There are many challenges that can derail your healthy living journey. Finding a healthy recipe, shopping for ingredients, and preparing a meal can be time-consuming and difficult, especially for people with busy schedules or novices in the kitchen. And then there’s the clean-up afterward.
Meal delivery can help ease some of those stressors by portioning ingredients, sending healthy recipes, or pre-preparing frozen or fresh meals that you can heat in a few minutes. These services can be a convenient way to start eating well-balanced meals as part of a weight loss program or to meet your nutritional needs.
“By providing step-by-step instructions, you can learn new techniques,” says Tejal Parekh, a registered dietitian in Florida. “And if you feel like buying the ingredients from your local grocery store, you can recreate some of the recipes on your own. Meal kits can contain all the essential ingredients for meals, including veggies, proteins, and grains. This is a great convenient option if you find yourself unable to create balanced meals on your own.”
There are two types of meal delivery services, meal kits that include recipes and ingredients for you to cook the meals yourself, and prepackaged meals that are ready to eat. The delivery services in this review offer meals that suit a variety of diet plans, including some of the best diets for weight loss, like the Mediterranean diet, low-sodium (or DASH) diet, plant-based diet, and low-carb diet. We had the food delivered to our door and prepared the food in our homes to find out which delivery services we recommend to our readers. Find out if any are right for you.
Warning
Consult with your physician before starting a new diet for weight loss. Nutritional needs vary per person, and research shows that support from a healthcare professional can positively impact weight loss.
Best meal delivery service for weight loss overall: Nutrisystem
Nutrisystem is a prepackaged meal delivery service designed for weight loss that includes bonus features, resources, and tools that can assist you with your healthy living goals.
Which weight loss meal delivery service is right for you?
- Nutrisystem: Best overall meal delivery service for weight loss
- EveryPlate: Best budget meal delivery service for weight loss
- Factor: Best variety meal delivery service for weight loss
- Sunbasket: Best organic meal delivery service for weight loss
- CookUnity: Best plant-based meal delivery service for weight loss
Handbook Tip #1
When you consider a meal delivery service, know which type of service will best support your goals. If you are eager to learn more about cooking or you enjoy doing it, meal kits provide you with the ingredients and instructions you need so that it’s easy to prepare a well-balanced meal. Meals that are already prepared for you may be best for someone who doesn’t have much time to dedicate to meal prep, has limited cooking resources, or doesn’t enjoy cooking.
Compare the best meal delivery services for weight loss
| Price per serving | $11.07–$14.29 | $4.99–$7.49 | $9.99–$13.49 | $11.49–$17.99 | $10–$13 |
| Meal kit or prepared? | Prepared | Meal kit | Prepared | Meal kits and prepared meals | Prepared |
| Meals per week | Five or seven | Three to five | Six, eight, 10, 12, 14, or 18 | Two to five; up to 10 with Fresh & Ready plan | Four, six, eight, 12, or 16 |
| Delivery Area | Continental United States | Most of continental United States | Most of continental United States, excluding some rural areas | U.S. residents, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, and parts of New Mexico | U.S. residents, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, West Virginia, and Wyoming |
Our testing experience
Our Handbook Team tests the top meal delivery programs by signing up as mystery shoppers to try the service and meals for one week each. So far, we have tested 26 of the top meal delivery platforms. During that time, we do the following:
Sign up for the service as a new member.
Select one week’s worth of meals.
Evaluate the program for dietary and food allergy options.
Place an order for the meals and set a delivery date.
Track and evaluate the delivery.
Unbox package when it arrives and document the condition and quality of all items.
Prepare meals throughout the week following instructions and recipes.
Evaluate each meal for taste, convenience, portion size, and freshness.
Contact customer support with questions.
Cancel subscription.
We become familiar with each meal delivery service to learn how they work, the types of meals they offer, and how much effort it takes to prepare each meal. We specifically ask each tester to evaluate each meal kit for ingredient freshness, convenience, taste, portion sizing, and whether they offer meals with enough food to feed a family of four.
Testers also note the types of meals the brands offer, whether they deliver the ingredients and recipes for you to prepare your own meal, or if they deliver pre-made meals that you heat in the stove or microwave oven. If the platform gives you the ingredients to prepare, we look to see if they offer meals for different cooking skill levels.
We also surveyed 600 meal delivery service users to learn more about their experiences. We use these survey results, our testing data, and insights from nutrition experts to develop a thorough perspective on each meal delivery service we review.
Nutrisystem is the best weight loss delivery service overall.
Some platforms offer free nutrition consultations or other resources.
Each platform offers a variety of meal plans to suit specific preferences, needs, and diets.
For weight loss, you may consider low-calorie, Mediterranean, low-sodium, or plant-based plans.
Talk to your doctor before choosing a meal plan for weight loss.
