Honest Youfoodz review by personal trainer Sydney.
Fitness meal or muscle meal delivery services are super popular these days, especially with busy working mums or just busy people in general who don’t have a lot of time to meal prep, but still want to lose weight or build lean muscle mass while getting shredded. Fitness delivery companies like Youfoodz, My Muscle Chef, Macros, and some others to name a few make it possible.
I wanted to write a Youfoodz review as a health and fitness professional as many of my personal training and online clients are in that boat of being too busy with work and kids and simply not having enough time to meal prep healthy meals to suit their goals.
I have been in this position many times and turned to fitness meal delivery services to help me through busy times.
So my review is based on my own experience and the experiences of my clients.
Because I have a thorough understanding of nutritional needs for specific fitness and muscle-building goals I will also give you some meal reccommendations from their menu in this Youfoodz review.
1. Is Youfoodz good for weight loss?
In this Youfoodz review I want to focus on weight loss as well as building lean muscles, so you will find it helpful if you are trying to lose weight and tone up.
Youfoodz offers various plans for different goals, and weight loss is definitely one of them. You can choose from their Low-Calorie menu if you are looking to get a little leaner.
I found that most of my clients who had prepared macro and calorie-calculated meals ready to go at home have had great success with their weight loss goals.
Often the struggle is having enough time to prepare healthy and low-calorie meals so you end up grabbing whatever is easiest and often it happens to be carbs like bread, crackers, and salty or sugar snacks with little nutrition. So having some easy-to-heat meals are definitely a huge help. Especially if you are actually looking forward to it because you know it will taste good.
2. Do Youfoodz meals actually taste good and fresh?
In my opinion not all, but most do. I will list my top recommended meals from the high-protein and low-calorie range that I found delicious a bit lower down this page. I picked top 6 for you that I would recommend to start with, you can get bigger sizes of those if you opt for the same meals in their FUEL’D range. But the ones I picked are around 350-450 calorie range for fat loss goals with high protein content.
Scroll down the page for recommended meals.
There were a few meals that I was disappointed with, the turkey rissoles in particular, but found that their beef or lamb-based meals are fantastic.
3. Do you have to order meals every week?
No, you are not locked into anything. It’s actually super easy to skip and pause weeks for as long as you want. I personally only like to order meals for my super busy periods or sometimes order only a box of 7, but it will last me for 2 weeks as I may only use them as backup in between other food I cook.
Their membership portal is super easy to navigate and you can completely deactivate it at any time for as long as you want. I have deactivated my deliveries for as long as 2 years and reactivated it when I needed easily.
So I rate them 5/5 for flexibility.
4. Can you change your meals each week?
You can either select a specific plan like Low Calorie or Vegetarian or you can just choose any meals you like from the entire menu of 60+ meals.
And you can choose any snack bundles you like from the add on snack menu, savoury, sweet or smoothies.
5. What is the minimum number of meals you can get?
5 meals is their minimum box, but can order up to 18 meals per week. Snack packs and smoothies are optional addition.
6. Are there any discounts?
They always run special offers, especially for the 1st order, you can pick up a box of 7 meals for less than $10 per meal. And after 1st box you can cancel or pause the orders as there is no lock in contracts, if you decide it’s not for you.
Use code YFZ200 at check out to get up to $200 off on your first 5 boxes. Even if you only decide to order 1 box and then cancel or pause, you will still get 45% off on your 1st box. Offer updated 2023.
It will by default land on their plans page, but if you just want to take a look at the whole menu first of all 60 meals then click on their website menu tab on the top.
7. Is Youfoodz healthy?
Youfoodz meals contain some additives and even preservatives unfortunately, but not all meals do, you can check ingredients for each meal by clicking on nutrition information before adding to your cart.
However, in my opinion as a health coach if you factor in that you still would be most likely eating a much healthier and more balanced meal if you choose Youfoodz as opposed to grabbing some fast food on the go that barely has any protein in it, then Youfoodz still wins over take away or toast with something random.
