!

The problem with this statement is that in order for Nutrisystem to reach this astounding number they have to cook the books a little bit. According the fine print on one commercial featuring Marie Osmond; while on the Nutrisystem diet, "you add-in fresh fruit, vegetables, salads and dairy items."

A few seconds later -- while size 72 font proclaims a savings of $55 a month versus shopping on your own -- the fine print lets viewers know that this number does not include the cost of aforementioned fresh foods and that the savings is based on the, "Official USDA Food Plans: Liberal food plan, Sept. 2008." which is available online for all to see on the USDA website.

In order to verify the accuracy of these claims we started crunching the numbers ourselves.