What Is Balance Meals – Food Delivery Program Overview

Ever thought about a meal delivery plan? Well, if you have you’ll know that there is a lot to choose from! From those sending out organic ingredients and letting you prepare your own meals, to those that send you healthy cooked meals, everyone has their own preferences.

Today we are going to be looking at ‘Balance Meals‘. This article is an overview that will go into the pros, cons, and who this is for!

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Service: Balance Meals

Rating: 6.5/10 ⭐⭐⭐★★

Cost: Varied (£49 – £150)

Guarantee: No result guarantee / refund with cancellation before Thursdays.

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But Firstly, What Is Balance Meals?

Quite simply, Balance Meals is a meal delivery program with a focus on delicious, balanced meals and healthy ingredients.

They deliver nationwide across the UK for free.

This program lets you choose healthy meal plans that are catered to your preferences. They send you pre-made meals using only wholefood ingredients, making it perfect for those that don’t have the time to cook their own meals healthily.

The point of this is that you get to save time. Instead of cooking or your own meals, you can have them delivered fresh to your door!

This is a rapidly growing service. As its awareness has increased, Balance Meals has even been featured in Womens Health online! They are looking to gain a lot of popularity throughout the next year, so what better time to learn about them?

Let’s see what exactly they offer, and just how they really work.

 

How Does it Work?

They offer 6 different plans in total, each of which are focused on different preferences, calorie intakes, and personal health and diet goals. We will explore these separately later on.

When you choose any of the main plans, you are choosing one for 5 days delivery. This includes either 2 or 3 meals per day, depending on which you choose, along with some snacks. One of the best parts is that you get to choose which meals you would like to be delivered.

There are plans for those looking to lose weight, gain weight, or just sustain a healthy weight. These can also be catered for gluten-free, vegetarian, (and even vegan) diets!

• At the mention of this, I should say that unless it is for religious or ethical purposes, a vegetarian or vegan diet is not always recommended for optimal health purposes.
  This is particularly true if not done properly, carefully, and supplemented with. People on these diets may suffer from nutrient deficiencies or be negatively impacted on an epigenetic level, IF they don’t use the right supplements and eat the right foods to get all of their nutrients in. There is a lot of helpful information on this matter online.
  As I am carniverous, I am no expert in this field, so always seek professional advice if you’re considering major dietary changes.

Carrying on, let’s get back on track! How does delivery work?

The delivery works around a 3 day basis. What this means is that your food will arrive as fresh as possible. This way it will stay fresh and ready for the days that you need it.

1. The first weekly delivery will always be on a Sunday, so it is ready for you to use throughout the start of the week.
2. The second delivery would then be on a Wednesday, ready for the next 2 days.

They also offer nutritional and ingredents breakdowns for each meal, which can be linked to the app MyFitnessPal. Every meal comes with easy-to-follow, quick preparation instructions.

What Do Their Plans Look Like?

1. The first plan is a 2 day taster.

Just costs £49 and will deliver 3 meals and 1 snack per day, with meat, vegetable, and vegan options. This equates to just under £25 per day, which is roughly just under £8 per meal.

2. The next plan is the cheapest of the 5 day plans.

At £99 per week, this is the same as £19.80 each day. This plan will daily provide you with 2 meals and 1 healthy snack. The meal options here include prawns with Mexican rice, halloumi with root vegetables, and more.

The snack options…

…are the same for every main plan. These include sweet potato brownies, protein balls, or granola bites. Unfortunately, the granola bites contain rapeseed oil and the brownies are fairly high in sugar. Therefore, these two options are often best avoided.

3. The ‘Trim & Slim’ plan is great for those looking to lose weight.

The meals are portion-controlled and contain fewer carbohydrates and more fats and proteins. Despite outdated misconceptions, consuming healthy fats will not make you gain weight. I have written about this in previous posts, such as this one about the healthiest foods for longevity. This plan costs £120 per week.

4. Vegan ‘Power & Plants’ Plan.

This plan costs the same as the previous one, equating to £24 per day. With the breakfast options there is a chia pot. They add maple syrup to this though. Similarly, the yoghurt has a lot of honey, and even rapeseed oil. Better alternatives would be the banana and oat based waffles, pancakes, or the overnight oats. These might contain fair amount of antinutrients. If instead you would like to learn how to reduce these, please read my post about fermenting oats.

For lunch you have interesting options like beetroot falafels, and the dinners even include a coconut Thai green curry! Another dish to avoid here would be the tofu and fried rice. Unfermented tofu contains high levels of unhealthy components such as anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors.

