Lite n Easy Prepared Meals Review

“Find your way to a healthier, happier you” is the giant statement that greets you when you visit the Lite n Easy website. This is a bold promise and something that all of us aspire towards, even if we get there through a rather circuitous route. It’s also a promise that has attracted thousands of people in Australia to give Lite n Easy a try. Designed to help you lose weight consistently, Lite n Easy deliver prepared Breakfasts, Lunches and Dinners each week. In this review, I want to discover whether Lite n Easy really can make you happier and healthier.

  

Lite n Easy is designed to help you lose weight quickly and easily, by making it super convenient to eat the right amount of calories each day. They provide a regular menu of breakfasts, lunches and dinners that are delivered once a week. These can then be stored in your fridge/freezer ready for you to microwave when needed. This can really help kick-start your weight loss journey as it forces you to eat the right amount of food. For those people who struggle to keep to a routine or are yo-yo dieters this service has real promise.

Getting Started with Lite n Easy

When you want to start your Lite n Easy journey, they ask you to fill in a brief questionnaire. This takes into account your weight, height, gender and exercise routine to recommend which plan is right for you. Based on my answers, I was recommended the 1800 Calorie, 7 Day plan. This includes Breakfast, Lunches and Dinners for all 7 days of the week.

Depending on your own selections, you might be recommended the 1800, 1500 or 1200 calorie meal plans. The only difference between these are the size of the meals. However, this is a bit of a blunt instrument for calculating your daily calorie needs. I have discussed, below, how to manually calculate how many calories you should be consuming to meet your goals.

It is likely that Lite n Easy will recommend you start on their 2-week jump start. This provides you with 7 dinners, 7 lunches and 5 breakfasts where you have 2 ‘fasting’ days with no breakfast. This is a great, low commitment way to give Lite n Easy a try and see where you can get in 2 weeks.

How many calories do I need to lose weight?

This question has been around for many decades, with thousands of academic studies trying to work out how many calories each of us should take in. In all my time researching the topic, there has been only one constant. We are all different. How your body deals with calories is a bit like a genetic lottery – some of us were born winners and some losers. However, weight loss is certainly within reach of absolutely everybody. The trick is a two-fold attack plan:

1. Track and Adjust – The best way to lose weight is to track (and be aware of) your weight. I like to store my weight in a spreadsheet so I can happily watch the line graph going in the right direction. If you aren’t losing weight consistently (e.g you stay the same for >2 weeks) then it’s time to adjust your diet by reducing calorie intake or increasing exercise. Tip: Weigh yourself at the same time each day, you’re more likely to get a comparable reading. Don’t worry if your weight goes up a little bit, as long as it’s heading generally in the right direction.
   
2. Be Consistent – This is the absolute pillar of losing weight. There’s little value in jumping onto a diet for a couple of weeks if you can’t sustain it long term. Work on finding a diet plan that you’re happy and comfortable living with for a long time. Weight you lose slowly and consistently with lifestyle changes is far more likely to stay off. This is where Lite n Easy can really help!

Now, after all that, it is useful to start with a rough idea of how many calories your body needs. This will never be 100% accurate for you but it will give you a starting point. Head to this Free Calculator and provide your weight, age, height and activity levels. For example, a 50-year-old woman who weighs 80kg, does light exercise and is 160cm tall would be looking at the 1500 calorie Lite n Easy diet with a little room to spare for a small treat each day.

I compared this example to the recommendation provided by Lite n Easy. Happily, I can report that they agreed with my assessment which suggests they also support a more long-term, consistent approach to dieting.

Food Options

Lite n Easy offer a rotating menu that changes every 3 months. That’s a different menu for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Within each menu, there’s a standard list of Main Meals containing 55 dinners. With that many to choose from, you’ll be sure to have plenty of dinner variety. This also means that if you have a couple of favourites you can get them time and time again.

The options are slightly different for Breakfast & Lunch. With these, you only have a choice of 2 different meals each day. To clarify, you can only pick 1 of 2 meals provided for each given day. This means you’ll definitely need to manage your food orders each week. The menu options for Breakfast & Lunch rotate every 4 weeks which means that again there’s plenty of variety to make sure you don’t get bored. You’re able to see all their menus on the Lite n Easy website.

Some of the options available when I ordered included:

• Spaghetti Bolognese
• Lasagna
• Pork Scallopini
• Honey & Soy Chicken
• Seafood Pasta Marinara
• Beef Casserole
• Chicken Korma
• Sweet & Sour Chicken

As you can probably tell from the brief list above, Lite n Easy do not do a very good job of catering for vegetarians. Their menus are dominated by meals containing some form of meat/fish so I wouldn’t recommend Lite n Easy to anyone who is vegetarian. Note that it is possible to operate Lite n Easy on a vegetarian diet. However, please check the menus carefully to ensure you are comfortable with the options.

Lite n Easy also do not cater specifically for general intolerances/allergies. Each meal does have a detailed ingredient and allergy list. It is up to each individual person to double-check each meal for any ingredients you wish to avoid.

