I’m an RD Who Tried BistroMD’s Weight Loss Meals. Here’s How It Went.

As a dietitian and former personal chef, my nutrition clients often tell me that they wish I could just be in their home to cook for them because navigating nutrition considerations with meal planning can be really tough. As much as I’d love to help them with every meal, I know it’s just not possible. It’s times like these that I wish there was a meal delivery service I could recommend in my stead.

BistroMD has a goal of doing exactly this — making weight loss diet food both delicious and easily accessible. The brand markets itself as a healthy meal delivery service that’s anything but bland and boring, with the added touch of medical oversight. As someone who has been reviewing meal delivery services for a few years now, BistroMD is one of the few I have never tried, so I was interested in exploring what the food is like and checking it off my list.

While my overall impression of frozen diet food conjures up images of bygone services or the freezer aisle of the grocery store, I went in with an open mind and an empty stomach. Read on to find out how my week of eating BistroMD meals went.

From start to finish, I was able to get myself signed up for BistroMD in under 10 minutes, which honestly blew me away.

I spent a little time reviewing the website, previewing the menu and the “how it works” tab, as well as looking over the program options. Once I felt like I had enough information to get going, I hit the “get started” button and went into selecting my program and plan.

There were several programs available to me, including Gluten-Free, Heart-Healthy, Keto Flex, Diabetic, Menopause, Vegan, or Signature. I chose the Signature program, as none of the others applied to me. Each program had the option to select the “full program” or the “lunches and dinners” plan (more on these plans below). I chose the “lunches and dinners” plan for five days and was then given the option to add a snack package of either 10 or 15 snacks total, which would have offered me two or three snacks daily.

After choosing my program and plan, I created an account and entered my payment information to check out. I was disappointed to see that I wasn’t given any choices for delivery day or time (in fact, I didn’t even know when to expect my delivery until after I had completed the checkout process), and I wasn’t able to choose my meals until after my payment was completed.

Choosing the Meals

After I selected my plan and entered my payment information, my order was confirmed. I then had to wait about an hour for my order to be processed. Once it was processed, I was able to see the menu that BistroMD preselected for me based on my chosen plan and food preferences, which I was asked for after becoming a registered user. I did have the option to go in and swap out the auto-added meals, but I had only until that same evening to make the changes, which felt very “hurry up and wait.”

The sign-up and meal selection process all felt a bit outdated to me, especially compared with other services I’ve tried that allow me to choose my meals prior to submitting payment. With BistroMD, I was able to preview sample menus prior to sign-up, but I couldn’t choose my meals or see exactly what my menu would look like ahead of time.

Sign-up frustrations aside, once I was able to see my menus, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had the option to swap out as many auto-added meals as I wanted and that there were more than 100 meals to choose from. I ended up swapping out quite a few of the meals based on my flavor preferences and a desire to try as much variety as I could. It was super easy to swap the meals, too. I just selected the meal I wanted to change, then the website navigated me to the menu to choose an alternative. But I noticed that I could only swap things out for one week at a time, which meant I’d have to log in each week to review my options and make changes rather than do anything in advance.

Looking through the menu I found that meals varied in terms of cuisine of inspiration, with a range of flavors that reflected Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Latin American–inspired seasonings. I also noticed that there was a good variety of protein types available — including bison and barramundi (though those particular options would have been a bit of a reach for me). With a menu this large you’re bound to see some repetition, but the spread of ingredients didn’t give me the impression that the meals were leaning heavily on certain starches or sides over and over.

Each meal on the menu comes with a full complement of nutrition information to review, and I was pleased to be able to see not only the nutrient information but also details on allergens and ingredients. The meals are all frozen, though it may not appear that way from the menu, and there’s really no sourcing information that I saw, just descriptions of the meals.

