What’s the Best Weight-Loss Meal Delivery Service?

Best Weight-Loss Meal Delivery Service Reviews & Buyer’s Guide

Cooking your own meals can be tricky at the best of times but, cooking your own meals when you’re trying to lose weight – that’s an entirely different issue…

When you’re counting calories and cooking for yourself, you have to weigh every ingredient. And there’s no doing it by eye or using an entire pack of any ingredient. No, you have to be precise and ensure that you don’t add any unnecessary calories.

Then there’s all the time spent meal planning and grocery shopping. Ugh! And who has got the time to do that anymore?

The solution, of course, is to arrange to have your meals or meal kits delivered straight to your door. This way you don’t have to pour over recipe books, or meticulously plan your meals and your grocery shopping. Instead, you can just receive and enjoy. What a difference!

But, there are several great weight loss meal delivery services out there. So, we’re going to help you work out which might be the best option for you!

We’re going to review some of our favorite meal delivery services for weight loss here for you, and we’ll also provide you with a handy buying guide that comes complete with a section where we answer some of your most frequently asked questions on the subject.

And without further ado, let’s get straight to it!

             Best Weight-Loss Meal Delivery Service Reviews & Buyer’s Guide

1. BistroMD

What we love about BistroMD, is how their meal delivery service is designed entirely around weight loss. This means that you don’t have to go through all the recipes with a fine-tooth comb in order to discover suitable meals.

Instead, there’s an online form that you fill in, for free-of-charge diet analysis. You simply enter your height, current weight, goal weight, and email address, and your results will be emailed to you.

There’s a tremendous array of meals to choose from, a whopping 150 altogether, all prepared for you, and other than reheating and plating up your food there’s nothing for you to do in the kitchen. Sounds good hey? Plenty of variety and choice.

There are separate programs for men and women to choose from, and within each, another 5 great programs: their standard weight loss plan, a gluten-free plan, a heart-healthy plan, a diabetic plan to control insulin levels, and even a menopause plan (I didn’t know such a thing existed)!

A custom diet program is then put together for you, but don’t worry, if you don’t like the sound of a particular dish, you can just swap it out for something else. You’re in the driving seat.

They don’t just cover your main meal of the day, they include breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Wait.. there’s more! Not only do they offer meals for each meal of the day, but they also have a snack program called EATS, where EATS stands for Essential and Tasty Snacks. Perfect for those who need to have a snack between meals to keep them going.

There’s plenty of science that went into the making of BistroMD. The brain behind it all is Doctor Caroline Cederquist who put this business together along with her Foodie husband Ed.

The reason it works so well is that it’s not in any way a fad diet, and although calories are restricted, no specific food is necessarily off-limits, revolutionizing the way we diet. Cederquist recognizes that weight loss is much more than merely counting calories and that consuming too few calories can lead your body to store more fat.

BistroMD meals consist of protein, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and fruit. They are not dull or measly portions, as you might expect diet meals to be. On the contrary, they’re quite flavorful and you get a full plate for each meal of the day.

After looking into it this far, we started wondering “What’s the catch?” and I thought it was going to be the price. But, we were pleasantly surprised! The minimum cost comes to way less than what I’d normally pay for my weekly groceries for the entire family.

Pros:

• Built around sustainable weight loss
• Your meals arrive prepared
• 150 meal variety to choose from
• Meals & snacks are calories counted
• Available at a very reasonable price
• Special dietary needs are accounted for

Cons:

• The meal plans are centered around the particular individual losing weight rather than the entire family

 

2. Purple Carrot

Purple Carrot is all about plant-based meals, so if you’re vegetarian or thinking about becoming vegetarian or even vegan, joining Purple Carrot is a great way to do it! The good news is that eating plant-based does not have to mean boring salads – they’ve got some really flavorful dishes for you to enjoy.

What we love the most about Purple Carrot are the results – not only does it help people to lose weight, but it also helps them to lower their cholesterol. And better yet— you start to see the results in as little as two weeks. But, that’s not all! Maintaining a plant-based diet also helps to lower your risk of diabetes.

The Purple Carrot meal delivery service is also great news for the planet, each Purple Carrot meal results in 72% fewer carbon emissions and 51% less water when compared to a standard American meal.

What we like about Purple Carrot is that you don’t have to submit your weight details to anyone, so you don’t have to get embarrassed about it.

There are different plans you can choose from— High-Protein, Gluten-Free, Quick & Easy, or Chef’s Choice. Or if you prefer, you can customize your order each week!

You can choose from 2 servings of each meal or 4 servings of each meal and you can choose 3 or 4 meals each week. But you can add to your plan if you wish to.

They have different dishes on the menu each week, so you are sure not to get bored. Not only do they offer breakfast, dinner, and lunch, but you can also order snacks too.

When you reading the menus, calories for each dish are displayed for you. There are delicious meals that are as low as 240 calories while there are occasional luxurious meals of 670 calories.

We will admit that the servings are a bit expensive, however, you have to take into account that you may receive ingredients that you might not find at your local grocery store and the money you save by not driving to the superstore.

All in all, we’d say it’s worth taking a shot if you are veggie, or thinking of going veggie.

Pros:

• Clinically proven for weight loss
• Excellent for the environment
• Perfect for vegetarians & vegans
• All the meals are calorie counted
• You can snack between meals

Cons:

• The servings can be expensive
• You have to cook the meals yourself

 

3. HelloFresh

HelloFresh is a brand known throughout the world, even being considered one of THE top meal delivery brands in the U.S.

