Survey your current subscriptions. Do any of them include food? If so, you may not be in the minority for much longer. Blue Apron, a Brooklyn-based meal kit start up, wants to ship you all of the ingredients you need for a fresh, healthy meal for less than the cost of your average takeout order – $10 per person.

Blue Apron meal “kits” are delivered once per week in a cold pack box with all the pre-portion ingredients for three meals. And we’re not talking chicken enchiladas every week. The company touts exotic ingredients and adventurous recipes, which come printed on clear recipe cards and require just 35 minutes on average. Meat and vegetarian options are available, and each meal contains between 500-700 calories per serving.

The $10 per person monthly subscription can be suspended (for vacations) and cancelled any time. A family of four would pay an average of $480 a month for the three meal delivery, but would still have to figure out meals the other four days of the week. Blue Apron tries to keep its meals as affordable as possible by buying in bulk and planning for meals on a seasonal basis.
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We’ve completed our first ever side-by-side comparison of three leading meal delivery diet programs – Bistro MD, Diet To Go, and Freshology. This segment of the diet industry is large and continues to grow. Last year, John LaRosa of MarketData shared with us that the segment should “sustain 4.5% average annual growth from 2012 to 2014, reaching $1.09 billion in the latter year.”

Which one is the best? You’re always asking and we’re always wondering ourselves. So we finally sat down to find out.

The winner? Bistro MD. It was a stand out favorite on many levels, from nutrition to taste and quality, as well as packaging.

Diet To Go took the second spot, and Freshology rounded out the list at third.

Let us explain how we got there.
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For those looking to lose weight with a potential diet food program, taste is very important.

Finding a meal program that offers good food can be the difference in sticking with the plan or giving up in a very short period of time. But now you can take a first-hand look at how everyday consumers rated the most popular diet food programs when it comes to taste.

NextAdvisor.com conducted a blind taste test to answer questions about how some of the most popular diet foods taste. They conducted their first test in October 2010 and have since completed another to have the most up-to-date results possible since diet companies constantly update their menus and inventory, according to lifestyle editor Polina Polishchuk.

The taste test included eight different companies which were rated in the categories of breakfast, lunch and dinner. The meal plans for each program were ordered anonymously and included between 1,200 and 1,350 calories per day. The participants included males and females of varying ages. And to keep the results unbiased, the test was “completely independent with no input from the diet food companies and no visible branding to sway our testers’ opinions,” said Polishchuk.
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Three meal delivery diet brands just received a major hat tip from the food experts at Epicurious. Diet to Go, Biggest Loser Meal Plan, and Chefs Diet all received “three and a half forks” from the culinary publication, recognizing them as “Best-Tasting Diet-Plan Meals.”

These leaders in the meal plan delivery space, shipping low-calorie and nutritionally balanced meals out to health- and weight-conscious customers, won in a blind taste taste against eight total meal delivery companies. The tests were conducted by Epicurious as they sought to find diet delivery meals that were reasonably priced, tasty, and healthy. The judges ruled over criteria such as flavor, texture, and appearance of a variety of polutry entrees. Out of four possible “forks,” these brands each received three and a half forks.

For Diet to Go, their Thai turkey tenderloin over rice with green beans and grape tomatoes held its own at the competition. The judges said the turkey was tender, and unlike so many pre-made meals the vegetables remained crisp. The judges’ only negative comments referred to the amount of sauce on this particular meal, and they didn’t love the chocolate brownie or chocolate pudding that come as dessert options. They claimed they tasted somewhat artificial.
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John McGran, chief editor at Diet-to-Go, has been covering the fields of diet, fitness and health since 2000. He writes from the perspective of a dieter rather than a dietitian.

Starting a diet is easy. Heck, I’ve started at least two dozen diets over the past 30 years. You want tough? Try sticking to a diet through thick and thin! Oh, I see… you have tried sticking to a diet.

There are many reasons we fall off the diet wagon. I think the biggest reason has to be a lack of perceived progress. It could be a stuck scale needle or a dress or pants size that refuses to drop.

So here we are. It’s early in the New Year and we’re determined to make this the last diet we’ll ever need. So far, so good… right?

Consider these doable tips as belated holiday gifts from your pal Mr. Bad Food, the Santa Claus of Slimming!
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