I’m an RD Who Tried the Diet-to-Go Meal Delivery Service for Two Weeks –Here’s What You Should Know

As a registered dietitian, I’ve seen almost every diet out there. I know how confusing the world of weight loss can be because I’ve spent years helping my clients navigate it, so I have a pretty solid understanding of what works — and what doesn’t — when it comes to losing weight in a healthy, sustainable way.

When I heard about the meal delivery service Diet-to-Go, I was intrigued by its promise of making weight loss easier by sending fully prepared, portion-controlled meals right to your door, so you don’t have to deal with the hassle of grocery shopping, cooking, and calorie counting. But how well does it deliver on those promises? And would the meals actually taste good? I decided to find out and signed up for two weeks of the company’s subscription service. Here’s how it went.

When you sign up, you’ll be able to select from five Diet-to-Go meal plans:

• Balance encourages healthy eating overall, with calorie and nutritionally balanced, heart-healthy meals.
• Balance-Diabetes aims to help you manage your blood sugar levels.
• Vegetarian aims to help you lose weight while following a plant-based diet. However, this plan is not vegan-friendly because it contains cheese and other dairy products.
• Keto-Carb30 is for people following a low-carb ketogenic diet.
• Mediterranean focuses on whole foods, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, grains, fish, and lean meat.

These plans are designed to meet different dietary needs, medical conditions, and personal preferences — all while helping you work to lose weight. For all of them, you can select meals for five or seven days a week. You can also decide if you want two or three meals per day.

I tried the Balance and Vegetarian plans to get a feel for the variety, proteins, and produce included in both plans. All plans are tailored to your gender identity: Female-identifying people receive meal plans with foods totaling 1,200 calories per day; male-identifying people receive plans with 1,600 calories per day.

After selecting my plan, I checked out and created my account, which gave me access to a dashboard where I could review my meals each week. (I switched plans from week 1 to week 2 for this review.)

In my dashboard each week, my meals were selected based on my plan’s offerings, but if I didn’t like a suggestion, I was free to swap it with another option from my chosen plan.

Each week, I could pick from 15 to 20 available meals, and all the plan menus rotate on a five-week cycle. This means that you have a good variety week to week, but your favorite meals will come around again. This is good if you have favorites, but I worry that it might start to feel repetitive over time.

Still, the range of proteins at Diet-to-Go is impressive, with chicken, salmon, beef, tuna, and even some plant-based options like soy. The meals also feature a nice mix of cooked vegetables, including green beans, asparagus, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts, as well as fruits like cinnamon apples, mandarin oranges, and plantains, which add to the overall variety. However, I missed having more fresh fruits and veggies so I often added them to my meals from what I had at home.

The meals offer a wide variety of grains like whole-grain pasta, wild rice, pita bread, wraps, and muffins without a lot of repeating ingredients, which keeps the menu interesting. Nevertheless, there is a lack of diverse global flavors, like Thai- or African-inspired dishes.

Because the meals are premade and frozen, you can’t customize or remove specific ingredients. The deadline to select meals is noon ET on Mondays for the following week’s delivery. Customer service is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET; when I called, I was able to work out the logistics of my order and make changes with ease.

I ordered the following meals from Diet-to-Go:

• Chocolate zucchini bread
• Greek mushroom omelet
• Eggs rancheros
• Egg bites
• Monte cristo
• Morning muffin
• Blueberry pancakes
• Chicken rice bowl
• Stuffed shells
• The Kelly sandwich (pesto and cheese)
• Mediterranean tapas
• Salmon cakes over rice
• Blackened salmon
• Greek pasta salad with tuna
• Chicken parmesan
• Teriyaki steak
• Chicken cacciatore
• Eggplant Parmesan
• Mushroom chicken
• Soy nuggets
• Mediterranean pizza
• Tuscan bean salad
• Mexican burrito
• White bean casserole
• Vegetable ravioli

Diet-to-Go doesn’t disclose where it sources ingredients but states on its website that it uses organic ingredients “whenever possible” and doesn’t add any preservatives. Transparency in ingredient sourcing is important for people who want to make informed decisions about the quality and origin of their food. As a dietitian, I would like to see Diet-to-Go provide clearer information regarding its use of organic ingredients and more details regarding where its ingredients are sourced.

All Diet-to-Go meals are made fresh in the company’s Virginia kitchens. If you live near those facilities, your meals are delivered fresh twice a week in insulated boxes with ice packs. For areas farther away, meals are flash frozen, packed on dry ice, and shipped weekly in special coolers.

Since I live in the Southeast, my meals arrived in insulated boxes with ice packs. About half were thawed, and half were still somewhat frozen, which was convenient because I could store some in the freezer and others in the fridge before reheating them.

The meals came in several large cardboard boxes lined with Styrofoam, ice packs, Bubble Wrap, and cardboard inserts. Each meal was also individually sealed in a plastic tray with a cardboard sleeve. While some of the packaging is recyclable, like the trays and cardboard, there was quite a bit of nonrecyclable material.

