In today’s fast paced world, it can be tough getting nutrient rich ready made meals that match athletic goals. Meal prepping is great, but if you don’t have a 5-hour time slot (at least) for shopping and cooking, then it can be a haphazard, tedious process. In come paleo meal delivery services and kits.
These services are relatively new, and the whole delivery process can seem a little daunting at first. When you factor in the money spent on groceries and time cooking/prepping meals, then meal delivery services begin to make sense financially.
There are a lot of meal kit delivery services and ready made meal services out there, but not all are created equal. We specifically looked at these services and how they could apply to the busy strength athlete and improve their life. A strength athlete will have different asks than a regular person. Below are a few basic reasons an athlete would choose to use a meal kit delivery service.
At the end of the day, we’re busy athletes just like our readers. So we put the best paleo, natural, and health conscious ready made meal delivery services through a plethora of tests, and compiled our favorites across multiple categories below.
Check out BarBend’s supplement testing methodology for more information.
Best Meal Service Picks
ButcherBox |
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ButcherBox
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ButcherBox
Need a trusted source for protein-rich meat but can’t make it to your local butcher on a regular basis? ButcherBox can keep you stocked up each month with high-quality cuts of chicken, beef, and pork with boxes starting at just $146. |
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Misfits Market |
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Misfits Market
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Misfits Market
Misfits Market takes produce and other goods that would otherwise be rejected by retail grocers and keeps them in the system, granting you access to healthy fruits and vegetables while also limiting food waste. The service can be excellent for athletes more versed in cooking and meal prep since there are no recipe cards or pre-portioned kits — think of it as a middle child of convenience, where you still need to shop for ingredients but don’t need to worry about getting to the store. |
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518 Kitchen |
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518 Kitchen
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518 Kitchen
This meal delivery service offers flash-frozen dishes that can be stored easily for future consumption. Additionally, 518 Kitchen features no meal plans or packages, but rather an a la carte menu, meaning you can order as many or as few meals as you’d like each week. |
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Eat Clean |
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Eat Clean
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Eat Clean
Eat Clean focuses on all-natural ingredients across its weekly rotation of roughly 50 meals. Additionally, this prepared meal kit service can provide optimal convenience for those that don’t have time to prepare actual meals — simply vent the top film, microwave, and enjoy. |
- Read on for even more categories!
Why Ready Made Meal Delivery Services & Kits?
Time
Possibly the biggest reason for enlisting one of these services for a strength athlete is the amount of time they save. An athlete with a busy schedule can earn back multiple hours during the week by having a service deliver meals that fit their dietary needs. With more weekly hours, an athlete can invest more time in their training, rest, work, and hobbies.
Nutrition, Calories, and Macronutrients
Another reason athletes may enlist these services is for the nutritional aspects. An athlete needs ample nutrients, individualized macronutrient targets, and daily caloric goals to constantly improve their performance. For this reason, natural, organic, paleo, and health conscious meal kit services come in handy.
When you’re eating whole, natural foods frequently, then you’ll be achieving micronutrients goals that you may miss out on cooking on your own. Most services offer meals with consistent calories too, so an athlete in need of a daily caloric allotment can consistently hit it with ease. In addition to consistent calories, many services offer full macronutrient meal and ingredient breakdown, so athletes can select meals on their own that fit their bill, or let the service do so for them.
Convenience
Similar to time, these services are convenient. Most run on a subscription based service, so it takes the thought out of ordering meals on a regular basis. This means less time spent thinking about what to eat and what to grab at the grocery store. Also, some services offer you the ability to do weekly, every other week, and additional options, which takes the guesswork out of getting in healthy meals for the busy athlete.
Still Looking for the Best Meal Delivery Service for You?
We understand not all athletes and exercisers will find services that perfectly fit their needs from our picks above. So we’ve gone into even more detail for our favorites in some other common and popular categories below, like for ketogenic options and weight loss.
Best Ketogenic Meal Kit Delivery Service
Whole nutritionally dense meal delivery service that caters to multiple dietary needs.
Factor 75 is our top ketogenic meal kit delivery pick. A good ketogenic meal will have clearly defined keto geared macronutrients and ingredients listed.
