My Muscle Chef Review by Personal Trainer.

Honest My Muscle Chef review by personal trainer Sydney.

In My Muscle Chef review, I wanted to cover all the important points when it comes to choosing a prepared meal delivery service. I wanted to touch a bit on whether My Muscle Chef is suitable not only for muscle building but also for getting lean while getting enough protein and balance in your diet.

Being a strength training and weight loss coach for over 12 years and having competed in bodybuilding competitions I know what it takes to build muscles while trying to get lean at the same time. All the while being a busy working parent who needs a balanced meal ready to go for those moments when you just have no energy, time, or enthusiasm to meal prep or cook something healthy for yourself.

Meals like My Muscle Chef, Youfoodz & Macros to name a few, offer a very convenient option so you can hit your macros and calorie goals guilt-free.

By the way, I already did a separate Youfoodz review on my blog, you can check it out right here, and I will be doing Macros meals soon as well so stay tuned to my blog.

Closer to the bottom of this page I have selected a few meals to recommend that I, my hubby, and my clients have tried and rated highly. That way if you are just trying to order My Muscle Chef for the first time and not sure which meals to choose you can try the ones I recommend and hope you like them too.

1. Is My Muscle Chef good for weight loss while building muscles? 

In this My Muscle Chef review I want to focus on weight loss as well as building lean muscles because I know many of my readers are trying to achieve both goals at the same time and it can be tricky. As for muscle building, you normally need to fuel your body properly whilst on the flip side for fat loss you need to be in a caloric deficit. They kind of go against each other a little bit, but you can still achieve both, you just need to know how to eat and train the right way.

The great thing about My Muscle Chef is that they have quite a few options to choose from based on your goal. You can pick meals that are low in calories under 400 per meal while still hitting a good amount of protein.

Protein is very important for muscle building and preservation during a fat loss phase, why, because when you are in a caloric deficit you risk losing muscles, not just fat, but protein helps you hold on to that muscle mass if you consistently eat enough.

When I am trying to shred for summer, event, or photoshoot I aim for meals that contain a minimum of 35g of protein per meal while under 450 calories. So the total daily caloric intake could be 1400 calories for a fast-paced shred while hitting at least 120g of protein throughout the day to ensure I maintain and continue building muscles.

Another great thing is if you want to order lower calorie meals for yourself but something more filling and larger for your partner you can order meals in various sizes.

I often order 5-7 meals for myself during a shred they would be under 400 calories and for my partner, I will order 5 meals that are around 550 calories which are from their PLUS+ menu.

My Muscle Chef is great for you and your partner even if you have completely different goals, you can choose from Weight Loss or Muscle Gain meals. The meals are the same style but the PLUS range has more carbs and overall volume. Both Weight Loss and Muscle Gain options are high in protein.

2. Do My Muscle Chef meals actually taste good and fresh?

My Muscle Chef meals come in a vacuum sealed packaging to preserve the freshness, and honestly, when I first opened it they did not look very appetizing as the food looks vacuumed and squashed, but I was proven wrong once I fluffed it back to life with a fork and heated up the meals. 

The meat or chicken was not dry and well prepared, even chicken breast meals which I was a bit worried about as I hate dry chicken, were marinated well to stay soft and moist. 

They use very flavorsome sauces, but not too oily or too rich obviously to keep calories on the low side. So I definitely enjoyed most of the meals I bought and was looking forward to eating them, especially in the next order when I knew which ones are my favourite and ordered the ones I liked the first time. 

A couple of my favorites were Lamb Shanks with Sweet Potato Mash & Peas and Lemon Pepper Chicken with Pea Mash pictured below. 

I do feel that they lack enough veggies though, I understand not many vegetables taste great microwaved so they could be limited in what they can use, but I still feel that more things like cauliflower, broccoli or string beans could be added for more fibre. It was an easy fix for me as I just threw a quick side salad or even just a few fresh veggies on the side.  

3. Are you restricted to a specific meal plan every week?

Absolutely not, there is so much flexibility in how you can order your meals. From just a one-off order to a recommended weekly meal plan based on your goals. 

