5 Best Keto Meal Delivery Services & Kits For Weight Loss 2024
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- Written by Ellie Busby, MS, RDN
Medically reviewed by
Kathy Shattler, MS, RDN
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518 Kitchen
- Ready-meals arrive frozen, ready to eat in five minutes
- No subscription required – order a la carte or a weekly “bundle”
- Clear macronutrient graphs for every meal
Green Chef
- 100% certified organic
- Sustainably-sourced meat and fish
- Flexible subscription for number of people and number of meals per week
Fresh n’ Lean
- Ready-meals ready to eat in under three minutes
- Flexible preference settings, including allergies, intolerances, and dislikes
- Lots of optional high-protein snack and side add-ons
A ketogenic (“keto”) diet can be great for weight loss, blood sugar balance, brain health, and overall well-being, but most people give up this diet because of meal planning and prepping. That’s why finding the best keto meal delivery service is crucial for a sustainable, well-balanced keto diet.
In this article, we go through the top five best keto meal delivery services for 2022. Training for a marathon? Tight budget? Food intolerances? Whatever your needs, we’ve got the right delivery service for you.
5 Best Keto Meal Delivery Services & Kits For Weight Loss In (September. 2024)
- 518 Kitchen – Editor’s Choice
- Green Chef – Best For Sustainability
- Fresh n’ Lean – Best For Athletes
- Freshly – Best For Weight Loss
- Factor – Best For Families
What Is The Keto Diet?
A keto diet is a low-carbohydrate (“low-carb”), high-fat diet. The aim is to be in a constant state of ketosis. This is when your body produces all energy from ketones, which come from fats rather than glucose.
However, it can be hard to maintain a balanced keto diet long-term[1]. Keto diets require a lot of time planning and prepping meals to ensure you’re getting enough calories from fat and not overdoing it on the carbs.
To stay in ketosis, you must keep your daily “net carbs” – the total grams of carbs minus fiber – low. Your body “prefers” burning carbs over fats because it’s easier, so even slightly going overboard on your net carb count can tip your body into glucose-fueling mode.
Everyone is different, but most people aim for up to 15% of their daily calorific intake as carbs[2] – that’s around 20-50 grams of net carbs per day for most. After being on a keto diet for a few weeks, you begin to realize how challenging this is.
That’s why signing up for a keto meal delivery service is a helpful supplement to any keto diet. Each has its own pros and cons so that you can choose the right service for your needs.
5 Best Meal Delivery Services For Keto In 2024
518 Kitchen
If you want to eat as though you’re going out for dinner every day, 518 Kitchen is the best option for you. With premium dinners, keto baked goods, and even keto ice cream, you won’t be disappointed.
- Clear macronutrient pie charts for every meal
- Nut-free, dairy-free, and pork-free options available
- 100% gluten-free
- Not always organic
- Each meal is for one person only
518 Kitchen is dedicated to providing high-quality, chef-prepared keto and low-carb meals suitable for all. They deliver frozen ready-meals that can be heated and ready to heat in five minutes or put straight in the freezer.
The chefs aim for a typical keto macronutrient balance of 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbs in all their keto meals. They also offer vegetarian keto options as well as low-carb meals.
One of the best things about 518 Kitchen is the flexibility when it comes to ordering. You can either order a la carte, select meal by meal, or choose a weekly “bundle” where you choose seven breakfast items, 14 lunch/dinner items, one premium dinner, five baked items, and one dessert item from that week’s menu. You don’t need a subscription, and you can set your order frequency to weekly, biweekly, every three weeks, or monthly.
You’ll never be bored with the variety of flavors, textures, and ingredients. Meat is sustainably sourced, pasture-raised, and grass-fed, while fish is wild-caught. They even offer keto bread, other baked foods, and ice cream ‘fat bombs’ for dessert.
However, ordering from 518 Kitchen can be expensive, with snacks and desserts ranging from $7.49-10.49 and lunch and dinner entrees ranging from $11.49-15.99. They also have a minimum order quantity of $75.
Green Chef
Is high-quality organic, environmentally-friendly food your top priority? Green Chef puts sustainability first with their 100% organic ingredients and ethically-sourced animal protein.