My meal plan came with five days of lunches and dinners, and here’s what I selected:

• Chicken, Rice & Cheddar Casserole
• Beef Ropa Vieja with Collard Green Congri
• Berbere Chicken with Spiced Lentils and Carrots
• Green Chile Pork with Southwest Salsa
• Chicken Florentine Cannelloni
• Grilled Salmon with Creamy Pesto
• Turkey Breast with Herbed Brown Gravy
• Beef Chipotle Chili with Corn Salad
• Indian-Inspired Butter Chicken
• Harissa Chickpea Power Bowl

The only add-on available for BistroMD is the snack package, which offers two or three snacks per day. Adding this on means selecting either the 14 (two per day) package or the 21 snacks (three per day) package. I didn’t opt in for either of these add-on packages, so I wasn’t able to view the available options or ordering details. From what I could see, it looks like add-ons include desserts, protein bars, and similar snack options.

While I wasn’t able to choose my delivery day or even preview what day my first order was coming, it took around five days from when I placed my order to when I received it — pretty standard for meal delivery services, in my experience. Once the package shipped out, I received tracking information that was accurate and helpful, and I didn’t experience any delays in shipment.

Once my order arrived, everything was well packed and secure with my delivery. The box looked like it got bumped around a bit during shipping, but the meals inside were untouched. When I first opened the box there were some advertisements and my weekly menu at the top. Beneath that was the lid of the insulated liner and once opened, dry ice.

Prior to this, I had never received a meal kit that used dry ice, as most come with reusable ice packs that are kind of a pain to deal with, so this was much easier. The package and the food inside felt a lot colder than some of my other deliveries and I wouldn’t doubt that a delivery from BistroMD would survive warm temperatures or delivery delays, within reason.

Under the ice were the meals themselves. Each meal was packaged in a black plastic tray with a plastic film on top, enrobed in a paper-based sleeve that contained pertinent information like the nutrition, ingredients, and allergens as well as the cooking instructions.

A lot of the shipping and packaging materials were easily recyclable, including the box, the liner, the trays, and the sleeves for the meals. In fact, nearly everything was recyclable aside from the plastic films and bags that held the dry ice, which is a win on the packaging front, in my opinion.

Cooking and Preparing the Meals

All of BistroMD’s meals are preprepared, individually wrapped, and frozen, so the only method for reheating is the microwave. Each meal had its own reheating instructions printed on the paper-based sleeve packaging, with step-by-step guides for reheating from frozen or thawed.

I reheated some of the meals from frozen, and let others thaw first. I honestly found no noticeable difference — either way, the meals spend anywhere from three to five minutes in the microwave, an incredibly convenient time frame for any form of meal preparation. I found that all my meals heated through quite well and evenly.

These meals were so easy to make — I didn’t even have to peel back the plastic film on top, and to me, that’s certainly an advantage for busy folks who want no-think meals.

Tasting the Meals

I was optimistic about the BistroMD meals but still went in with the understanding that these are frozen meals to help manage my expectations. I had hoped these would be a step or two above the old-school, calorie-controlled, microwavable meals found in the grocery, but I was relatively disappointed. While the meals’ flavor profiles seemed interesting in theory, when it came to taste, the flavors fell flat and there were texture misses that I couldn’t ignore.

The Butter Chicken, Ropa Vieja, Berbere Chicken, and Green Chile Pork all ended up having some nice savory elements, and the meats were the most tender out of all the meals I tried. I also noticed that these meals were some of the only ones in my delivery that did not suffer from excess water in the bottom of the tray, which was present in almost all of the other meals I tried. For these reasons, they were probably my top-ranked meals

My least favorite meals included the salmon as well as the Chicken, Rice, and Cheddar Casserole. I found both meals to be watery, and the proteins were tough. I had been looking forward to trying the Meatless Chickpea Power Bowl but found it tasted very bitter.

Going into this, I expected portions to be smaller as the meals are catered to weight loss, and I was right. In general, I didn’t feel super satiated after most of the meals, probably in part because of the smaller size portions and in part because of the flavor issues.

I think, to some degree, with medically tailored meals you can’t expect the same flavors and textures you’d get from other, more traditional meal delivery services, so I do understand that there are concessions to be made on that front. Similarly, I knew I needed to have realistic expectations given these were frozen meals. That said, I still think the overall eating experience was just a bit disappointing for me. I would maybe order one or two of my favorites again, like the Ropa Vieja or Berbere Chicken, but I can’t see myself wanting to repurchase most of them.