Best weight loss meal delivery service
Calories vary for each person
Calorie needs vary for each person depending on your age, height, weight, gender, and activity level. Some of these meal kits contain a specific number of calories, but you may need more, or you may need to eat healthy snacks between meals. You can use the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) Calculator for Healthcare Professionals to determine the daily calories you need, but you should also talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian about your specific calorie needs.
Best overall: Nutrisystem
Our final verdict
We choose Nutrisystem as our best overall meal delivery service for weight loss because the program has bonus resources and tools like progress trackers, a journal, and a personal health coach that provide additional guidance and support for people on a weight loss journey. Nutrisystem has nutritionally balanced meals that are pre-portioned and designed by registered dietitians. The combination of the two can be helpful for someone new to weight loss and healthy eating.
During testing, we found that the food arrived quickly and was packaged well with dry ice. Our tester had mixed opinions on the taste of the food. While some meals were tasty, others were bland. Our tester often had to add ketchup or seasoning to the food to make it taste a little better.
From our tester
“The chocolate cupcake was good, but nothing special. It arrived in the dry goods box, not the frozen box. I would say it’s on par with pre-made cupcakes I would buy at the store.”
You can also chat with a health coach at any time via messaging, or you can schedule a call at a time that works for you. Although Nutrisystem coaches are not registered dietitians, they may assist with roadblocks you’re experiencing, questions regarding your meal plan, and ideas for staying motivated. We recommend speaking to a registered dietitian if you want specific nutritional guidance.
Because we know that slow, gradual weight loss is more sustainable, it’s important to point out that Nutrisystem advertises unrealistic weight loss goals. Their website states that you can lose seven pounds in seven days. The recommended guidelines for weight loss are one to two pounds per week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Losing weight too quickly isn’t sustainable for long-term weight loss. However, we think that Nutrisystem offers helpful tools like health coaching and nutrition tracking that you can incorporate into a long-term, sustainable weight loss plan.
Best budget: EveryPlate
Our final verdict
EveryPlate is great for people who want to learn how to cook healthier meals but find the process of finding recipes and shopping for ingredients difficult. EveryPlate provides you with ingredients and recipes to make meals. They have a low-calorie plan called “Nutrish and Delish” that may be beneficial for weight loss. This plan has meals that are 650 calories or less, and it’s an affordable way to learn how to make well-balanced dishes. As a novice chef, our tester was impressed by how easy the meals were to make.
From our tester
“I thought the cherry meatball recipe was relatively easy to make. I am very much a beginner in the kitchen, and I was able to follow all of the steps with ease!”
Our tester disliked that some of the meals didn’t include certain items that may be considered pantry staples, like sugar, ketchup, or butter. It may be inconvenient to go to the store to purchase some items when you should receive everything you need in the meal kit. If you frequently stock up on pantry staples, this may not affect you too much, but if you would prefer every item to be included in your meal kit, you may find this bothersome.
When it comes to weight loss, the more information you learn, the more sustainable your healthy living journey will be. Education can help you modify your lifestyle and make behavioral changes that are essential for weight management. EveryPlate’s recipe cards teach you how to make healthy, tasty recipes that you can replicate on your own. The provided meals can make cooking more convenient—you don’t need to scour the internet for healthy recipes or shop for ingredients. You have almost everything you need from the subscription.
Best variety: Factor
Our final verdict
We like that Factor focuses on creating well-balanced meals. Registered dietitians design prepared meals containing a mix of carbohydrates, fats, and protein. You can choose a specific plan that aligns with your goals. For instance, if you want to add more vegetables to your diet, you may choose the “Vegan & Veggie” plan, and if you want to add more protein, you can choose the “Protein Plus” plan.
Other Factor plans include:
- Keto: Keto-friendly meals that contain 15 grams of net carbs or less.
- Chef’s Choice: A variety of whole foods to create well-balanced meals.
- Flexitarian: Focuses on vegetables and proteins.
- Calorie Smart: Meals contain 550 calories or less.
When it comes to the “Calorie Smart” plan, keep in mind that calorie needs vary per person depending on age, gender, activity levels, weight, and height. We suggest talking to your doctor before choosing the “Calorie Smart” meal plan to make sure the plan aligns with your goals. If you choose this meal plan, you will eat 1,650 calories per day. If you need more calories than that, we suggest having healthy snacks between meals to ensure you’re hitting your calorie needs.
We were impressed with Factor’s nutrition consultation. You can sign up for a free 20-minute nutrition consultation, even if you’re not a subscriber. We scheduled a consultation and met with a registered dietitian who gave us a few realistic changes to our diet that aligned with our specific goals. We find this personalized coaching a helpful aid during a weight loss journey.