- Sustainably sourced, USDA-certified organic ingredients
- Up to 10 new keto recipes each week
- Gluten-free options
- Maximum of four meals per person per week
- Meals take 25-40 minutes to prepare
If you can afford the slightly extra cost of Green Chef, you won’t be disappointed. All their ingredients are certified organic, and their meat is grass-fed and ethically-sourced wherever possible.
Green Chef is perfect if you enjoy preparing meals but don’t have the time to plan your nutrient intake or find the best quality ingredients. They make meal prep fun, easy, and healthy with keto meals delivered with color-coded instruction cards, pre-weighed ingredients, and even pre-prepped sauces and marinades.
The best thing about Green Chef’s keto meals is the variety. You can choose from a wide variety of protein options, from chicken, pork, turkey, and fish, and there are enough flavors to suit everyone’s tastes. They change their recipes weekly, so you’re unlikely to get bored.
By choosing these recipe boxes, you can also feel good that you’re doing the right thing for the environment. With all eco-friendly packaging materials, Green Chef claims that each meal has a 25% lower carbon footprint than grocery store-bought meals.
Green Chef is best for couples or families. You can choose between 2-4 people eating between 2-4 meals each per week. If you have non-keto family members, you can also order meals from other menus, such as vegan, Mediterranean, lower-carb, fast ‘n fit, or gluten-free.
Fresh n’ Lean
If you’re an athlete with no time to think of meals or snacks, Fresh n’ Lean organizes your whole keto diet plan for you and delivers fully cooked high-protein keto meals to your door every week.
- Flexible preference settings, including allergies, intolerances, and dislikes
- 100% organic and gluten-free
- No artificial ingredients
- Can only choose five or seven days per week
- Have to eat the meals daily to make it worth it
Fresh n’ Lean make eating keto is the easiest task in the world, especially for athletes with a hefty training schedule.
Their ‘modified keto’ plan means every meal packs enough protein and fats to meet your training requirements. Each meal has an average of 10 grams of net carbs and 30 grams of protein and fat. Meals are changed weekly, and there’s an option to add extra high-protein sides and snacks. As if that wasn’t enough, everything is free from artificial ingredients, 100% gluten-free, and organic.
It’s easy to start your Fresh n’ Lean keto meal plan: choose how many meals and snacks you’d like delivered (one, two, or three) and how many days per week (five or seven days). You can say whether you’re allergic to shellfish, soy, or sesame and even exclude up to three ingredients you don’t like from your meal plans. You can choose individual meals via the a la carte menu if you don’t want to subscribe to a weekly meal plan.
Compared to most other keto meal delivery services, Fresh n’ Lean works out cheaper per meal, from just $7.93 per meal when subscribed to their meal plan. However, that means eating them for every daily meal, which quickly adds up.
Freshly
Too busy to think about cooking? Freshly offers nutritionist-approved low-carb ready-meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner ready to eat in under three minutes.
- Meals are all nutritionist-approved
- Flexible plans – choose between 4-12 meals per week
- Have gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, and low-calorie options
- Not all meals are keto-friendly
- Only low-calorie options
Freshly is best for individuals following a low-calorie diet. They offer keto-friendly, low-carb ready-meals in their “carb-conscious” menu. Just heat it up, and it’s ready to eat in three minutes.
All Freshly meals are nutritionist-approved, so you can be assured you’re meeting all your nutrition needs. Being keto isn’t just about balancing your fats and carbs – you need to ensure you’re getting enough essential vitamins and minerals, a tricky feat when cutting out food groups.
Each meal is 300-650 calories, which is the perfect low-calorie portion size for one person. For those with extra dietary requirements, you can set your preferences to gluten-free, dairy-free, or low-calorie.
However, despite having lots of low-carb options, Freshly doesn’t have many choices if you’re strictly keto. “Low carb” can still be too many carbs for a strict keto diet. Luckily, you can sort meal options by the number of carbs they contain in grams to ensure you don’t go over your net carb limit.
The main downside is that nearly all the low-carb meals are chicken-based, and the flavors can get repetitive. Also, if you’re doing a lot of exercise or training, you may need to add extra sides to your meals, which can ramp up the cost.
Factor
Ordering for a family with different meal preferences? Factor makes it easy to combine multiple dietary requirements, such as vegan and vegetarian, extra protein, and low-calorie.