Preparing the Meals

Diet-to-Go meals couldn’t be easier to make since they arrive fully cooked — you just need to reheat them. Each meal can be reheated in the microwave on high for one to three minutes (depending on the dish), or you can reheat them in a conventional oven at 300 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.

Each meal comes with all the necessary condiments, so there’s no need to add anything extra.

Tasting the Meals

The meals I tried had a range of flavors and textures. Some dishes stood out as especially tasty. For example, I thoroughly enjoyed the Mediterranean tapas, which included super fresh tabbouleh, flavorful baba ghanoush, and creamy red pepper hummus. The meal came with a whole-wheat pita that had a wonderfully soft texture and was perfect for dipping.

Another favorite was the salmon cakes over rice pilaf, which had a fantastic, rich flavor and a pleasant texture. The chicken Parmesan and chicken teriyaki bowl also hit the spot as the chicken was juicy and flavorful, and the accompanying vegetables were fresh and had a nice texture.

However, not every meal was enjoyable.

I was excited to try the white bean and veggie casserole, but while the flavor was pleasant, it had fewer beans than I hoped, so it felt a bit incomplete. I also looked forward to the blueberry pancakes, but they were more like a blueberry roll-up with an odd-tasting blueberry compote inside, which was disappointing. Additionally, some of the breads and wraps were soggy, and many of the vegetables were somewhat bland.

Diet-to-Go is very transparent when it comes to the calorie count, nutritional info, and ingredients in every meal. You can read the nutrition facts label for each meal before you select it, and it’s also printed on each packaged meal.

The Dietary Guideline for Americans recommend that to maintain their weight, people assigned female at birth who are between ages 19 and 30 should eat between 1,800 and 2,400 calories per day, while people assigned male at birth in the same age range should aim for 2,400 to 3,000 calories. For those ages 31 to 59, the guidelines suggest 1,600 to 2,200 calories for women each day and 2,200 to 3,000 for men.

As an active person, I was still hungry after eating many of these meals. This is likely at least partly because they are low-calorie meals meant to encourage weight loss, but also there was a noticeable variation in protein content across the meals, with some providing only 10 grams and others offering up to 50 grams.

The meals I tried included a variety of servings of fruits and vegetables, which provide important nutrients and antioxidants. Produce is important for a balanced diet and can contribute to overall health and wellness.

The service does not offer meal plans for people following a gluten-free, kosher, or vegan diet, and it does not cater to those with specific allergies. While the meals are generally healthy, this lack of customizable options for particular allergies or dietary preferences could pose a very real risk to some individuals.

In addition, people with certain medical conditions, those who are pregnant, and those who are breastfeeding should consult with a healthcare provider to ensure that the meals meet their nutritional needs because of how low-calorie the plans are as a whole.

Diet-to-Go excels at convenience. There is no prep, cooking, or cleaning involved, unlike most meal delivery services, which require time chopping ingredients, cooking meals, and washing dishes.

Compared with other prepared meal delivery services, Diet-to-Go is fairly low priced. While it’s more expensive than grocery shopping and cooking at home, the convenience might justify the cost for many people.

Diet-to-Go is also a good option if you’re looking to lose weight because of its focus on portion control and reduced-calorie meals. However, unlike some competitors, including BistroMD and Trifecta, Diet-to-Go lacks options for those with dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free, vegan, kosher, or allergy-friendly meals.

Other services might be more appealing to more adventurous eaters or those seeking diverse menu options and ingredient variety. Services like Home Chef and BistroMD, for example, offer more flexibility in meal customization and a wider variety of meal plans, Diet-to-Go’s strength lies in its simplicity and focus on providing nutritionally balanced, ready-to-eat meals.

Overall, my experience with Diet-to-Go was positive, especially regarding convenience and the balanced, nutritious meals provided. This service would be ideal for individuals or couples with hectic schedules who need quick, healthy meals without the hassle of shopping, cooking, and cleaning.

It’s particularly well suited for health-conscious people who need help with portion control to support their weight loss efforts. However, the calorie offerings are too low for most people, especially active individuals, making it less satisfying for those with higher energy needs.

While the service is generally healthy for replacing a certain number of meals each week, it might not be ideal for long-term use beyond six weeks. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the meals, but I wouldn’t continue ordering this service for myself as I prefer more variety and customization.

Our team at Everyday Health is testing over 50 meal delivery services, ensuring that we cover a wide range of options to suit your dietary needs and preferences. We test each service with a team of registered dieticians, like me, or professional health journalists with years of experience reporting on health and nutrition trends, and we evaluate each service based on its ease of sign-up, meal variety, cooking process, ingredient quality, and overall nutritional value.

As a registered dietitian with over 18 years of experience, I bring a wealth of knowledge and a critical eye to our reviews. My role involves tasting and evaluating the meals and analyzing their nutritional value, ingredient quality, and overall adherence to dietary guidelines. This extensive testing means that our reviews are based on real experiences and expert insights, providing you with trustworthy and relevant information.