8. Are there Youfoodz vegetarian options?
Not many, I would not recommend them for vegetarian as there are only a few meals available so not a great choice if you are completely vegetarian.
You are better of going with Garden of Vegan for a much wider range of plant based healthy meals.
9. Is Youfoodz meals fresh or frozen?
They come fresh and packaged well with lots of ice packs in the box, so even if you are not home they can safely wait on your porch until you get home without spoiling. They are usually good for up to 8 days in the fridge, but you can freeze them if you prefer to keep them fresher.
I have not been home and my delivery survived Sydney summer sun on my verandah for 4 hours before I actually got home to bring it in and it was a 32c day. The food was still very cold and the ice bags still somewhat frozen.
They really factor this in well.
10. Can you freeze Youfoodz?
Yes, most meals can be frozen after delivery without any problems and taste fine after defrosting in microwave oven.
11. Is Youfoodz meals worth it?
If you solely rely on Youfoodz 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.
However, if your budget is a bit tight then I would recommend just ordering 7 meals per week every other week and stretching it out without any additional snacks, that way you can have some meals for times when you are just too tired and busy to cook and have your own meal prep in between when you are a little more organized. this is what I do often, that way I feel like I always have a balanced high-protein meal to back me up if I ran in the door after work starving or working on a big project and have not time to even make a simple wrap for myself for lunch.
The convenience is definitely there and if you mix it up with your own food it makes it worthwhile and very helpful.
Most meals are made with good quality products, but not all as I mentioned before that I found some meals not very impressive.
After ordering a few times, I have found and customised my own menu of the meals I really enjoy and rate well and just reorder when I need to.
12. Downside and things I didn’t like about Youfoodz.
1. I feel that many of the meals don’t include enough veggies, but it’s an easy problem to solve just by throwing some chopped cucumber and spinach leaves on the side, maybe a few cherry tomatoes.
2. Snack bites, especially sweet ones. The calories are quite high for the amount of protein. Many of them are around 200 calories, but only 5-6g of protein. If you are not too concerned with the fact that the protein is a little low, they are quite delicious though. Especially Choc-Peanut Protein Bites and Pavlova Balls.
3. Although there are quite a few gluten-free meals, there is no way to filter and quickly find them, you would have to click on each meal and check the Ingredients.
Meals I recommend for weight loss and muscle building from Youfoodz menu, updated March 2023.
The focus here is to get the most protein in each meal for the least amount of calories. Protein will help you maintain and continue building muscles while getting lean and reducing body fat. For this purpose, I am aiming for around 27-30g of protein per meal minimum and under or around 400 calories. This means we would be choosing meals that are a little lower in carbs to bring down the calories without sacrificing protein.
Slow Cooked BBQ Beef.
360kcal, 28g of protein per serving. The meat is soft and tender with a very nice gravy-style sauce paired with mash and seasonal veggies.
Beef Ragout Fettuccine with Mushrooms.
407kcal, 30g of protein. A filling dish, but I would add a side salad or some extra veggies as I feel it’s not enough in the meal itself.
Creamy Parmesan Chicken with Veggies.
312kcal, 34.7g of protein. A lighter meal without carbs, only veggies on the side.
Mexican Chicken with Loaded Beans.
383ckal; 35.8g of protein. Very flavoursome sauce and beans, chicken breast is tender and not overcooked. Filling, but not heavy at the same time.
Slow Cooked Lamb with Loaded Mash.
454kcal, 29.5g of protein. Seriously worth the few extra calories, this lamb is so delicious, but again would add extra veggies on the side.
Creamy Chicken Carbonara with Ham & Mushrooms.
391kcal, 33g of protein. Great comfort meal for a cooler night or when you feel a bit extra hungry.
Disclaimer: My recommendations in this Youfoodz review are honest and are not influenced by the companies who sell them. I may make 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.