Meals from BistroMD are advertised as being designed for weight loss as well as a multitude of other needs like diabetes, menopause, and even a gluten-free diet. The ingredients are pretty standard and commonplace, and while I don’t think the meals would be an immediate danger to any of the groups they’re suggested for, there could be some challenges with navigating conditions like diabetes, which is highly individualized, and where carbohydrate levels are not customizable. Also, BistroMD isn’t the most allergy-friendly meal delivery service available, as it requires a lot of sifting through the menu and nutrition information to find safe picks.

The meals that I received in my order had between 280 and 460 calories, with most landing at around 350 calories. Saturated fat for each meal fell between 1 and 4 grams (g), and there were between 300 and 700 milligrams (mg) of sodium per meal. Most meals had around 4 g of fiber, with a select few having 8–10 g and one with a whopping 16 g (the Vegan Chickpea Power Bowl). Sugar content fell similarly as well, with most meals having around 3 to 4 g, but there were a few outliers in the teens. Protein really stood out in the meals, with most having an impressive 25 to 35 g each. Considering BistroMD offers over 100 meal options, my order isn’t necessarily representative of the full catalog of offerings, but I think it does demonstrate a general idea of what you can expect with most meals.

Another noteworthy service BistroMD offers is dietitian meal support via email (I wasn’t able to test this, but it is a service available to customers). There are also other ways to interact with the brand, including a Facebook group and regular informational emails sent to customers.

BistroMD is primarily focused on offering meals that are geared toward weight loss, setting it apart from a lot of the competition. But if you’re after a similar service that provides frozen, prepared meals, we really think Daily Harvest is a great choice. This service is fully plant-based, unlike BistroMD, and you can place a one-time order with a lot more flexibility while still prioritizing many of the same nutrient profiles that you’ll find among BistroMD dishes.

If you’re after fresh meals though, as opposed to frozen, you may want to try out Provenance, Methodology, or Factor meals. All three of these services feature an à la carte and a meal-program option, so they offer more flexibility but also serve up meals of different types. Provenance has one set program or à la carte purchasing options for its meals that are fully gluten- and dairy-free, but expect hearty entrées here. Methodology takes more of a trendy, produce-heavy approach and offers multiple programs as well as a mix-and-match order type. Factor meals are not necessarily going to have the same nutrition approach as BistroMD, but the service does offer single-serving, premade meals that focus on protein and are known for being strong on flavor.

While BistroMD has some strong qualities worth recommending, there are as many problems that would knock it out of the running as a service I’d use myself or suggest to others. BistroMD really nails the convenience factor and many nutrition components that matter when it comes to prioritizing nutrition for health, but for me, the issues around flavor and the lack of flexibility with orders make it a tough choice to stick to.

BistroMD does stand apart in its nutrition-focused offerings and could serve as a very functional add-in for those who are managing chronic conditions, especially alongside physical limitations. Placing a single order from BistroMD could also give you enough meals to pepper in as needed for busy weeks or even to order when someone is in recovery from a hospital or long-term stay with limited in-home meal support. If your priority is convenience and the long lifespan of the meals, this could definitely work with easy, microwave-friendly sides added for more functionality.

I think for long-term use as a primary food source, though, I’d be hesitant to recommend it on its own because of its overly restrictive nature, and quite simply, I think there are better meal delivery services out there for the cost.

To decide which meal delivery services are worth recommending to our Everyday Health readers, we selected a team of experts to test and evaluate more than 50 different services. These food industry experts and dietitians ran each service through a full spectrum of tests to determine what a typical customer experience would look like, including:

• Getting started and signing up
• Meal variety and selection process
• Health and nutrition
• Packaging and shipment
• Cost and value
• Flavor and ingredient quality
• And many more …

Tori Martinet, RD, is a registered dietitian with over 10 years of experience, specializing in culinary nutrition, menu development, recipe creation, and intuitive eating. She has been a food and nutrition writer since 2021 and has been featured in publications like Eating Well, Verywell Fit, Verywell Health, Food & Wine, U.S. News and World Report, and more.