Did you know that HelloFresh was the first-ever carbon-neutral meal kit company? Impressive hey? Not only do their meal kits mean less food waste, but HelloFresh goes one step further. They’re committed to offsetting 100% of their direct carbon emissions.

Anyway, back to the meals themselves. HelloFresh offers more than 27 recipes to choose from, all crafted and created by their in-house chefs.

Better yet, all their meal kits are designed to have dinner on the table in a speedy 30 minutes or less!

They also feature seasonal recipes, so you can enjoy the ingredients right when they’re fresh and in season!

First, you choose your preferred plan. Choices include meat & veggies, veggie, family-friendly, quick and easy, pescatarian, or the one best for weight loss, which is calorie smart.

The calorie smart plan features a broad selection of meals that are all dietician-approved. They are all approximately 650 calories each, so it would be best to make that your main dish of the day, and topping up with a lighter dish for your other meals.

You can then select whether you’re cooking for two or four, and then select how many recipes you want to enjoy each week.

We also love how flexible the plans are. You can add extra meals as you please, change up your menu preferences, change the delivery day, or cancel anytime.

One thing we love about HelloFresh is just how great value for money it is. You can save significantly on the price per serving compared to shopping for the ingredients at the grocery store, and better yet, you can get free shipping on your first box!

HelloFresh often has deals on too, simply click on “Check price” to see if there’s a deal on now. You might be lucky!

Pros:

• A good reputable well-established brand
• The Calorie Smart plan is dietician approved & calorie counted
• Your meals are ready in 30 minutes or less
• Incredible flexibility in your plans
• Excellent value for money

Cons:

• We would have preferred if the Calorie Smart meals were lower in calories

 

 

4. Blue Apron

If you place a greater focus on weight loss rather than on saving money, then you may well decide that the high-end brand Blue Apron is more for you.

What we love the most about the Blue Apron Service is how you can not only order fresh ingredients for all your meals, but you can also have wines delivered to your door as well!

The wines come from top vineyards and winemakers and are specially chosen to complement and pair with your Blue Apron recipes. You get 6 bottles delivered each month if you decide to sign up. But unfortunately, this comes at an additional price to your meal kit delivery.

Anyway, back to their food! Their menus are split between their signature menu and their vegetarian offering. Both of which include a selection of Weight Watchers-approved recipes, diabetes-friendly recipes, and health-conscious options. The recipes are easy to follow too!

Since the plans are down to just the signature and the vegetarian recipes, you have to click on the meals that take your fancy to see how many calories are in each meal, and there’s no separate section set aside where the meals are all low in calories, so it takes a bit of homework to find their best recipes for weight loss.

But that said, full nutrition information is available on each meal available, so you can see exactly how many carbs, etc. are in each meal.

The same goes for anyone looking for vegan recipes, you would have to look into each individual meal to check if it is vegan.

The different meals available can vary from week to week, but that can certainly be a good thing and help to keep your meals interesting.

The service from Blue Apron is superb. They use only responsibly sourced quality ingredients, and these fresh ingredients are delivered in an insulated box to keep them fresh right until you open the box. Better yet, this box is recyclable, and ingredients are portioned out, so there is no waste to worry about.

We were a little disappointed at the price per serving, but I guess when people subscribe to a premium service like this one, they’re looking for good quality rather than to save some cash.

Pros:

• Can opt for a wine subscription service
• Wines are designed to be paired with your meals
• Plenty of vegetarian options to choose from
• Full nutritional information is available online
• Quality fresh ingredients arrive in an insulated box

Cons:

• No special calorie counted plan
• Premium service at a premium price
• Some of the meals take quite some time to cook

 

Buying Guide

As promised here’s your buyer’s guide. We’ll lay out a few things to consider when choosing a weight-loss meal delivery service.

 

Calorie Counted

The main idea behind eating for weight loss is to attain a calorie deficit, and to eat fewer calories than you normally would, and to use up more calories as you go about your day.

So to that end, your chosen meal delivery service should not be too calorific, and should instead feature options that are relatively low in calories, with few meals exceeding say, 400 calories per person.

 

Variety of Meals

In order to keep you interested in your meal delivery service, there should be enough options available that you like that won’t make you feel bored by eating the same meals all the time. There needs to be at least some variety.

 

Special Requirements

Any meal delivery service that you go for needs to cater to your particular requirements, beyond your weight loss goals. For example, if you are vegetarian or vegan, then there should be suitable options there for you.

Similarly, if you have any known allergies to certain common food or meal ingredients, then there will need to be meal options that cater to these very specific needs.

 

Ready-Made Vs Cooking Yourself

If you’re not too good in the kitchen, then you might really like the sound of having your meals already cooked for you, leaving you to simply reheat them and enjoy.

But that’s not for everybody. Cooking meals for yourself engages the senses and gives a greater sense of fulfillment, making you feel useful and giving you a purpose.

 

Value for Money

Meal delivery services can vary quite considerably in price, with some meals costing less than $2 per meal, and others costing more than $10 per serving.

So, our best advice to you is to check the pricing of the plans you’re interested in as you go along.

 

     Frequently Asked Questions

Which meal delivery service is best for weight loss?

We would argue that the best meal delivery service for weight loss is BistroMD. This is because you get a personalized weight loss meal plan specially tailored to your needs and weight loss goals.

 

What is the healthiest meal delivery service?

We would argue that the healthiest meal delivery service is the Purple Carrot one. Not only has it been clinically proven to help with weight loss, but it also helps lower cholesterol and lowers the risk of diabetes.

 

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