Diet Meal Delivery Programs:
Paid Portion Control!

Considering diet meal delivery programs?

If you're trying to lose weight or get healthy, no doubt you know (or have been told) you should be following a low calorie diet, or a lowfat diet or a ____ (fill in the blank) diet (i.e., low carb, heart healthy, vegetarian, etc.).

If you have no idea what that translates to in real life, then in my opinion, as a registered dietitian, you should consider diet meal plan delivery...short term.

Why? Because diet meal delivery programs remove the guesswork from what and how much to eat.

Diet meal plan delivery programs translate the recommended ounces and cups and servings of food you always hear you should eat and shows you precisely what it looks like on your plate.

And then it's there for you to eat...instead of overeat.

And it's really not as expensive as you'd expect. The various diet meal plan delivery programs differ in cost, but you'll find sevices for as little as $10/day.

When my clients want to jump start their weight loss, I recommend diet food home delivery for a week.

A week's worth of balanced, perfectly portioned meals delivered to your door is something anyone can benefit from. Whether you're trying to:

• lose weight
• eat healthier
• save time
• save money (if you're going out to eat instead)

Not only do you get relief from planning and preparing all your food, you get a lesson on nutritional balance and portion control at every meal. With prepared foods in your fridge or freezer, you're also less likely to eat out, thereby sparing yourself the excess portions, fat, sodium, and calories in restaurant food.

And if you're eating at home, you're less likely to eat everyone's leftovers. You know that this is YOUR food, on YOUR plate, and that's it! THAT was the RIGHT amount.

Now don't get me wrong...

I don't think using diet meal delivery programs is something you should or could do for the rest of your life. That's not realistic!

However, for the reasons I've described, I haven't found a better, time-efficient tool to recommend for jump starting weight loss and healthy eating.

Yes, you could keep a food diary. (And I would love it if you did!) But you have to ask yourself,

Am I prepared to measure and record every bite of food I have during the day? Every day? Even when I'm out of the house?

Here are all the ways I suggest using diet meal delivery programs:

• Have diet meals delivered for 1 week to 1 month in order to jump start your weight loss.
• OR, have meals delivered until you've lost half the weight you hope to lose, then reduce the frequency to once every other week or once a month.
• In the long run, consider using meal delivery at a regular planned interval (ex: the first week of every month) to reign in portion sizes that may be spiraling out of control.
• Have meals delivered that meet your particular needs, while you still cook for the rest of your family.
• Use diet meal plan delivery simply to eat healthier! Even if you don't want to lose weight, you can benefit from diet delivery programs simply by getting a week of healthy meals every now and then.

The negatives? Well, simply eating a set menu and not really understanding why it helps you lose weight (or get healthier) won't help you keep weight off (or stay healthier) in the long run. If you can view delivered meals as an education about what and how much to eat and learn from them, you'll be getting the biggest bang for your buck.

More weight loss advice.

Go to Personal Nutrition Guide Home.