I’m considering this. Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem both use peanuts in some of their meals and you can’t pick and choose. I am allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, so I would need a service that either doesn’t use peanuts (or tree nuts) or allows me to tell them my food allergies and have them deliver safe meals. I would like lunches and dinners, plus snacks if the plan allows for them. Food discipline for me is easier when I have virtually no choices to make. I am willing to eat ready-to-eat meals, or to prepare supplied ingredients, or some combination of the two.
Googling reveals that there seem to be a fair number of such services, so to start I thought it would be a good idea to get feedback from anyone who has found and tried such a service themselves.
Where do you live? Do you have access to a Walmart, Kroger, or equivalent?
If so, eat before going to the store. Stay away from the frozen food and snack aisles. Choose healthy foods. When I go to the market, here’s what I buy (in order): high fiber cereal, coffee, yogurt, skim milk, sardines, tuna in water, broccoli (in steamable bags), carrots, spinach, blueberries, and apples. YMMV.
Intermittent Fasting, or time-restricted eating is your friend here. Assuming you aren’t Diabetic or have something similar - you can’t find a more simple way of burning off the pounds.
Simple isn’t necessarily easy sometimes, no weight-loss will be easy. I would encourage anyone to investigate this, you’ll have to make some permanent lifestyle changes, and there’s absolutely no reason to pay money to lose weight with “special” foods or diet.
IME the home delivered boxes are pretty much the same as the microwavable food you find in supermarkets but cost more.
The prepare yourself ones are a little better but still seemed lacking and comparatively expensive.
The best route I have found is to do meal prep once per week.
That means having a plan, going to the supermarket and buying the food, and then prepping it and putting it into food storage containers in your fridge/freezer.
Yes, it is more work but it is generally less expensive and you can modify your meals as you see fit. Meal prep on a Sunday (for me) is maybe 90 minutes (give or take and I listen to a podcast or audiobook to help make it more fun). Cooking a meal during the week is usually 20 minutes or less (depending on the meal). Food is much more delicious and, since you have food allergies, it is safer since you know what is in it all. I also suspect it is better for you.
YMMV
Shopping around the store’s perimeter, where the fresh foods are usually located (produce, meat, dairy, bakery) is also good for the budget, in many cases.
I wonder if we could re-set this thread.
I know what a supermarket is, and I am pretty familiar with theory and practice on how to shop for healthy food to cook. I didn’t actually ask about that.
I am also pretty familiar with how weight loss (and weight gain) works for me, and how I am with cooking. I didn’t ask for advice about any of that.
Perhaps my first line threw you off, where I said “I’m considering this,” which I intended as background to the rest of the post. What I didn’t say was “I’m considering this, is it a good idea, please talk me out of it.”
In short, my OP was a request for information and reactions from anyone who has experience with any of the types of meal services I described. The only opinions I was hoping for would be within that pretty narrow range of interest. If my first post was misleading or poorly written, I apologize, and I hope the thread can continue in the way I had hoped for.