Is It Worth It? An Honest Review of Factor Meals

In the post-COVID era, a lot of people have adjusted to a new normal of home delivery. While delivery used to just be takeout Chinese food and pizza, home delivery now can be any fast or restaurant food, groceries, and even meal kits. I must admit, I have fallen victim to the delivery services and they do bring a lot of convenience. One convenience I recently tried was Factor75 prepared meals.

Factor75, otherwise known as Factor, is a company boasting delivery of healthy, dietitian-crafted meals. Also listed in the meal perks is options for low carb, calorie smart, high protein, keto, high fiber, vegetarian, and GLP-1 balance. All of that coming in a frozen-meal style package that is ready after microwaving for 3-4min. I work in the nutrition field and dietitians in my office kept coming to work with these meals, so I decided to give them a try. I wasn't too happy about the price tag, but I was willing to see if they were not just convenient but as healthy as they claimed to be.

Here's my experience based off the month I ordered meals from Factor.

How much is a Factor box and how does it arrive?

There are different tiers for this delivery service that you can choose when you create the account. Since I was looking to only cover my weekday lunches at work, I chose a plan that was just 6 meals per week. However, you can choose more meals per week. I also was lucky enough to get a promo code, so my first box was free. My three paid boxes wound up paying just shy of $80 for the box, still on a promotional price. Yes, that is about $13 per meal. Without the promo price I had locked in, the boxes are just shy of $100 for the same amount of meals.

I will compliment Factor on one thing and that is the box delivery. You can choose which day your meals are delivered, so it was easy to work around my schedule to have the box arrive on a day I knew I'd be home. The meals are also packed pretty well with two ice packs and insulated wrapping. In the month I received meals, I never had any issues with temperature or damaged packaging.

How do you select your Factor meals?

When you're signing up for your account, you select which meal "plan" you want to follow. I just started a GLP-1 medication and have been prioritizing protein intake, so I selected the Protein Plus plan. However, once you get into the part where you actually select meals you find out that the plan you choose doesn't really matter. You can pick a meal with any of the features as long as it's available for that week.

The meals also rotate every week and while some choices seemed to be consistently offered each week, some options I only saw once. Basically, each week you can go into the website or the app and select your meals for the week. It will default you to six random meals which is their standard rotation, so if you forget to pick they will pick for you. It's pretty easy to select and deselect and if you decide you want an extra meal, you pay an additional $13.99 for it. There are also "gourmet" premium meals that you can upgrade to for an additional price. From what I could tell, the premium meals were all steak or seafood that wasn't shrimp or salmon.

This is what I chose during my time eating Factor meals:

• Homestyle Braised Pork & Gravy w/ Veggies and Creamy Gouda Potatoes
• Sour Cream & Chive Chicken w/ Yukon Mash and Garlic Broccoli
• Parmesan & Garlic Cream Shredded Beef w/ Herb-Roasted Potatoes and Buttered Broccoli
• Ginger Teriyaki Chicken w/ Scallion Rice Blend, Sesame Cabbage, and Green Beans
• Herbed Greek Chicken & Tomato Penne w/ Garlic Broccoli
• Shredded Pork & Cheddar Grits w/ Honey-Roasted Carrots and Green Beans
• Parmesan Garlic Shredded Pork w/ Wild Rice Blend, Roasted Green Beans, and Garlic Mushrooms
• Loaded Mashed Potato Pork Chop w/ Garlic-Scallion Mushrooms and Broccoli
• Garlic-Mushroom Chicken Thighs w/ Creamy Cauliflower and Garlic Green Beans
• Pot Roast Shredded Beef & Mash w/ Pearl Onions, Parmesan Butter, Rosemary Carrots, and Broccoli
• Herb Gravy Grilled Pork Chop w/ Yukon Mash, Green Beans, and Sweet Corn Cake
• Black Pepper & Sage Pork Chop w/ Smoked Cheddar Brussel Sprouts and Creamy Broccoli
• Garlic & Herb Chicken Breast w/ Cheddar Cauli "Grits" and Garlic Broccoli
• Goat Cheese, Mushroom & Onion Burger w/ Roasted Green Beans and Parmesan Herb Butter
• Roasted Garlic Chicken w/ Pan Gravy, Chive-Sour Cream Potatoes, and Garlic Green Beans
• Truffle Butter Chicken & Mushroom Risotto w/ Garlic-Roasted Green Beans
• Creamy Lemon Pepper Chicken w/ Carrot-Pea Rice Pilaf, Broccoli, and Carrot Coins
• Honey Mustard Chicken w/ Roasted Rosemary Potatoes and Garlic Green Beans