From our tester
“I told the dietitian that I don’t like to spend a lot of time cooking or preparing food and that I want to focus on eating more fruits, vegetables, and protein. She gave me a few easy things I could try, like adding frozen vegetables as an easy side dish or adding tuna to the microwavable mac n’ cheese I eat for lunch.”
While one tester does not enjoy the taste of their Factor meals, a second tester likes the meals they selected and finds that they make meal time easier.
Best organic: Sunbasket
Our final verdict
Sunbasket is an all-organic meal kit service, so if you eat organically, you won’t have to worry about sifting through the food options to find something that suits your diet. You can choose prepared meals or meal kits. Our tester was impressed with the quality of the ingredients, stating that each food item arrived fresh and in really good condition.
From our tester
“You can get so many meal kits nowadays but I have yet to see one before this with such a dedication to fresh food as well as maintaining fair environmental practices. It costs more than other services, but it’s worth it in my opinion for those who value eating fresh food.”
The quality of ingredients speaks to the quality of the meals. Our tester, who considers her cooking skills intermediate, prepared and ate four meals from Sunbasket. She rated the taste of the meals to be 4.3 out of 5 on average and stated that each meal had a lot of flavor. Specifically, she said the Sichuan glass noodle bowl meal tasted like something she would have at a restaurant. Each meal left her feeling satiated without feeling overly full or bloated.
There are numerous meal plans to choose from that can suit a variety of diets. The services ask about your specific preferences so they can personalize your meals to be low in added sugar, sodium, calories, or carbs. This allows you to customize your plan based on your specific nutritional needs, which can be especially beneficial for people who have heart disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure and want to limit their intake of sodium and/or sugar.
Best plant-based: CookUnity
Our final verdict
CookUnity provides fresh, prepared meals that are curated by chefs. The service offers a wide variety of meals, and you can even filter meals by diet, allergies, meal categories, and ingredients. For weight loss plans, you can find meals that are less than 600 calories, low in carbs, and low in sodium. A plant-based diet can also be a great option for weight loss since it increases the vegetables and whole grains in your diet and reduces your red meat intake. CookUnity offers numerous plant-based meals, including vegan and vegetarian options.
The meals can be heated in the microwave or oven. Our tester heated them in the microwave and realized the texture and quality may have been better in the oven.
From our tester
“One of my meals was the chipotle-maple glazed salmon. The salmon tasted really fresh, but the green beans didn’t heat up in the microwave well.”
Our tester was impressed by how fresh the meals looked, although some expiration dates were within four to five days of delivery. It makes sense that prepared meals made with fresh ingredients wouldn’t last very long in the refrigerator, but we expected them to last at least one week. When you choose a meal plan, consider how many meals you or your family can realistically eat in four to five days. Our tester ordered 12 meals and was only able to eat eight of them before the expiration dates.
Our tester was disappointed by the limited nutritional information on the package. The label only contains calories, protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Understanding what nutrients are in your food can be beneficial for weight loss. There is a QR code that you can scan to learn more about the meal, but it’s less convenient than reading a nutrition label.
Handbook Tip #2
When it comes to prepared meals, heating them in the oven or air fryer rather than the microwave may improve the taste and texture. This may be slightly more inconvenient than popping it in the microwave, but you can take that extra step if you are particular about texture. Always check the packaging to see what cooking methods are preferred.
If you are experiencing signs of an eating disorder
First, know that you are not alone. Eating disorders affect people all over the world. In fact, it’s estimated that nine percent of people worldwide have an eating disorder. The Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) has the following resources available to people who are experiencing signs and symptoms of an eating disorder:
- Call the Eating Disorders Helpline at 888-375-7767, available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (unavailable on most major holidays).
- Join a virtual peer support group—there are general support groups and focused groups for LGBTQ+, BIPOC, caregivers, older adults, teens and young adults, siblings, people with larger bodies, men, and binge eating disorder.
- Request a mentor for free using the Recovery Mentorship Program.
- Browse the treatment directory to find a provider that specializes in eating disorders.
These resources can be helpful, but ultimately, you should talk to a health care provider about the symptoms you are experiencing. “I’d suggest contacting a registered dietitian or therapist/counselor with experience in treating disordered eating and eating disorders. This is important because not many registered dietitians and therapists may know how to recognize the red flags and address the issues,” says Karin Evans, registered dietitian nutritionist at Top Nutrition Coaching.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the specific service. Overall, most of our testers found that canceling their meal delivery services was easy.
The meal delivery services in this review cost $4.99–$17.99 per serving, which is around the average cost based on our research and testing.
Before choosing a meal delivery service for weight loss, talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian about your specific nutritional needs and preferences. They will have insight into what type of meal delivery service you should look for. Your needs can vary depending on if you have any health conditions, dietary needs, or specific goals.
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