Here are some of the ways you can order from My Muscle Chef;

• You can just jump directly to their main menu and order as many meals and snacks of any type as you like, and you can just order it as a one-off order without subscribing to a weekly delivery.
• If you need help deciding and are not very knowledgeable about calories and macros you can add your goals, and details about yourself and your current activity level, and My Muscle Chef will recommend meals for you so you don’t have to think. A little bit like a built-in weight loss coach.
• If you choose to subscribe to a weekly delivery service the perks are that you get free delivery, but it’s still flexible because you can pause delivery if you need to.
• You can order any combination of meals you like and snacks are optional, if you want to order large meals for your partner or family member and smaller meals for yourself of vice versa you can easily pick what you want. 

5. What is the minimum number of meals you can get?

You can get meals and snacks $50 worth as a minimum order. 

6. Are there any discounts?

Keep an eye out on their main page as they usually have discounts for 1st-time customers.

If you want to save $20 off your first order, use discount code WELCOME20 at checkout. 

Check out My Muscle Chef menu here. 

7. Is My Muscle Chef healthy?

For the most part, My Muscle Chef meals are made of quality ingredients and are definitely a healthier alternative than grabbing a takeaway meal or something that has minimal protein and is heavily processed. And at least you can check the ingredients list to find out what they contain for each meal. Just go to the Ingredients tab to the right of the Nutritional information. 

However, although I am not a dietitian I don’t like the fact that they contain some additives and flavour enhancers in some of the meals.

If you don’t care about it too much then it won’t be an issue for you, I personally wish they stuck with all-natural herbs and spices. So that would be my only disapproval as a health coach. 

8. Are there My Muscle Chef vegetarian options?

Yes, there are a few to choose from. 

Approximately 10 vegetarian meals to choose from + plus 2 soups, 7 of those being completely plant-based with a decent amount of protein per meal, the soups are plant-based as well with around 20+g of protein per serving (as per the April 2023 menu). And a variety of sweet and savoury snacks like Protein Bites and even breakfast options. 

When you land on their menu, you can select some filters to only show you vegetarian meals and you can select other filters like low carb or under specific calories if you want to get straight to what you want without spending too much time browsing through the entire menu. 

Check out their menu here. 

9. Are My Muscle Chef meals fresh or frozen?

They come fresh and packaged well with lots of ice packs in the box, they are also vacuum sealed for more freshness.

10. Can you freeze the meals?

Yes, I froze most of them to use them sparingly between my other meal-prepped food and they were absolutely fine to defrost and cook straight away in the microwave. Just need a bit longer. 

11. Is My Muscle Chef meals worth it?

If you solely rely on My Muscle Chef Meals as your main source of food every week it can end up being costly as they are ready-made meals with good quality protein, but you will be well fed and see results with weight loss if you stick to a caloric deficit.

You can however use My Muscle Chef meals to supplement some of your busy days during the week and have one meal a day or even every other day, by ordering a batch and freezing some to have ready to go when you really need to or when your family is opting for a pizza night, but you want to stick to your diet without having to cook a meal for yourself. It does make like easier I can vouch for that. 

Pricing; meals that are under 350g are around $11, and meals that are larger over 500g are around $14 per meal. They do get cheaper the more you order and don’t forget to use the discount code I mentioned before. Here it is again WELCOME20 to snap up your first-time order discount. 

So in my opinion buying a batch to have on hand for busy days or tired nights is absolutely worth it. 

Relying entirely on My Muscle Chef food Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and snacks is probably not so budget-friendly, but if you are insanely busy or lazy to cook and think and can afford it, they do have the entire week of eating covered. 

Or if you are someone who just needs to go all in and need someone to provide an entire menu for you for 6-10 weeks to help you get results then you can choose the full weight loss menu and just go for it until you get to your goal weight and then drop to just a few meals a week to supplement your diet moving forward. 

12. Downside and things I didn’t like about My Muscle Chef.

1. As mentioned before my biggest issue is that they contain flavor enhancers and while I am ok with it from time to time when I go out to a Chinese restaurant with my family I don’t like that in my everyday meals. 

2. Not enough veggies in the meals and some meals have too many carrots which I didn’t like. But that was only a couple like that. I know not to order those again. 

3. Some snacks like Protein Bites are small for the number of calories, they do taste very nice though, so was worth a try, but I might just stick to my Carman’s bars from the supermarket. The ones with 10g of protein per bar.

Meals I recommend for weight loss and muscle building from My Muscle Chef menu, updated March 2023. 

Images are sourced from the actual My Muscle Chef menu.

Disclaimer: My recommendations in this review are honest and are not influenced by the companies who sell them. I may make a small commission on some of the linked products on this page. By clicking on the secure links of any of the products you will land on the official website where the seller sells their products or services.