Most importantly, how did the Factor meals taste?

It was... a lot of green beans. I don't think it was until the third week when I realized how many green beans I had been eating for lunch. But in all honesty, they were pretty tasty. Out of all the meals above, there were a small handful that I didn't really care for. A few of them I got multiple quantities of and multiple times. Factor meals also don't arrive frozen, so it's not quite the same as heating up a Lean Cuisine or something like that. The food has a much better texture because you are reheating it fresh. The only things I will say didn't reheat the best were the potatoes. It seemed like no matter how they arrived, they were either too gummy or too dense.

My plan also came with two free "add-on" items, so one week I did immunity & wellness shots and another week I did chocolate coconut bars. Let's just say at least they were free because I wouldn't have paid for either of them by themselves.

Are there any downsides to Factor meals?

Like I said, I work in the nutrition field so I will admit the one thing I was surprised at was just how high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium these meals are. My meals were higher in protein which is what I wanted, but I went into my first box expecting to find options a lot lower in fat, sodium, cholesterol and even calories. Part of why I selected a few meals multiple times over was because they were the ones I could find that were the lowest in calories, sodium, and fat.

For example, a Whopper sandwich at Burger King has 37g of fat, 911mg of sodium, and 667 calories. The Goat Cheese & Onion Burger meal I got from Factor had 49g of fat, 870mg of sodium, and 640 calories. I might as well have gotten Burger King for lunch.

On average, it seemed like sodium levels for most of the available Factor meals ranged anywhere from 800-925mg per meal. You were looking at around 20-25g of fat per meal as well, as well as saturated fats significantly present. That is well above 10-15g per meal suggested by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

This is also a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things, but I was not a fan of the packaging. The company claims that the packages are BPA and PFAS free, but every time I microwaved one it was like the plastic was melting or softening. My coworkers said the same thing about theirs and it was concerning, to say the least. After the second week, I started putting the meals into my own glass containers before taking them to work. The plastic film is also really hard to remove both before and after microwaving. Good luck getting any of the sauce containers open without using scissors or a knife.

Aside from the unimpressive nutritional value, the price value is also a bit steep. While you are saving a lot of time and getting the convenience of prepared meals you just have to microwave, the price tag is definitely steep. It was okay for the short time I did it, but I don't see it as something that is sustainable long-term. I honestly don't know how people justify the cost of getting more than the bare minimum meal delivery because even that is $100 a week.

Would I recommend Factor meals to a friend?

I mean, sure. In my opinion, something like this is worth trying for a little while. Definitely give it a shot if you get a promo code for a free box. If nothing else, it's a great way to try new recipes and figure out how to recreate it at a much cheaper price. If you're looking for something that is lower in fat, sodium, carbs, or calories, I wouldn't recommend it. The amount of meals that fall into those categories are slim and you wind up either eating the same thing every day or compromising and eating things that aren't within your desired meal plan.

After all is said and done... I'd give Factor meals a 5/10. If they were lower cost and as healthy as they claim to be, the rating would be higher. I'm better off just bringing leftovers or meal prepping.

Have you tried Factor75 meals? Let us know about your experience in the comments!