- Fully-prepared, gourmet ready-meals
- Designed by registered dietitians
- Free of hormones, antibiotics, refined sugars, and GMOs
- No dairy-free options
- Don’t cater for allergies or intolerances
Factor delivers fresh, unfrozen ready-made meals that take a few minutes to heat up. You can combine several meal plans, including Keto, Vegan and Vegetarian, Carb Smart, and Extra Protein.
All Factor’s meals in the Keto plan contain at least 60% of calories coming from fat, with 20% of calories from protein and <10% of calories from carbohydrates. The carb content of their meals varies, so it’s up to you to ensure you don’t go over your daily net carb limit when combining meals.
A great added bonus of Factor is that they have registered dietitians on call to help. Schedule a free 20-minute consultation on the phone, or sign up for one of their nutrition coaching programs. So, if you have some serious fitness or weight loss goals you’d like support with, Factor can help you achieve them.
Factor is a subscription-based delivery service with meals starting at $11 per meal. Whether it’s just you or you have a family to feed, Factor can provide: they offer five different plans depending on how many meals you’d like per week – 4, 6, 8, 12, or 18.
Choosing The Best Keto Meal Delivery Service
There’s no ultimate one-size-fits-all when it comes to food – and keto meal delivery services are no different. Every service caters to a different type of person, so choosing the one that suits you is crucial.
Here are a few questions to ask when looking for the best keto meal delivery service for you:
Budget
Meal delivery services can get expensive, so setting your budget is important before you start shopping around. Many companies offer a first-time discount, which is great but make sure you don’t fall in love with a service that’s outside your budget!
Ready Meals Or Recipe Box
There are two broad types of meal delivery services – ready-made meals and recipe boxes. If you hate cooking and don’t mind the slightly higher price, ready meals will be best for you. If you love cooking but just don’t want to plan or shop, recipe boxes are the best option.
Strict Keto Or Low-Carb
Lots of meal delivery services offer low-carb options, so if you’re not on a strict keto diet, you have many more options. If you are on a strict keto diet, make sure to keep your net carbs to a maximum of 10 grams per meal.
How Many People?
Some services are best suited to single people as their meals are one portion, whereas others let you choose how many people you’re cooking for.
Organic
Not all meal delivery services are organic, so make sure you check. On the flip side, if organic isn’t important to you, then you might want to avoid the extra cost of organic meal services.
How Often?
Some subscription services require you to eat their meals every day, while others have a maximum meal order per week.
Final Thought
A keto diet can be a great option for weight loss, fitness, and overall health, but meal planning and preparation time can be too much for some. Choosing the best keto meal delivery service for you can save you a lot of time, meaning you can focus on more important things. And you can choose fresh or frozen meals per your preference.
Whether you’re an athlete, want to lose weight, have allergies, or have a family of mouths to feed, there’s a keto meal delivery service out there for everyone. Just look for a service that suits your budget, lifestyle, and dietary requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many meal delivery services have keto and low-carb options. However, low-carb doesn’t always mean that all the meals are keto-friendly!
That depends on your goals, lifestyle, and dietary preferences. However, we recommend 518 Kitchen for prepared meals with a balance of choice, flavor, quality ingredients, and cost.
Fresh n’ Lean is the cheapest meal delivery service from $7.93 per meal.
Studies suggest that a keto diet can be suitable for short-term weight loss[3] (up to six months). However, we don’t have enough long-term data to say whether it’s safe or sustainable long-term.
Most services offer free delivery when you sign up for a subscription or meet their minimum order requirements.
+ 3 sources
Health Canal avoids using tertiary references. We have strict sourcing guidelines and rely on peer-reviewed studies, academic researches from medical associations and institutions. To ensure the accuracy of articles in Health Canal, you can read more about the editorial process here
- O’Neill, B. and Raggi, P. (2020). The ketogenic diet: Pros and cons. Atherosclerosis, [online] 292, pp.119–126. doi:10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2019.11.021.
- Iacovides, S. and Meiring, R.M. (2018). The effect of a ketogenic diet versus a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet on sleep, cognition, thyroid function, and cardiovascular health independent of weight loss: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, [online] 19(1). doi:10.1186/s13063-018-2462-5.
- Kim, J.Y. (2021). Optimal Diet Strategies for Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance. Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome, [online] 30(1), pp.20–31. doi:10.7570/jomes20065.
Written by:
Ellie Busby, MS, RDN
Medically reviewed by:
Medically reviewed by:
