As a larger guy, I have been looking for the best way for me to lose weight and keep it off. Part of this research led me to MuscleFood, a service focused on health and the betterment of its customers by selling pre-made, pre-calculated healthy food with all of the trimmings. I had seen the ads on Instagram & Facebook, and been told by friends to try it, so I bit the bullet.
The website gives four options for an individual’s goal; weight loss, lean muscle, lean & toned, and getting ripped. I chose weight loss as my goal and was then asked a few questions about my age, gender, & current weight. I was then taken to the page which let me to chose my plan – 5 days, 6 days, or 7 days. The answers to the questions about yourself change the choice in meals slightly to reflect caloric intake and portion sizes.
When choosing what meals & snacks that I wanted, there was a lot of choice in each section of varying quality – some food that could easily be bought from any supermarket, some that could be easily prepared for cheaper, and some that I had never considered before. For everything except breakfast I tried to go for a healthy variety in order to form a more well-rounded opinion.
After choosing my 6 breakfasts, lunches, & dinners along with 18 snacks, I then was greeted with the worst part; the payment screen. Let’s get this out of the way, is MuscleFood cheap? No, not at all, but it was worth trying for the £60 that I paid. Normally it would cost £76 / week for the 6 day plan, though the amount of snacks probably takes up more of the price than it should. For a student especially, this is a hefty pricetag and much more expensive than a weekly shop at Lidl.
Out of curiousity I carried onward and paid the price. A few days later my order came in two large boxes delivered by DPD and I hurridely stored everything away before they had to be thrown out. The packaging is a big issue for me, the boxes are needlessly big, along with there not being a reason for two boxes instead of one. In addition to this, the packaging of the majority of the food is not environmentally friendly as it is mostly plastic tubs, which are easy to use, store and take to work, but are not good for recycling.
For the breakfasts I was extremely boring as I can be very picky about what I want for breakfast; I got 3 chicken bagels and 3 sausage & bean pots. I haven’t been able to find these at a retail store, so I felt like they were the best value and provided much needed warmth in the mornings when the radiators decicde they’d rather not turn on. Honestly both of these breakfast options were extremely nice and were cooked in the microwave for only a short period. There aren’t many complaints that I can levy towards either of these breakfast choices – they are not my usual idea of a breakfast but they were both tasty.
After skipping the “morning snack” every day because I thought it was overkill, I’d move on to the lunches which were filled with variety and options you wouldn’t find in a normal shop. I got 6 different lunches to test the variety and keep my diet interesting. Like with the breakfasts – I could not find any real issues with any of the lunch dishes as they all tasted great, and were extremely easy to cook. My only complaint would be that it is easy to mistake the lunches for the dinners due to the lunch options all seeming like possible dinners.
Variety shines in the dinner selections with many options for all kinds of people and plenty of filling dishes. Due to me working most nights, I only got one recipe kit and the rest were microwaveable or for the oven. The recipe was extremely easy to follow, and all ingredients were provided in ample quantity. The rest of the dinners were similarly full of quality and tasted great, as well as something to look forward to during my break at work.
Along with the food came access to a Facebook group called Muclefood Goal Getters, a little recipe book, and workouts that can be done at either a gym or at home. In these trying times of corona and isolation, the motivational group was extremely welcome as it shows just how many people are undertaking a similar journey and provides a place to see possible results that you want to achieve yourself through the help of MuscleFood. The workouts are also tailored toward your goal and I never had any issues following along with the instructor.
Overall, there are a few questions I am left with – do I continue? if I can afford it, definitely. Were there any direct results from using MuscleFood? Definitely, I know I lost a small bit of weight but measuring yourself is where the true changes happen, and as well as internal health. The biggest question though, is MuscleFood worth the price?
Well, there are multiple ways to look at answering this question; the normal price without any discounts (though there are many different codes available) would be £76 / week on my plan, which is a tall ask for a student even if lightened by the amount of time that is saved without a detrimental health effect. The snacks will also end up taking a large amount of space in a cuboard unless you follow the plan exactly, which is a bit much for me.
As I’ve said many times by this point, the food is genuinely delicious and saves so much time by cutting down decision making, having to time food, do the prep, go to the shops, and deal with the general stress some people experience with cooking.
The health benefits too can be noticed within a week by simply eating what they send, as fatigue lowers and energy grows exponentially. Along with this comes a shrinking waist line, increase in stamina and just a general feeling of contentment and health without having to experience a nervous breakdown due to stress.
So, to the question “Is MuscleFood Worth It?” I say yes, if you have spare money and want to increase your general health whilst also gaining more time for the important things in life, then there’s enough variety in the meal options that as long as you’ve got flatmates that are hungry for snacks, I have to say go for it. I know I will.
Feature Image Credit: – MuscleFood
I’ve been waiting on a delivery for two days. so I’ve had no shopping since. Considering I was getting a big box I’ve had to leave room for storage for food. And I’ve had a two day wait to get this situation resolved. And the best they could do is send it back out, with another week’s wait. Without even considering a voucher or knocking off, what I paid for delivery.
Very disappointing