Factor 75 Highlights
- Full Ketogenic Meal Option
- Ingredients and Nutrition Label Easy-to-Read
- Competitively Priced With Regular Keto Meal Choices
What earned Factor 75 the top spot on our ketogenic list is their clearly defined ketogenic options. When you order from Factor 75 and view their list of meals, then you’ll see a clearly defined keto stamp on the upper left side of a meal that fits ketogenic needs. This is key for easily finding meals that fit the keto bill, and providing an athlete with nutrition information before selecting them for your cart. Not to mention, their meals all taste great.
CavemanChefs earns our second pick for ketogenic meal kit delivery service. If you visit CavemanChefs’ site you’ll select your meal plan, which can range from medium, large, to extra large (all varying in calories), then select your specific dietary needs. Of those options, you can select ketogenic, and your selected meal plan will be catered for the ketogenic diet. We like how they can make you multiple sized ketogenic meal options with the caloric amount you desire.
Our final ketogenic pick is Trifecta. Their service doesn’t necessarily offer ketogenic specific meals, but they have a plethora of a la cart items that fit the keto ask. For example, they offer a variety of protein and vegetable options in bulk, so the ketogenic dieter could make multiple meals when shopping Trifecta’s individual food items. We also like that they list ingredients and nutrition before ordering, so the ketogenic dieter will know exactly what they’re getting.
Best Weight Loss Meal Kit Delivery Service
The Good Kitchen earns our number one pick for a weight loss focused meal delivery service. Weight loss will be completely dependent on one’s goals, but we thought their service hit a few key asks a dieter looks for.
The Good Kitchen Highlights
- Smaller Meals With Relatively Lower Calories
- Easy-to-Read Nutrition Label With Ingredients
A standout feature we liked about The Good Kitchen’s meals were the caloric totals. Of the services we reviewed, we found that The Good Kitchen’s caloric totals, which varied between 250-410, were on the lower end of the spectrum. For anyone in a caloric deficit, we feel that The Good Kitchen’s low calorie, organic focused meals are a good option for hitting caloric goals and obtaining quality nutrients.
CavemanChefs earns our second pick for the weight loss focused individual. We like that their service comes with multiple meal sizes with respective caloric allotments. This makes it easy for someone who needs a consistently calorie focused meal when eating in a deficit. Additionally, we liked their easy to read nutrition information and full ingredient listing on each package.
Our final pick for weight loss is Kettle Bell Kitchen. We like that Kettle Bell Kitchen gives you a “fat loss” option when designing your meal plan. When you select this option, their service then creates a meal plan that’s catered to the individual worried about meal composition, calories, and macronutrient breakdown.
Best Fitness Meal Prep Delivery Service
Trifecta Nutrition earns our number one spot for fitness meal prep. We think their meal selection and a la cart options make it easy for anyone tracking specific calories and macronutrients.
Trifecta Nutrition Highlights
- Meal Options Designed for Athletes
- Renaissance Periodization Helps Construct Thoughtful Meals
- Multiple Performance and Specific Dietary Needs Based Options
We like how Trifecta works with Renaissance Periodization to formulate their meals and nutrition. Renaissance Periodization has built a strong reputation with the strength athlete population when designing optimal calorie and macronutrient ratios. Athletes that want to prep meals on their own will have a wide variety of a la cart options, but also the ability to pick from a number of themed meal plans.
Kettlebell Kitchen earns our second pick for a fitness meal prep service. We like that their menu rotates somewhat frequently, but has some consistency to it. You can choose to build your own meals plans with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or let their nutritionists decide what’s best for your goals. All of their foods have full ingredient listings, along with nutrition, so the diet focused athlete can prep with ease.
We also like Factor 75 for fitness meal prep. While they don’t offer a la cart and individual items, they do offer meals with multiple dietary characteristics. For the athlete with specific meal prep needs such as non-GMO, ketogenic, and paleo, then they’ll have a variety of meals to choose from with Factor 75.
Wrapping Up
Meal kit delivery services are gaining popularity as our weekly time allotment for food prep continues to become more limited. For strength athletes who find themselves frequently on-the-go, enlisting one of these services can be helpful for earning back more hours in the week while staying on-track nutritionally.
Paleo and health conscious services like these can help push an athlete’s performance while providing them with nutritionally dense meals and food options.