5. The plan for those looking to sustain a healthy weight.

This plan is perfect for those who exercise moderately and want meals that will allow them to maintain a balanced weight. Most of the options here are healthy and well-rounded. Once again it would be best to avoid the yoghurt option and the tofu. This time it might also be best to avoid the Nutella bagel, which is high in sugar.

Typically, I would say to avoid options with rapeseed oil. However, in the lunch and dinner options, there are healthy foods such as the sea bass which contain this. It would seem the oil is used in the dressings. So, the best option would be to opt for such options anyway, simply using a different dressing. Delicious and healthier dressings could be something like herbed olive oil or butter.

Overall though the meals do seem to be healthy, providing beneficial fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and a range of antioxidants. This comes from the meats, fish, and range of vegetables available.

This will cost £135 weekly.

 

6. Choose the ‘Grow & Gain’ plan for those looking to bulk!

The final plan available comes in at £30 a day. This is supposed to provide large, balanced meals that are high in protein and carbohydrates. The same guidelines follow for this plan as for the others. Also, most of the available choices are very similar but come in larger portions.

You’ll be provided 3 meals with a “healthy snack” every day, just as with the others as well.

Have you exercise intensively on a regular basis, and need the extra energy, then this plan might just cater to you.

Pros

Let’s look at a brief overview of all of the positive aspects of the Balance Meals program. The short bullet-list below should highlight these well.

• 2-Day Taster! You can see if this progam is for you with a taster plan.
  
• Saves Time. With pre-cooked meals, you’ll be saving time that you can spend on yourself, your family, and your own goals.
  
• Multiple Options. There are multiple options available for every plan. This means that you can cater your meals towards your own preferences!
• Caters For Most Everyone. 
• Fried foods use Sesame Oil. There are fried rice options, which I would tell you to avoid. But these actually use sesame oil which is not harmful or dangerous like vegetable oils.
• Fresh Foods! The meals delivered to you when you use the program will be as fresh as possible. This is partially why there are two separate deliveries in the week. The company takes pride in providing food that is as fresh as they can make it.
• Free Nationwide Delivery. Anywhere across the UK you can have your meals delivered to you for free. This is a pro that we all look for when purchasing online!

Cons

• My biggest problem with this program: Rapeseed Oil! Even though this company tries to provide healthy meals, rapeseed oil is a poor choice. It is one of many kinds of unhealthy vegetable oils. These are high in trans fats and distorted chemicals which can cause many problems for people and greatly increase free radical levels.
• Not for the family. I suppose this actually does make sense for their service. But, for those looking to provide healthy meal plans for the family, this is not the best option available.
• Can be a little pricey. It has to be said that this no plan program is not the cheapest out there. However, they do provide a fair amount of value and different plans for different people. With their lowest priced plan, you’ll be paying £19.80 per day.
• Tofu. There are better vegetable proteins than this. Modern day tofu is often not prepared how it was traditionally. This means that it retains high amounts of unhealthy chemicals and components. As the company grows, I hope to see different options available such as legumes or bean sprouts.
• Sugar. Some of the options contain unnecessary levels of sugar. High sugar diets have been linked to many illnesses and ailments, and it’s best to avoid having much sugar on a regular basis.
• Not Organic.
  If you’re looking to go organic, Balance Meals is not the best place to look. Similarly if you want to maintain an organic diet. There are other services available which cater to this which I will cover in the future.

Who Is It For, And Is It Worth It?

The Balance Meals program is useful for those who want to save time when it’s not the weekend. This is great if you’re looking to eat healthier, but don’t have the time to buy and prepare the ingredients yourself. By having personally chosen meals delivered, this is no longer a problem.

It’s possibly not for those on Intermittent Fasting schedules, unless you plan to share! Also this isn’t the best if you’re looking for a lot of variety with each meal.

So, as of yet, would I say this is worth the value?

Having rated this 6.5/10, it’s fair to say that yes, it can be worth the value. But at the same time, it definitely isn’t for everyone.

The best way to decide, is simply to try out their taster plan and see if you like it! This will give you a good insight into the meals and pricing too.

As Balance Meals grows, I’m sure there will be a lot of positive changes. As for now, they seem to be on the right track. However, they could make some ingredient changes before being a truly healthy program.

If you enjoyed this post, let me know below and remember to check out my Facebook and Twitter pages! 🙂

Please share your experiences with this or a similar service – we’d love to hear what you have to say.

Until the next one, stay healthy

James