Saw It On Social: Factor 75 Meals
May 15, 2024
Every day there is an influencer in my feed telling me about a meal delivery service. Usually it’s Factor 75. Whether it’s being hyped as a solution for working moms, those looking to lose weight, or singles who don’t want to cook, there it is. But is it any good?
Factor 75 bills itself as a meal delivery service that focuses on “utilizing whole-food ingredients with science-backed health benefits.” Factor also touts its dietician and nutritionist created plans for bringing well-balanced keto, protein, vegan/vegetarian, and low-calorie options to customers. The brand even lets you book a free coaching session with one of their nutritionists.
Things I Liked About Factor.
First, I appreciated the ability to get deliveries on Tuesday. The other meal kits and delivery services I’ve tried were always Thursday or Friday. This did not work with my schedule. Getting meals earlier in the week means they will get eaten.
Second, I loved that I could get as few as 6 meals per week. Some services require 8 or 10, and those last two meals usually went to waste.
Third, I appreciated the add-ons. In addition to meals, you could get egg bites or pancakes for breakfast, a small dessert, green juices, smoothies, or bulk meats like sausage and bacon. This meant a lot of variety and that breakfast and lunch were also handled. Also, Sloane loves egg bites, so having a breakfast for her was a bonus.
Fourth, once I adjusted by grocery buying during the second week, we actually saved money — probably $80 for the week. We also didn’t fall into the “I had a hard day, let’s order food” trap on week nights.
Things I Didn’t Like About Factor.
First, some meals were good. The steak meals were always good. The breakfasts were good. Others were not good. Of the 9 meals I’ve tried, four were just bland. I’m sure I would have improved at picking good choices over time, but some were just flavorless.
Second, I hate cauliflower rice. Kyle hates green beans. These two food preferences eliminated a lot of options. So when that happened, we just bought the meal, ate the protein and made salad as a vegetable.
Third, the meals were not exciting. Some may remember we tried CookUnity after Sloane was born. It absolutely saved our bacon to have meal delivery service when we were struggling as new parents. But the thing I remember most was that some of the meals were really excellent, with lots of choices.
Trying Factor after that experience was like living in a multi-ethnic extended family where everyone knows how to cook and then marrying into a middle-American family who thinks 1-star butter chicken is too spicy.
Bottom line. If I knew it would be hard to make time to cook for a few weeks due to work, a life change, or some other event, I would definitely subscribe to Factor. If I were on a high-protein or Keto diet (like a friend of mine who adores Factor), Factor would save me a ton of time and money. If I were trying to lose weight and needed to count calories hard, this would be a good way to do that. But for now, I’ll re-up the subscription as needed, but this will not be an every week thing. I wasn’t unimpressed, but I wasn’t wow’ed.
Funny you should post this today, Abra. We’ve been using Factor for over a year because extremely boring medical issues have kept me out of the kitchen, and my husband’s culinary prowess begins with cold cereal and ends with sandwiches and canned soup. In the last six or so weeks, we’ve had delayed delivery issues; missing meals due to “supply issues;” entrees we’d chosen replaced without our input or consent; and variable portion sizes. This morning I had to explain to them that two chicken meals they “chose” for vegetarian me aren’t a replacement for two salmon entrees, and two ground beef and cabbage . . . concoctions . . . they subbed for my husband’s glorified burgers aren’t going to be eaten. On the plus side, the food is well-prepared and certainly edible, if sometimes uninspired, and it nukes in two-ish minutes. We sometimes struggle with finding enough variety to accommodate our different tastes in food and to fill our boxes. I can honestly give Factor a qualified endorsement, but I’m also looking for another option because I’ve been so frustrated recently by having to bring all of this to their attention (their customer service is quite nice,
however!). CookUnity is on my radar, and I’d be interested in others’ experiences with meal delivery services!
I loved the CookUnity meals, but two things to know: 1) delivery day matters, so check when yours is and 2) they NEVER EVER do discounts after the initial trial. At least with Factor, I got a few weeks at a reduced price.
On Abra’s recommendation, we got CookUnity for quite awhile, at least six months. We too were in the midst of early parenthood and it helped cut way down on ordering out and meal planning. The meals were pretty good, and I got to know which ones we liked so that I’d rotate through and try a few new ones. No drama. I only stopped when we started fixing meals that moms and baby/toddler could all eat.
I’ve been an on-and-off Factor customer for about 2 years now. At first, my husband and I 10000% adored them and maintained a consistent subscription of 10 meals/week to cover our lunches for a *long* time – we both work remotely full time in tech, and until early this year, I was also a full time student. Cooking regularly was out of the question. We noticed a quality decline at one point that made it hard to justify the list price and eventually canceled because the value is there but not THAT there. Joke’s on us, though, because like everything else these days they came in hot with sweet retention offers ($3-3.50/meal) for a box.
Now, I just subscription cycle. I can deal with low variety and even edible-but-not-great for how cheap I can get one of those boxes every month or so.
You might give HelloFresh a try. We are 9 weeks in to life as new parents (and surviving) and subscribed for 5 or 6 weeks in there to keep heads above water and cut down on ordering delivery. We got 3 meals a week with 4 portions at a time, and dinners reheated great for lunch. A typical meal is protein, rice, and a roasted vegetable – lots of carrots and green beans – but their recipes often add a sauce, which is an element more interesting than what we usually do and has been tasty. The recipes are also easy to recreate with grocery store ingredients – not too many mystery spice or sauce packets – so we’re now taking a pause for a few weeks when we know we’ll be out or traveling more. The bonus breakfasts were also fun additions.
Home Chef has a new product called Tempo. Identical concept. I just did a trial week of it (six meals) and I was proud of myself for eating all of them. Sufficient flavor and texture. Lots of broccoli and even broccoli rice since I avoided the green beans, too. Will I reorder for even the 20% off boxes? No. Not for $13 for a microwave dinner.
For folks in the DMV, I highly recommend Vegetable + Butcher. Delicious and they deliver twice a week, so it’s really fresh.
Abra, is there a reason you stopped using CookUnity?
Just the delivery date to my area was later in the week, Wednesday, and the meals arrived after dinner. Also, when you’re eating the meals it’s a great value, but if you’re not eating all of them, it’s waste. I would have just taken a break and gone back, but the delivery date issue remained.
I personally love Everyplate. You can customize your meals, you can get 6 servings a week (three meals) which is the lowest I’ve seen. Love, since I’m single. You can also get add-ons like steak or other proteins for far cheaper than you find in the grocery store. I tend to go for the meals that are 30 minutes or less because I don’t like to spend a lot of time cooking. And I find if I don’t use everything, it means I have a backup of a lot of grains/non-perishables which makes it SO much easier to whip things up on off weeks. It’s cut down my grocery shopping pretty substantially. The downside i would say is it’s not super adventurous food, like it’s nothing something I’ve never heard of, but that makes it approachable for me. For example, last night was sweet potato curry rice. Delish!