Delivered Diet Food: Nutrichef

By WLR's Site Manager, Laurence Beeken

Nutrichef is the longest running diet delivery company in the UK. Starting as a supplier of sports nutrition for athletes, they moved into premade diet meals, delivered to people who want to lose weight as well.

Nutrichef deliver frozen, calorie counted diet meals to your doorstep in hampers that you can tailor to your specific tastes or dietary requirements.

How much will the Nutrichef delivered food diet cost me?

Prices go from £25-£35 a day, depending on which plan you chose. You have to sign up for a minimum of 2 weeks, although the site recommends a minimum of 30 days for all plans.

2 weeks will set you back £350-£490. There is a 3 day trial of one of the plans for £75 so you can test out some of the food.

Finding the cost of Nutrichef plans was difficult and involved signing up to the site, going through with an order all the way up to the payment page before seeing how much you would need to pay.

How does Nutrichef compare to Weight Loss Resources?

For just £11.95 per month you can use all of the tools and resources available from WLR.

You can even follow one of our Supermarket Chefs ready meal diet plans, and get your favourite supermarket to deliver your food. (You can produce a shopping list from all our plans.)

We've got calorie counted plans for Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose so far - watch this space!

You can give all this a try with a free trial, no card required.

Take our FREE trial »

How does Nutrichef work?

Diet delivery options are either meals for weight loss or for sports nutrition. The diet food meals are delivered to your door tailored to your needs.

There are 3 plans, depending on whether you are looking for weight loss or sports nutrition.

The Lighter & Brighter Plan - 2 weeks - £350/4 weeks - £700
- For weight loss
The Health & Vitality Plan - 2 weeks - £350/4 weeks - £700
- For longer term clients
The Leaner & Stronger Plan - 2 weeks - £490/4 weeks - £980
- For Business Athletes who work but take their sports seriously.
- For Elite Athletes whose sport is their job – This is a bespoke plan

The diet food delivery is a mixture of frozen and fresh produce depending on how far you live from their fresh food source.

Nutrichef want to use the most seasonal ingredients and be as sustainable as possible.

Fresh meals are delivered to Dorset, Hampshire or Surrey, other areas of the country will only be able to receive frozen meal packages.

All packages are delivered twice a week unless you live in the counties mentioned previously. Deliveries to these counties are 3 times a week.

After receiving your hamper you warm up food where necessary.

If you opt to use the programme for sports nutrition then you receive food that is high in protein and carbohydrates to keep your body well fuelled and allow muscle growth and repair.

What is my calorie allowance with Nutricheck?

The Lighter & Brighter Plan – 1100 calories
The Health & Vitality Plan – 1500 calories
The Leaner & Stronger Plan
- Business Athlete around 2500 calories
- Elite Athlete starts at 3000 calories

Unfortunately, the site doesn’t tell you how many calories you actually need each day to lose weight or for sports nutrition.

With the Lighter & Brighter Plan the calorie allowance is 1100 which will suit some people but cause others to under eat.

The Health & Vitality plan is 1500 calories and the site recommends adding in fruit and veg and their flapjacks as snacks.

Again, this might suit some but cause others to overeat and some to under eat. There is no food dairy to help keep track of what you are eating.

To lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns. The maximum healthy, sustainable rate of loss is 2lbs a week.

To lose 1lb a week you need a calorie deficit of 500 a day
To lose 2lb a week you need a calorie deficit of 1000 a day

But without knowing what your allowance is, how will you know which plan is right for you?

It also doesn’t allow you to keep track of what you are eating in a food diary and what exercise you are doing in an exercise diary, so you can’t benefit from doing a bit extra to earn more calories.

Nutrichef typical 3 day menu

You can pick out any food groups that you don’t wish to eat or any particular food that you don’t like from a large list.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Peaches with Strawberries & Blueberries	Baked Wheat-free Vegetable Tarts with a Mixed Salad	Salmon with a Herb Crust on a Bed of Spicy Lentils
Cherry & Almond Flapjack	Aubergine Rolls with Mixed Peppers & Dairy-Free Cheese (with Minestrone Soup)	Thai Red Chicken Curry with Tricolour Rice
Pears with Cranberries, Mixed Seeds & Soya Cream	Artichoke & Red Pepper Pizza on a Wheat-Free Base (with Tomato & Tarragon Soup)	Spiced Sea Bass with Potato & Olive Gratin

Does Nutrichef offer support for dieters?

Whilst following the Nutrichef programme, there is no support in the form of phone consultations and forums. It is designed to simply be diet meals delivered, you eat them and you lose weight.

However, there are a few email address, a phone number, and an online enquiry form.

Can I try before I buy?

Unlike Weight Loss Resources, there is no free trial but you can do a 3 day trial for £75, however this trial only allowas you to try the Healthy & Vitality plan.

Will Nutrichef Work For Me?

Following a 1500 cal or 1100 cal strict meal plan will lead to weight loss as long as you do not deviate from it. This however does mean that no snacks, treats, or the occasional tipple are permitted.

With a hefty price tag Nutrichef a good idea for well off sports players who don’t have time to sort out their own nutritional foods but for the average person it’s not really sustainable for long term weight loss.

It doesn't give you any idea what your calorie allowance is in order to lose weight and you can't monitor the food you are eating or adding in and because you can't monitor, you can’t add in any extra calories earned by doing extra exercise.

How much weight could I lose?

The site doesn't claim a specific weight loss.

Weight Loss Resources' View

The bespoke Elite Athlete plan may well be perfect for athletes but without knowing what your calorie allowance is, it’s going to be difficult to choose the right plan for you.

Re-educating yourself about portion sizes and healthy food and cooking is the best way to change habits for life that will result in a slimmer, fitter you forever.

Hwoever, you can re-educate yourself on portion sizes and control via much cheaper methods as Nutrichef is not cheap!

Being in control of your own diet also allows you to have the occasional treat when you want it be it a glass of wine or chocolate biscuit so long as you know to count the calories for it.

This will teach you the methods for life that will ensure you can achieve and maintain your weight loss goals.

Devise Your Own Diet Plan

If you'd like to devise your own diet plan (or use one of ours) why not take a 24hr free trial...

You'll get full access to the UK's largest online calorie and nutrition database, extensive recipes and plans databases, and you can calorie count your own recipes and plans.