Delivery Options

Lite n Easy deliver to most places in Australia, including all states & territories. Delivery is always on a specific day each week, so it’s worth checking what day that might be for your suburb. I was able to get deliveries every Friday in Sydney. One of the best things about Lite n Easy is that you can order just 24 hours before the delivery date. This is surprisingly rare for a Food Box and is only made possible by the scale of their operation.

The delivery cost can depend on which suburb you live in, although for most people it will be free. If you live outside a metropolitan area, then do check directly with Lite n Easy to confirm if you might face a delivery charge.

Cost

As with any Prepared Meals service, you pay a premium for receiving precooked meals. This will always be more expensive than buying the individual ingredients and cooking yourself. However, the value of a planned diet shouldn’t be underestimated. The cost of Lite n Easy varies depending on which meal size you need:

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Days	Calories	Weekly Price
7	1200	$152
7	1500	$166
7	1800	$189
5	1200	$118
5	1500	$128
5	1800	$145

If you’re based in Western Australia, there is a small additional fee added to your order. This is normally around $3-$4 and presumably covers some of the additional delivery costs.

To give a realistic sense of cost, Lite n Easy comes in at between $22 – $27 per day. If you would usually eat lunch out, or get takeaways on a semi-regular basis then Lite n Easy comes in at a very reasonable price point.

Dinners Only

Dinners	Price	Price/Meal
5	$65	$13
7	$84	$12
10	$114	$11.4
14	$150	$10.7
21	$219	$10.4
28	$290	$10.4

Purchasing only dinners is a relatively low-cost alternative to buying the full meals package. I would normally expect to pay $11 for a Prepared Meal so it makes financial sense to purchase at least 10 meals on each order. These meals can be stored for up to a year, so there’s little risk to purchasing larger quantities. That is if you have enough freezer space!

Our Lite n Easy Box

To review the quality of food provided with Lite n Easy, I ordered a week’s worth of dinners. This arrived in a large, white polystyrene box and was left on my front porch during the day. I didn’t pick the box up for a couple of hours on a warm day, so I was happy to see that the meals were all still very cold.

Inside the box were my 7 meals plus a physical copy of the Autumn menu. This is great to keep around and help pick the next meals you want to have. You can see that the box is sealed so you know if anyone’s tampered with the delivery. These did take up quite a lot of room in my freezer, needing to cram them in. So be aware that if you order a lot of meals or for more than one person, you’ll need quite a bit of space.

I need to mention the fact there’s dry ice inside the box, which is unusual. This allows them to reduce the number of ice packs they use, but dry ice burns. I only discovered this after picking up the ice block, which is rather too late. As I soon discovered, there is a warning written on the ice block itself. I suspect I’m not the only one to fall foul of this, so consider this a heads up!

How’s The Food?

My weight loss calorie intake is around 2,300 calories, a full 500 calories more than Lite n Easy’s biggest plan. To remain healthy, I opted to try the Lite n Easy dinners and eat more calories throughout the rest of the day. I received 7 meals, trying a variety of chicken, pork, and beef dishes.

You can check out my thoughts on each specific dish through my Instagram page. Everyone has slightly different tastes, so your favourite dishes would be different to mine. In general, I was impressed by the taste of most Lite n Easy dishes. They came out of the microwave well cooked and with a good texture. I also found them surprisingly filling because they really are just ‘normal’ meals at the right portion size. They often include some carbs, which other weight loss programs would remove.

My advice is generally to steer clear of anything that’s likely to get ‘dry’ or would normally reheat poorly. With a bit of experimentation trying different meals, you’ll definitely be able to find a good selection that you enjoy.

I have generally found Lite n Easy meals to be nutritionally sound, with a good mix of Carbs, Protein and Veggies. However, I was disappointed when I checked the levels of Salt. Most dinners have between 800-1200 mg of Sodium which equates to 53% – 80% of your daily recommended Sodium intake. This likely explains the great taste of some of the dishes. Whilst this isn’t an issue for most people, I would be cautious if your doctor has advised a low Sodium diet.

Anything Else?

Whilst Lite n Easy only offer the food itself, losing weight is a more holistic lifestyle change that requires huge amounts of willpower. I joined a fantastic Facebook Group ‘Lite n Easy Support Group’ where members support each other on their weight loss goals. It’s clear from reading the comments in this group that Lite n Easy really can help lose a lot of weight. Having a support network is a big part of this journey, which is why I love the Facebook group.

Another tip that’s worth recognising, is to always plate up your Lite n Easy meals. Whilst this does add to washing up, you’ll find that the diet feels more ‘normal’ and less like a diet. All packaging provided is recyclable so make sure that each container gets rinsed and put into the recycling.

Conclusions

The convenience, simplicity and routine of a Lite n Easy subscription makes it really easy to control your calorie intake. With plenty of success stories floating around, it’s also clear that the Lite n Easy diet can help you lose a lot of weight. So, if you’re looking to lose weight or just need convenient, healthy meals then you should definitely consider giving Lite n Easy a try. To improve their service, I’d love to see them make some recipe adjustments to bring the Salt content down and remove some of the meals that just don’t microwave well.

  

Have you tried Lite n Easy before? Or maybe you’ve given one of their competitors a try. Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. If you have any questions, I’ll be more than happy to answer them here. Good luck with your weight loss journey!

---