“People who lose weight on the keto diet are eliminating so many foods they were eating before and, by default, consume less calories,” Gans explains. One of my favorite things about Factor is how easy the app makes it to manage your subscription. You can quickly select meals, filter by dietary preferences, and skip or cancel deliveries. The menu is a huge reason I kept my subscription for a year. With so many rotating options, there was always something new to try, but they also kept some favorites on hand so I could reorder the meals I loved. Some of my go-to picks included Southwestern Style Turkey & Mac, Fiesta Salmon, Ginger Teriyaki Salmon, Nonna’s Sunday Beef Bolognese, and any dish with their gluten-free tortellini.
Optimizing your ETM meal plans to use nonperishable ingredients
Ahead, I’m sharing what a full year with Factor looked like for me, along with feedback from our GH+ testers who each tried the service for a week. I’ll also explain why I eventually chose to stop my subscription. After a year with Factor, I’m sharing the real pros and cons, my favorite meals, and why I ultimately decided to cancel. Even when carefully kept, paper journals can be read by anyone who happens upon them. Penzu keeps your journals safe with double password protection and military strength encryption so you can rest easy knowing that your entries are secure in the Penzu Vault. Set daily, weekly or custom reminders to ensure that you never forget to write in your journal.
Try tofu, black beans, chickpeas, and plant-based meat for other protein options. Registered dietitian and Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition and Fitness Lab Director Stefani Sassos has led meal-delivery testing for the brand for the past six years. With a passion for practical, time-saving solutions, she focuses on making nutritious eating and living more attainable for everyone. Stefani values how many meal delivery services are evolving to offer more balanced options that support a variety of lifestyles and dietary needs. I like that Factor caters to different dietary preferences, like keto and high-protein, and makes it easy to see detailed nutrition info for every meal. You can check calories, protein, and ingredients before ordering, which may help you pick meals that fit your goals.
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- It works well for specific diets like low-carb, keto, or high-protein, whether you’re active or just starting your wellness journey.
- The smart grocery list can also sync with your grocery delivery or pickup.
- I started meal prepping almost a decade ago, as part of a weight loss journey.
- It is a digital recipe box with a shopping feature attached.
- At €2.50/month with zero ads, it delivers more macro-tracking capability per dollar than any competitor.
- Mealime is widely recommended in forums for meal planners and caters to busier people because it’s full of recipes that can be made in under half an hour.
But it’s a worthwhile investment, especially if you are looking for a recipe manager that syncs across multiple devices. Best Factor Alternative — save $200+/month vs. pre-made meals. Best Eat This Much Alternative — calorie tracking with better-tasting meals.
Here are some meal-planning apps that can suggest recipes based on your dietary preferences, put together shopping lists, and even walk you through the cooking. They can’t box up leftovers or wash the dishes, but maybe one day in the future, we’ll get there, too. Family members can add items to the grocery list in real-time and see the meal plan, making it one of the best meal planning apps for coordinated households. The drag-and-drop calendar is intuitive and syncs with external calendars like iCal and Google Calendar. AnyList begins its life as a top-tier grocery list application but transforms into a competent meal planner with its ‘Complete’ upgrade.
The grocery list is consolidated across all meals for the week, organized by category, so you only make one trip to the store. Every recipe includes full instructions, serving sizes, and estimated prep time. “This feature worked great–once you select your meal plan for the week, the ingredients automatically import into your grocery list. There’s also an easy way to add additional ingredients to your list,” he is unimeal legit said. If you’re using it for meal planning, you may not need to upgrade; I was able to build out an entire schedule of recipes without paying.
Samsung Food (formerly Whisk) + Food+ subscription
Maintaining a team of recipe developers, nutritionists, and content editors is expensive. At $12-16/month, PlateJoy was among the priciest meal planning options, and still could not cover the cost of producing genuinely personalized content at scale. When AI-powered planners emerged offering the same level of personalization at $5-8/month with zero human curation overhead, PlateJoy’s business model became untenable. The service ceased operations in 2025, and user accounts are no longer accessible. PlateJoy was one of the more thoughtful meal planning services, combining nutritional science with human-curated recipes. Maintaining a team of recipe developers, nutritionists, and content editors while charging $12-16/month could not compete with AI planners generating equivalent personalization at $5-8/month.
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Simply choose them from the dropdown menu at the top of the screen when creating a new meal plan. Manage favorite recipes, create menus, plan your week, and share your favorites easily with family and friends. Pepperplate also includes tools such as timers and kitchen scales to help make meal prep easier. There’s even a Cook Mode that stops your screen from dimming. Because I know how annoying it is to battle the lock screen with dirty hands. Using this app, you can meal plan based on specific diets and meal preferences.
The USDA regularly publishes food plan estimates for four spending levels, from thrifty to liberal. Those reports can help you compare your grocery bill with national patterns, but they don’t account for everything. “Some foods could go bad and leave you with an urge to order take out toward the end of that cycle, breaking the budget you set in the first place,” she said. That matters because one of the biggest risks in a two-week grocery cycle is food waste, Woroch said.
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The platform excels at making recipes interactive and easy to follow while cooking. SideChef excels as a meal planning app for those who want to learn while they cook. It combines a robust recipe database with an intuitive meal planner, making it a great choice for both novice and experienced home cooks.
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There’s no single “best” meal planning app, just the best one for how you actually eat, shop, and cook. Plan to Eat is for the person who loves to be in control. It provides a clean, flexible, drag-and-drop calendar that you fill with your own curated recipes.
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Rates for the coming federal government fiscal year are typically announced in mid-August. Search the rates below or refer to the flat files, API, or trip calculator. If your grocery spending is above the national estimate, that doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing something wrong. It might simply mean your local prices are higher or your household needs are different. “You can even freeze single serving leftovers to reheat the second week — another way to stretch out those more perishable ingredients,” Woroch said. Pantry and freezer meals should carry more of the heavy lifting in week two because they’re easier to stretch and less likely to go bad.
What are the benefits of meal-planning apps?
Unlike other platforms, Penzu works well on every device. You can write in any web browser or use our custom built apps for iOS and Android. You can write in your journal when not at your computer with our iOS and Android apps.
Day 6 Main Meals
I found it helpful to check nutrition labels closely, especially for sodium, added sugars, and saturated fat. If you’re using Factor to support your health goals, a quick chat with one of their dietitians can help you pick the right meals for you. Overall, it’s a convenient, flavorful option, as long as you pay attention to the nutritional details. Factor, also known as Factor 75 or Factor_, is a fully prepared meal delivery service that sends fresh, ready-to-heat meals straight to your door.
The ProScore System is the app’s equivalent to having your nutritionist. It highlights each item’s good and bad nutritional values and assigns it a score of 1-100. Pepper Plate allows you to log in using your Facebook account and share recipes that way, as well as on Twitter and email. So, if you are familiar with the Cozi Family Organizer, this is a nice little add-on feature. If you haven’t tried it, I highly suggest giving it a whirl.
