YouFoodz is one of the most popular meal delivery services in Australia, having served meals to over 850,000 people. As you likely already know, they serve pre-made meals centred around healthy eating and weight loss.
In our Food Box Mate review of YouFoodz, I gave them a solid 7.7 out of 10. This was primarily driven by their incredible value for money, with meals served as low as $7.50 a portion. There really aren’t many services that can compete at that price point!
However, the quality and taste of meals leaves a bit to be desired, so you might be looking for an alternative to Youfoodz. I’ll take you through the best options available.
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Fresh vs Frozen
Before we dive into the best alternatives for YouFoodz, it’s important to know about the two different types of meal delivery service: Fresh and Frozen.
With ‘Fresh‘ services, each meal arrives chilled after being prepared at their central production facility. You’re then expected to keep these meals in the fridge and they’ll generally last 7 – 10 days before spoiling.
The freezing process can damage the structure of food, which inevitably impacts the texture and flavour profile. With fresh meals, you know the food has never been frozen and therefore will taste much the same as if you had cooked them at home.
Services that deliver ‘Frozen‘ meals can often suffer with the food going slightly soggy/flavourless when reheating, especially if you’re reheating everything in the microwave. Some foods are better at surviving the freezing process than others, so it’s often a case of finding the best frozen meals.
The major benefit of frozen meals is that they can last for months in the freeze. That means you can simply pull them out whenever you need them, a lifesaver when it hits dinner time and you suddenly remember there’s no food in the fridge.
Lite n Easy – Healthy, Calorie Controlled Meals
Type: Fresh Meals
Definitely one of the biggest competitors to YouFoodz, Lite n Easy really focus heavily on the weight loss aspect of prepared meals. There are thousands of success stories from people who have used Lite n Easy, as well as a large online community of people supporting each other on their weight loss journey.
Their website has a really handy calculator that recommends which plan you should join, including pre-prepared meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Unlike some weight loss fads, Lite n Easy focus on the basics of real food served in the right portion sizes for consistent weight loss.
Like YouFoodz, there’s no lock-in contracts and all the meals come ready to eat. If your main focus is to lose weight and get healthier, it’s definitely worth giving Lite n Easy a try.
You can even check out my full comparison between Lite n Easy and YouFoodz.
Cost: 10 Meals are $11.40 each (+Shipping) and 21 Meals are just $10.40 each (+Shipping)
Delivers To: 24-hour delivery to most places in Australia.
Best For: Weight Loss
Try Lite n Easy TodayDiscover weight loss meals with Lite n Easy
My Muscle Chef – Top Rated Fresh Meals
Type: Fresh Meals
There’s a good reason that My Muscle Chef are the top rated meal delivery service on Food Box Mate – their meals are absolutely delicious. Often to the point that I would definitely struggle to cook them better myself. The cooking/packaging process they use preserves the texture and flavour perfectly.
If that’s not enough to convince you to give My Muscle Chef a try, then you might be convinced by a range of 55+ meals including a good selection of vegetarian options. They have a website that’s super easy to use and explore new meals.
As you can tell from the name, the meals are focussed on achieving your fitness goals across Muscle Gain, Performance and Calorie Control. This covers all different types of fitness goals and ensures there’s always going to be options for everyone.
I’ve compared YouFoodz and My Muscle Chef in detail which will give you some more detail.
Cost: Individual meals cost between $9.55 – $11.40 + Shipping.
Delivers To: Over 4,200 postcodes across Australia, including all major towns and cities
Best For: Saying “this is too good to be a microwave meal” and meeting fitness goals.
Get Up To $120 Off Your First 6 My Muscle Chef OrdersClick this link and use code SAVE120
Chefgood – Quality Meals & Great For Food Intolerances
Type: Fresh Meals
I found Chefgood to be like a premium version of YouFoodz. The meals you’ll get are very similar on the surface, however Chefgood focus on the quality and freshness of ingredients to make sure each meal tastes as good as possible.
Chefgood are a much smaller, more personal delivery service although this has its downsides with a website that’s much more fiddly to use. For example, you only order in quantities of 5, 7, 10, 14 or 20 meals. As long as you can jump over that hurdle, I have no doubt you’ll be very happy with the meals that are delivered.
There’s also a fantastic range of meals for vegans, or people with dairy/gluten allergies. As always, you should be cautious if you have a serious intolerance.
If nothing else, you should give Chefgood a try for a week so you can taste their Chicken & Black Bean Burrito – YUM!
Cost: Individual meals cost between $9.95 – $11.90 + Shipping.
Delivers To: Major metro areas around Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne.
Best For: Premium meals with fresh ingredients.
Dinner Ladies – Homely Frozen Meals
Type: Frozen Meals
Whilst I don’t generally recommend frozen meal services, I make an exception for Dinner Ladies. That’s because they don’t serve meals frozen as a whole with ingredients that are better served fresh. Instead, they cook and freeze the core elements of the dish and allow you to add the fresh elements yourself.
This is exactly how you would cook and freeze meals yourself at home, except you’re outsourcing the actual cooking process to experts.
The end result is quite delicious, albeit quite a lot more work than any of the other YouFoodz alternatives. If you prefer more of a home-cooking style and you’re willing to spend 15 – 20 minutes preparing your dinner then it’s definitely worth considering Dinner Ladies.
Their menu changes every week, along with some traditional favourites and you can buy meals to freeze so you always have dinner on hand.
Cost: Between $6 – $10 per portion+ Shipping
Delivers To: Parts of NSW, VIC, SA, QLD and ACT. Check your postcode.
Best For: Home cooked food.
